Friday, May 19, 2006
Screw Chavez and screw Venezuela
Mary Anastasia O'Grady, the Wall Street Journal's anti-Chavez hack was at it again today. In today's Op-Ed piece she was openly pining for the collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Sadly, her line of thinking very much matches that of many in the Venezeulan opposition. For that reason it is worth a look:
Of course we see the usual O'Grady type lies here. The standard of living is clearly going up in Venezuela, not down (which is why there is no "hope for a change in government". We also see use of standard code phrases - "Venezuelan democrats". Who is that? Not the same people who tried a coup and an oil strike to overthrow an elected government I hope.
Yet, she is at the same time revealing something far more important here - and that is her willingness to carry out a scorched earth policy against Venezuela as long as it adances her goal of getting Chavez out of power.
Why would she advocate something that would be so damaging to the Venezuelan economy? Easy. What she really care about are not Venezeula or the great masses of people that live in Venezeula. No, her interest is limited to the wealthy business and political elite, both Venezeulan and American. If it takes destroying Venezuela and driving its people into the ground to get their hands back on the oil and back in control of all the other resources in that country so that this tiny elite can once again make great fortunes for itself, that is what they will do. O'Grady has done us a favor. For in one little Op-Ed aritcle she has given us a very nice and succinct example of the cynicism of those who oppose Chavez.
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The trouble is that Mr. Chavez is awash in cash and that is what he is using, both overtly and surrptitiously, to extend his influence in the poorest countries of the region. A better way to clip the Venezeulan despot's wings would be for the Federal Reserve to use the tools at its disposal - including open market operations - to sop up the extra dollar liquidity that is sloshing around the globe. Oil, like gold, has spiked in price under this inflationary bias, creating windfall profits for the world's worst type-A tyrants.
Of course, political uncertainty has added to petroleum price hikes. But an explicit Fed objective of dealing with inflationary expectations by, for instance, bringing gold back to $400 an ounce, is guaranteed to rein in oil prices.
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Venezuelan democrats will tell you that there is not much hope for a change in the government without an oil-price retreat. Until that happens, Mr. Chavez will be too powerful. That's bad news for the 26 million Venezuelans who are experiencing sky-rocketing crime rates and declining living standards under Chavismo.
Of course we see the usual O'Grady type lies here. The standard of living is clearly going up in Venezuela, not down (which is why there is no "hope for a change in government". We also see use of standard code phrases - "Venezuelan democrats". Who is that? Not the same people who tried a coup and an oil strike to overthrow an elected government I hope.
Yet, she is at the same time revealing something far more important here - and that is her willingness to carry out a scorched earth policy against Venezuela as long as it adances her goal of getting Chavez out of power.
Why would she advocate something that would be so damaging to the Venezuelan economy? Easy. What she really care about are not Venezeula or the great masses of people that live in Venezeula. No, her interest is limited to the wealthy business and political elite, both Venezeulan and American. If it takes destroying Venezuela and driving its people into the ground to get their hands back on the oil and back in control of all the other resources in that country so that this tiny elite can once again make great fortunes for itself, that is what they will do. O'Grady has done us a favor. For in one little Op-Ed aritcle she has given us a very nice and succinct example of the cynicism of those who oppose Chavez.
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