Is Hugo Chavez already getting hurt by the drop in Oil prices?

Chavez orders halt to construction of Caracas mall

"They had already built a monster there," Chavez said. "I passed by there just recently and said, 'What is this? My God!'" Hugo Chavez Profile on BBC.com

So the often-impulsive president told an allied mayor to halt construction and said this prime block of urban real estate should be expropriated. He said the sprawling six-story building might be put to better use as a hospital or university.The exercise in drive-by socialism illustrates Chavez's tendency to govern from his gut, and to leap in when he thinks other government agencies -- in this case city planners -- aren't doing their job. Read more of this story on Yahoo news..

El Mall más grande y divertido de Latinoamérica.
El Centro Sambil presenta a los visitantes una perfecta combinación de tiendas con amenas y divertidas opciones de entretenimiento, cines, restaurantes, terrazas al aire libre para disfrutar de música en vivo y de variados menús y mucho, mucho más...... 5 niveles con más de 500 comercios que se esmeran de hacer de cada visita una experiencia sin igual.

Falling Oil Prices a heavy hitter for Russia's Economy

November 26th, 2008
Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell for the first time in 10 years in October, the Kommersant newspaper reports, citing the Economic Development Ministry.

Combined with other news released this week, including higher inflation outlooks and growing job losses, the data suggested that the Russian economy was heading deeper into a full-on economic crisis.
The World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have also slashed their estimates for Russia’s 2009 GDP growth. The OECD, which cut their estimate from 6.5 to 2.3%, said that falling oil and resource prices were to blame, as well as receding capital markets. Oil has dropped to around $50 per barrel, down from an all-time high of $147 in July.