I'm confused. Why is Maduro suddenly best friends with Wall Street?

[DetlefK]

He loves to harp how the US has engineered the economic problems of his country to topple him.
The US is so evil!

And then:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-goldman-sachs-is-ruining-my-venezuela

Goldman Sachs has bought $2.8 billion of venezuelan state-bonds. Wall Street is effectively propping up an anti-american regime.

So... If the US is trying to topple Maduro to install the capitalist opposition as new government, why are they at the same time saving Maduro's ass?

It's almost as if there were no great conspiracy to topple Maduro...

[Rollo]

1. Venezuela has been racked by a series of deadly anti-government protests...

Maduro and company may have concluded it's better to strike a deal with the Devil than to lose control completely...

Presumably G/S knows the risk it is taking.

[marylandblue]

2. Even if Maduro falls, Venezuela still owes the money

Win-win as far as Goldman Sachs is concerned.

[Eugene]

4. Maduro is paying GS a grievous price for a lifeline.

For Maduro, it's political survival. For GS, it's profitable.

Goldman Sachs paid 31 cents on the dollar or $865 million.
Venezuela will owe $2.8 billion plus interest.

Maduro maintains a supply of cash to pay Venezuela's creditors,
but not provide a steady supply of food. Maduro's critics
call this arrangement "hunger bonds."

Why Critics Call Venezuela's Debt ‘Hunger Bonds’: QuickTake Q&A (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-01/why-critics-call-venezuela-s-debt-hunger-bonds-quicktake-q-a

[GatoGordo]

5. The reckoning is coming

Maduro needs two things. Time and money. This money buys him another couple of months, so that he can pay of the interest on his other loans that he took out to pay the interest on his other loans. Think "check kiting".

Goldman Sachs needs a quick profit. And that they can get 48% interest rate for pennies on the dollar? What payday lender, or loan shark would pass up that kind of deal? There is no other way to describe what GS has done. (And they have the chutzpah to insist that they are making this loan to Maduro.... for the sake of ordinary Venezuelans?)

The problem is, October is coming. And Maduro has a WHOPPING multi-billion dollar debt payment coming due, with no way to make that payment. The has already mortgaged everything of value. The Russians and Chinese are not going to float him any more loans (cash for oil), because he doesn't have the oil infrastructure to make good on those payments in oil.

[GatoGordo]

6. Yesterday, these "PDV22s" came up for sale on the open market

...with a price of 42.5 cents on the dollar. Which would have made GS an even tidier profit of $320 million (instead of the paltry $250 million). There were no takers, so the offer was withdrawn. For now.

Now, I am no rocket surgeon, but it seems to me that pocketing another $70 million on top of the $250 million straight up profiteering that GS proves the point that GS isn't in this for the benefit of Venezuelans as they are for their investors.

BTW, where can an ordinary citizen find a loan these days at an effective 48% interest?

When this all comes crashing down (October or sooner) Maduro won't be the one holding the bag (he and his cadre will run for Cuba, assuredly... possibly with as much money as Chavez' daughter, María Gabriela).

It will be the Venezuelan citizen.

Read more here: https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/05/31/watching-250000000-heist-live-bloomberg-terminal/