Goldman Was Vilified in Venezuela for Something Big Oil Does Every Day

The reaction was furious when word got out that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had purchased $2.8 billion worth of bonds issued by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Valero Energy Corp., Phillips 66 and Chevron Corp. buy hundreds of thousands of barrels of the country’s heavy crude every day -- no complaints. That would seem to be paradoxical, even in the complicated world of business relations between the embattled South American government and the U.S., its chief trading partner. But as Angel Alvarado explains it, there are degrees of moral outrage that depend, in part, on the range of the economic impact. More…