All the ignorami (?) who foolishly joined in with the chorus of Chavez bashing concocted by the US should have had the smiles wiped off their faces by now:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3863

Venezuela is now best placed of any country in the Americas - as a direct consequence of responsible economics whish sought to protect ordinary people from the ravages of free market racketeering with its oil.

ignoramuses according to dictionary.com.

re rest of post:

hell thats nothing, venezuela is positively right wing compared to the nationalistion spree carried out by the West in recent weeks!!!!

Nationalisation my proverbial, Zakalwe! That was a free giveaway of every cent we own, no strings attached - a lurch into the heart of the economics of fascism.

the UK have taken a 56% equity stake in RBS with preferential dividends and sacking of senior management. thats nationalisation in my books.

same re fannie mae, freddie mac, aig, northern rock, all those icelandic banks etc.

the other bailouts such as hyporealestate, fortis, dexia etc represent the dilution of the equity side of the capital of the bank. the govts should place a person on the board of all banks with guarantee/bailout to ensure taxpayers interests are being looked after. the banks did the same in times past.

Aragon wrote:

Nationalisation my proverbial, Zakalwe! That was a free giveaway of every cent we own, no strings attached - a lurch into the heart of the economics of fascism.

Privatisation of assets, socialisation of debts. It might take a fascist regime to keep the lid down on that.

Venezuala also has a murder rate higher than Colombia despite Colombia being at war. Their murder rate is about 2,400% higher than the average EU country.

Let's look at the entirety of the picture.

Here's a run-down of Venezuela's economic statistics in comparison to Peru and Colombia

GDP per capita

VNZ $7200
PER $6600
CLM $8600

Economic growth 2007

VNZ 8.3%
PER 7.5%
CLM 6.5%

Inflation rate 2007

VNZ 20.7%
PER 3.5%
CLM 5.5%

Unemployment rate 2007

VNZ 9.1%
PER 7.2%
CLM 11.1%

Public Debt

VNZ 27%
PER 29.3%
CLM 53.9%

Population below poverty line

VNZ 37.9%
PER 44.5%
CLM 49.2%

So Venezuela comes out relatively well in comparison to its neighbours but poor price control which is significantly poorer than its counterparts leaves me very dubious about the sustainability of Venezuela's economic achievements.

cactus flower wrote:

Aragon wrote:

Nationalisation my proverbial, Zakalwe! That was a free giveaway of every cent we own, no strings attached - a lurch into the heart of the economics of fascism.

Privatisation of assets, socialisation of debts. It might take a fascist regime to keep the lid down on that.

Hence your martial law thread of course...

An interesting piece, but it would be better if it weren't written by a Venezuelan civil servant. Still, an objective view of Venezuela is a rare thing in Internetland.

I like ignorami myself. And Chavez's critics aren't just interested in economics.

Aragon wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Aragon wrote:

Nationalisation my proverbial, Zakalwe! That was a free giveaway of every cent we own, no strings attached - a lurch into the heart of the economics of fascism.

Privatisation of assets, socialisation of debts. It might take a fascist regime to keep the lid down on that.

Hence your martial law thread of course...

I think you have made and important statement here Aragon. There is a lot of nonsense, some of it innocent some of it not, about "nationalisation of banks" and imminent socialism implemented by the Republican government, Sarkkozy, the Blairite Labour Party and so on. This is not nationalisation or socialism. These are emergency measures to prop up private banks. Obama made a speech tonight telling his audience that they were going to have to dig in and pay for this with cuts in the federal budget "line by line". I don't hear any of these governments saying they are going to bring in law to pursue these heist operators who have creamed off billions and potentially have wrecked millions of peoples lives. It is "Corporate State" economics.
If any government genuinely nationalises the banks in the interests of the general population, just wait for the howls of indignation.