Blogging the democratic revolution
Domingo Cavallo, the man who made Argentina into a first-world country in the early 1990s and then turned it into a fourth-world hellhole by 2002, bringing starvation, crime, poverty, robbery, toilet-paper money and an end to property rights, all in the span of a few short years, is running for office again. Luis at El…
You have got to be kidding me. Mugabe is getting more ridiculous by the day. People’s property is now being taken away and resold back to them at higher prices than they paid for it. HARARE City Council has rescinded all land sale agreements made between 1998 and this year and is now reselling the…
Hillary Clinton would have you think she is a moderate Democrat, serious about free trade, reasonable on all issues. A look at her voting record, particularly her despicable ‘no’ vote on CAFTA, shutting Central America out of U.S. markets and U.S. prosperity, will tell a different story. Here is an item from American Thinker about…
Vodkapundit posts an interview with a Kenyan economist talking about how development aid has stalled if not destroyed progress in Africa. SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa… Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop. SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West…
President Hu of China is in Russia for a four-day visit with Putin where the two will agree on an array of political and economic ties for their roles in the region and in the world. Chinese President Hu Jintao Friday called for greater efforts to strengthen the strategic partnership and economic and trade ties…
The Central American Free Trade Agreement, the treaty to bring our good and faithful friends from Central America into free trade with the U.S. has won – won! – a bruising battle in the Senate. We were terrified all was lost and it was not! This is the greatest victory of the year! Victory! The…
Those interested in development issues in the Arab world might find it worth while to read a back and forth discussion of the future of the Arab world taking place between my blog and that of an Egyptian architect-turned-political activist, Karim Elsahy (pronounced es-sahhi, with a hard “h”). Elsahy’s blog, One Arab World, contains a…
There is no issue, none, more critical today than whether the U.S. Congress passes CAFTA. So much is at stake in the treaty that will show whether the U.S. includes Latin America in to its hopes and opportunity or coldly shuts it out. And don’t think Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe aren’t…
Can you stand a story on the Venezuelan national budget? I promise you, it’s got gamy details of swindling, pocket-lining, waste, graft and lying. And given that it’s the main vehicle for the spread of the chavista ‘revolution’ it has relevance to the mission of this blog. It’s what Venezuela’s real revolution is up against….
It’s jackass season in Washington and with it comes threats from Congress to harass China over its trade gap. Larry Kudlow outlines the incredible progress China has made since 1978 – 1978! – and warns that the U.S. has got to stop hectoring China for doing all the right things. China’s stable currency, its trade…
They have started. Venezuela’s oil workers in the eastern part of the country have launched bitter protests against corruption and lost jobs. Their actions have shut down the refineries and the state oil company doesn’t sound as though it is in good shape. As oil hits $60 a barrel, there may be a revolution on….
Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil to Paraguay, just as the Austral winter begins. This is a new major incident of Paraguay abuse from the Venezuelan dictator. His gall and malice know no bounds. He made the threat as a parting shot against the small helpless South American nation at a Mercosur conference…
This item on Zimbabwe’s smoking ruins made my blood go cold. Read it here. Hat tip: Real Clear
Miguel at MABB on Bolivia has a very significant item utterly ignored in the U.S. media about how Bolivia’s protestors are being coerced. They are being shaken down by Marxist social movements like Evo Morales’ ally FEJUVE, which sends block committees into neighborhoods of El Alto, checking to see that at least one member of…
Victor Mallet of the Financial Times seizes on Rumsfeld’s recent comments on June 4, in which he said that China needs to open up its political system. Victor argues that economic growth and western influence — one in the same in China’s case — will bring with it inevitable internal democratic reform, even as the…
Two weeks ago, Robert Mugabe started his “Operation: Clean-up” which has destroyed the market stalls of thousands of Zimbabweans and now left up to two million homeless. On both the human rights and geopolitics scale, the role that China plays in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular is especially important. They have been making…
Counting oil sands, Venezuela has more petroleum reserves than any country on earth. Even Russia. Even Canada. Even Iran. Even … Saudi Arabia. It’s unbelievable what the Texas-and-Oklahoma-sized country only 1350 miles away from us really has. Venezuela could probably supply the entire world with oil if it wanted. That road you are driving on,…
Is that a great headline or what? I wish I had thought of it myself. Read the whole thing here.
President Mesa declined to sign or veto the oil and gas tax bill on his desk Tuesday. As a result, the Senate leader ratified it this morning. Energy royalties will now be raised to 18%, on top of 32% taxes, both steep hikes. The move is expected to chase out $10 billion in foreign investment,…
Miguel Octavio explains in a good piece the dynamics of oil production in Venezuela, all of which proves that Venezuela’s oil production is severely lower than anyone thought, and its earnings are crippled. That’s bad news for dictator Hugo Chavez who depends on oil earnings to buy the loyalty of his shantytown voters. It’s worth…
Our dear friends in Central America are fighting for their survival. Carlos Alberto Montaner has an important essay out about what he saw in the eyes of Central America’s presidents as they came to Miami to plead for the DR-CAFTA trade bill. He warns that is this bill does not pass, it will be to…
Profoundly good analysis by Gustavo Coronel. A must read. Read it here. UPDATE: My own take here. UPDATE: Another good take from El Universal. (Man that must have been a beach to translate!)
Some newspapers have dismissed Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s moving of his oil company’s headquarters to a Havana, Cuba, as just a small detail. Well, it is not a small detail, according to one respected Venezuelan journalist, it is a sign of a spreading shadow of tyranny over a huge region of many flags. Daniel Duquenal…
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has created another useless union this week, positively thrilling the Canadian press, but in Latin America, there is nothing new about it. So here is the deal: In Argentina during the 1990s, people used to joke about the extent of something known as ‘the corporate republic’ or ‘corporate state.’ The corporate state…
Bolivia’s passed its Hydrocarbons Law, on fairly miserable terms that will be sure to chase out foreign investment, dispirit President Carlos Mesa, rouse Evo Morales to block roads and starve cities, and drive separatist sentiment in pro-trade Santa Cruz province. And the result of all this? Bolivia’s natural gas will face a great future underground….