Neil Freiman

Venezuela's economy is basically its oil exports.

And they want to take control of this to have leverage to

make this new government after they captured Maduro bend to their will, essentially.

And it's just there's very few historical parallels, perhaps none in modern American history of the United States government essentially taking over the oil exports of another country.

But this seems like the lever that they're going to play in order to make this new government in Venezuela be more United States friendly.

Yeah, there are a number of challenges for American companies coming back to Venezuela.

Let's do another history lesson here.

I'm sorry, I'm just going full.

I was a history major.

But there was a lot of American oil production in Venezuela for decades, and they sit on the largest known crude reserves anywhere in the world.

So it can be a

a lucrative market but there are two waves of nationalization from venezuela in the 70s and in the 2000s that essentially seized uh american assets and kicked them out of the country so that the only one remaining now the only oil of the only american oil major now operating in venezuela is chevron the there is tons of corruption the infrastructure is extremely dilapidated

And there is a lot of uncertainty about the political future of Venezuela.

So there are a lot of challenges that remain that Trump has to convince these oil companies to invest what some are saying, $10 billion a year over the next decade to get Venezuela's oil production back up to the 3.5 million barrels.

That was its peak a couple decades ago.

The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines yesterday, and they just flipped the food pyramid upside down.

Steak, cheese and dairy foods that used to be at the bottom are now at the top, while the government is urging Americans to pass on highly processed foods and added sugar.

More protein and cooking at home are encouraged.

White bread, chips, and cookies, avoid them like the plague.

Released once every five years, the nation's dietary guidelines set the official standard for meals at places like schools and hospitals and serve as a signal for food companies around what types of products they should produce.