When a country goes socialist and it craters, it is laughed off as a harmless and forgettable cautionary tale about the perils of command economics. When, by contrast, a country goes socialist and its economy does what Venezuela’s did, it is not perceived to be a laughing matter – and it is not so easy to write off or to ignore. It suddenly looks like a threat to the corporate capitalism, especially when said country has valuable oil resources that global powerhouses like the United States rely on.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182475)

He is a senior editor at In These Times,[18] a regular columnist for The Nation and the Intermountain Jewish News...

David Sirota

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I'm Jewish

https://twitter.com/Gus_802/status/728743614432436226 …

7:00 PM - 6 May 2016

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182786)

"Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American"

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/lets_hope_the_boston_marathon_bomber_is_a_white_american/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#32464063)

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Amazing 2013 chart from the @Guardian abt Venezuela's economy under Chavez...but oil reliance later hurt the country

5:00 PM - 15 May 2016

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/731997663768403969?lang=en

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#35613040)

Actually it's never harmless nor forgettable, though I'm sure hardcore left-wingers would love to view socialist failures as such.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182485)

If you define failure as people NOT dying then Venezuela is not a failure, in fact, it is a great success

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182953)

At Mao's death, China's per capita GDP was lower than most sub-Saharan African countries.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182994)

Also a lie as to claim about Africa

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31183007)

Ethiopia GDP per capita 1980: $312

China GDP per capita 1980: $312

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31183075)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31185841)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/07/venezuela-not-greece-latin-america-oil-poverty

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182497)

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/03/venezuela-post-chavez/venezuelans-will-vote-with-their-wallets

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182510)

For more than a decade people opposed to the government of Venezuela – which today includes almost all major Western media outlets – have argued that the Venezuelan economy would implode. Like communists in the 1930s rooting for the final crisis of capitalism, they generally saw Venezuela’s economic collapse as just around the corner. How frustrating it has been for them to witness only two recessions: one directly caused by the opposition’s oil strike (December 2002-May 2003) and one brought on by the world recession (2009 and the first half of 2010). Despite these recessions, the whole decade’s economic performance – the government got control of the national oil company in 2003 – turned out quite well, with average annual growth of real income per person of 2.7 percent, poverty reduced by more than half, and large gains for the majority in employment, access to health care, pensions, and education.

Now Venezuela is facing economic problems that are warming the cockles of the haters’ hearts. We see the bad news every day (Western reporting on Venezuela is almost exclusively bad news, as if by decree): consumer prices up 49 percent over the last year; a black market where the dollar fetches seven times the official rate; shortages of consumer goods from milk to toilet paper; the economy slowing, Central Bank reserves falling. Will those who cried wolf for so long finally see their dreams come true?

Not likely. In the opposition and international media’s analysis, Venezuela is caught in an inflation-devaluation spiral, where rising prices domestically undermine confidence in the economy and currency, causing capital flight and driving up the black market price of the dollar. This adds to inflation, as does – in their theory – money creation by the government. And the government’s price controls, nationalizations, and other interventions have caused more distortions and structural problems that will hasten the economy’s demise. Hyperinflation, rising foreign debt, and a balance of payments crisis will mark the end of this economic experiment, they hope and pray each day.

But how can a government with more than $90 billion in oil revenue end up with a balance of payments crisis? Well, the answer is, it can’t, and won’t.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182520)

Lololololololololololololololol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31183017)

The author. By the way, he claims to be a spokesman for the democrats. God help us.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#31182532)

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/world-affairs/2013/01/hugo-chavez-man-against-world

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#32132380)

Room for Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/03/venezuela-post-chavez

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#32132398)

Weisbrot:

Venezuelans Will Vote With Their Wallets

Mark Weisbrot

Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.

UPDATED JUNE 20, 2016, 5:13 PM

Since Hugo Chávez first took office, he and his party have won 13 of 14 national elections, mainly because they greatly improved the living standards of the majority of voters in Venezuela. Since 2004, after the economy recovered from the devastating opposition oil strike, poverty has been cut by half and extreme poverty by more than 70 percent.

Hugo Chávez has cut poverty in half and given millions of Venezuelans access to health care and education. Voters will respond to this.

And this measures only cash income: millions of people also got access to health care for the first time, and access to education also increased sharply, with college enrollment doubling and free tuition for many. Eligibility for public pensions tripled; and in the past two years the government has built hundreds of thousands of houses. Most of the poverty reduction came from increased employment, not “government handouts,” and during most of Chávez’s tenure the private sector has grown faster than the public sector. These numbers are not really in dispute among economists or international statistical agencies. If you follow Venezuela and haven’t heard any of this, it’s because the news media is giving you the equivalent of a “tea party” view of the country.

Also, the 20 years prior to Chávez were an economic disaster, with per capita income actually falling between 1980 and 1998. So naturally most people have noticed the difference. Is this progress sustainable? The press focuses on Venezuela’s inflation, which, at just under 18 percent is about the highest in the region. However it has come down from 28.2 percent in 2010, even as the economy has recovered and growth has accelerated. This shows that the government can bring inflation down with the right policies. Chávez’s party won in 20 of 23 states during a regional election on Dec. 16, even with Chávez himself absent from the campaign trail. This indicates that his successor will likely win if he should step down.

This should not be surprising. All of the left-leaning governments in South America -- Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay -- have been re-elected, some repeatedly, for similar reasons: they have brought real economic and social change and significant improvements in living standards for the majority.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#36356552)

wait, what?

nobody laughs it off, nobody thinks it's harmless or forgettable.

this is an utterly insane sentence.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3321525&forum_id=2#36488143)