…for saying exactly what needs to be said, and in this case, proposing exactly what needs to be proposed:
Translation mine.It would behoove the G-8 (and all the smaller countries touched by the US banking crisis) to take a closer look at Venezuela’s economy and how it’s gone nowhere but up since Chavecito’s been at the helm. It’s doing so well, in fact, that the “global” crisis might just do an “inexplicable” swerve, or hit less hard than widely expected. The Venezuelan Shield Effect (you saw that term here first, people, ‘cuz I’m a-coining it!) will also help buffer countries with whom Venezuela has strong economic ties, most especially in the ALBA. Already, many leading economists are sitting up and taking notice, and urging some remarkably Chavecito-like measures. Even now, as Venezuela prepares to confront the crisis on an “austerity” budget, social spending remains high, at close to half of all government expenditures. This is the opposite of what Bretton Woods recommends (“privatize everything and devil take the hindermost” is their mantra), but it’s exactly what any responsible economist would tell a government facing an economic crisis to do: make sure the people still get the healthcare, education and other basic, publicly-served necessities of life. With all that said, only a fool would dismiss out of hand a sensible, modest, 100% workable proposal like the one Chavecito made above. The man knows what he’s doing, people. It’s time to take him seriously, not as a demagogue, but as what he is–a popular statesman with sound economic ideas that keep on working where all the standard Bretton Woods remedies just keep on failing. Just watch, however, as the oh, SO predictable black-helicopter nutters of the US ‘winger brigade spin this as “OMG, Chávez wants a one-world government with himself in charge of it all!!! He really IS a tyrant and a dictator!!! War on Venezuela NOW!!!!Eleven!!!!” In 5…4…3…2…A worldwide assembly of governments, in which frank conversations between diverse points of view on the current global crisis can be held, is what the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, proposed in his most recent conversation with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy.[…]“I conversed a little while ago with Sarkozy and suggested to him that there be a meeting, not just between the largest countries in the world, but a worldwide assembly of governments, where we can hear each other out with patience and respect. But no, it seems that they are still all caught up in their own world,” Chávez said.
