DESPERATION: Venezuela Pumps Dollars Into Market and Slows Rout in Currency.

While far from a major policy victory and possibly only ephemeral, the bolivar’s relative stability is a rare feat for Venezuela and could even help slow the breakneck pace of hyperinflation, which is forecast to reach 1 million percent this year. President Nicolas Maduro devalued the bolivar by 95 percent last month in what was perceived as a tacit acceptance of the ubiquitous black-market exchange, where most Venezuelans acquire dollars.

Stabilizing the bolivar (Mark III, Mark IV?) is a race between the collapsing economy and the country’s dollar reserves. Given that the country’s only remaining export of any importance is oil, and the oil industry’s increasing decrepitude, it’s no mystery who will win the race.