Venezuela

While Venezuela CDS suggest the country's default odds remain well over 90%, and its currency on the black market continues to plunge into the abyss of hyperinflation, something odd happened today: Venezuela’s government issued $5 billion in dollar debt for the first time in more than five years, selling bonds in an opaque transaction to the state bank Banco de Venezuela SA and the central bank, Reuters and Bloomberg report.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro suspended the elimination of the nation’s 100 bolivar bill until Jan. 2 after the government’s decision to pull its largest denomination note out of circulation left the country short of cash, deepening Venezuela's economic crisis, and sparking violent protests and looting.

As hyperinflating Venezuela's latest experiment in monetary lunacy continues with president Maduro announcing earlier this week he would remove 75% of the physical cash in circulation by eliminating the highest denomination 100 Bolivar bill, desperate and cashless Venezuelans, angry that the government hasn’t exchanged their voided bank notes as officials had pledged, on Friday rose up in protest and looted stores across parts of Venezuela.

Broken showcases are seen after a shoe shop was looted in Maracaibo, Venezuela

As if things were not already chaotic enough in the socialist utopia of Venezuela, following President Nicolas Maduro's decision to follow Indian PM Modi's playbook and announce that the nation's largest denomination bill (100-Bolivars - worth around 3c) will be pulled from circulation in 72 hours, he has tonight closed the border to Colombia to crackdown on currency smuggling by so-called "mafias".

Having observed the economic chaos to emerge as a result of India's shocking Nov. 8 demonetization announcement, and perhaps confident it can do better, today president Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Latin America's most distressed economy, mired in an economic crisis and facing hyperinflation, likewise shocked the nation when he announced on state TV that just like India, Venezuela would pull its highest denominated, 100-bolivar bill (which is worth about two U.S.