Opposition sees no double-standard in views of banks, refiners Oil companies ‘are the ones bringing cash into the economy’ 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. “These are two very different things,” said Alvarado, an opposition lawmaker and opponent of the Goldman deal. The bank bought the bonds on the cheap, throwing the regime of President […]