Juan Nagel at Foreign Policy has a more intelligent analysis of Venezuela’s economic/bureaucratic problems than Malkin’s hit piece on Sanders.

The problem, quite simply, is that though oil exports are extensive, they don’t bring in enough to support Venezuela’s large population and socialist state. Compare Venezuela to other petrostates: Kuwait, for example, exports roughly 2 million barrels of oil per day, and this helps support a population of roughly 2.6 million. Each Kuwaiti citizen ends up then “exporting” about three quarters of a barrel per day. Venezuela exports 2.6 million barrels of oil per day, but the rents are divided amongst roughly 28 million Venezuelans, which translates into about one tenth of a barrel of oil per person.

Venezuela actually can’t afford to lavish benefits on its citizens like other petrostates, but it tries to anyway. There isn’t enough oil revenue to finance both political subsidies and a functioning economy, and now that there is nobody left to borrow from, the problems are coming home to roost.
foreignpolicy.com