The Booming Venezuelan Economy, and how it affects Monte Carmelo

[JohnnyCougar]

Source: Venezuelan Analysis

The major media in the United States and Venezuela are overflowing with misinformation about Venezuela and its social and economic indicators, so it was relief to see a reliable appraisal of Venezuela’s economic growth appear recently: “The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years,” by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval at CEPR, the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, February 2008. ( For those of you who are not familiar with CEPR, you should visit their website at http://www.cepr.org/, since they are primarily engaged in producing reliable information, analysis, and prognostication concerning the U.S. economy – they predicted the dangers of the stock market bubble in the late 1990s, and the housing bubble of the 2000s, when most economists were ignoring the problems because they were giddy with the joys of short-term profit-taking; likewise, they are one of the best, non-hysterical guides to understanding the current state of the U.S. Social Security system.)

In their report, which reviews solid statistics gathered through 2007, they note that Venezuela’s economy has been one of the fastest growing in Latin America and the world over the past five years: “since the first quarter of 2003, Venezuela's real (after adjusting for inflation) GDP has grown by 87.3 percent.”

“…employment in the formal sector has increased to 6.17 million (2007 first half), from 4.40 million in the first half of 1998 and 4.53 million in the first half of 2003. As a percentage of the labor force, formal employment has increased significantly since 1998, from 45.4 to 50.6 percent (2007).”

The figures above indicate, according to my handy calculator, that total employment, including both the formal and informal sectors, was 12.19 million in the first half of 2007, versus 9.69 million in 1998. This is an increase of 26% in nine years, a remarkable achievement for any country.

Read more: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3336

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More at the link. This should debunk those corporatist claims that are cluttering up our media and filtering into DU.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Like laissez-faire and globalization, attacks on nations that try to equalize the playing field.....

are common, and this country is the largest wager of such battles to destroy fairness in nations.

[ooglymoogly]

2. KR because it is true

Irregardless of the troll plants on this site who systematically play tag team in trying to drown out any good news about Venezuela with total crap.

[Psephos]

3. This is a link to a blog, and should be in another forum. n/t

[Flanker]

4. Indeed

Venezuela analysis has a news section, but this was clearly from the oped one.

[justinaforjustice]

9. Venezuela is Booming

I've been living in Merida, Venezuela for the last year and the economic figures cited in this article are confirmed by my observations of economic activity in this city. New construction is booming, and older houses, shops and offices are being painted and renovated all around me. Hundreds of new motorcycle shops seem to be opening on a daily basis -- and staying open. New cars are evident in abundance. Gas is 14 cents gallon. The out door markets are full of cheap, fresh vegetables and fruits. The supermarkets have plenty of food; furniture and appliance stores are well stocked and full of customers.

This city is full of energy and optimism. If people in the U.S. could see how well Venezuela is doing, they would be begging Chavez to come "ruin" the U.S.economy in the same way.

Unfortunately, the American people will not see how well Venezuela is doing because, taking their cue from the U.S. State Department which is intent upon undermining the Chavez government, our media won't publish the positive truth about Venezuela.

The last thing the U.S. government wants is for the American people to see how Venezuelans are living under the mixed capitalist/socialist economy presently being built here. Americans might want free universal health care, free universal job training and education to the doctoral level, esthetically pleasing public housing, subsidized food available to everyone, and real community control of community issues. The Chavez government is even providing very low interest loans to individuals, small private companies and cooperatives to enable them to start up businesses.

All these programs are possible because President Chavez and his government are using the profits from the country's oil resources to fund them. Where are the huge profits from U.S. oil companies going? Not to benefit the majority of the American people, that is for sure.

Recognizing that oil profits may not last forever, Venezuela is also using the oil profits to establish new diversified national industries, such as plastics fabrication for housing materials and computer companies. These are being built in rural areas to reduce population density in the cities. Major investment is being made in food production, food processing and the development of alternative energy sources with the goal of making Venezuela permanently self-sustaining.

Problems here too? Sure, but real progress is being made and evidenced in the lives of millions of people.

[bitchkitty]

10. I want to come live with you, neighbor!

Seriously, if I were younger I would go to Venezuela. My favorite dream!

[justinaforjustice]

12. Too Old Too Pursue a Dream?

I once read a beautiful book by a woman who walked through China, Tibet and Nepal to trace the origins of a Buddist story. She found the place where the story took place and discovered that the story was true. It was an amazing journey. Although she was obviously wealthy and had porters to carry her luggage and camping equipment, the most astonishing part was to discover that she was 85 when she started the trip and 87 when she returned to her home in England, where she proceeded to write the book.

I once took a ballet class in Chicago with a 75 year old woman who was so good I assumed she was a ballet teacher who had been dancing for years. Then I discovered that she had started taking ballet classes at 73!

But... how old did you say you were?

I first came to Venezuela on a Global Exchange reality" tour to Venezuela. I'd never traveled with a tour group before, so was rather leery, but the 14 people I traveled with were all bright and interesting people. We visited a free medical clinic (Barrio El Dentro), a revolutionary radio station, several worker-owned cooperatives (a trout farm, a restaurant, a carpentry shop and a tee shirt factory) and met with local university professors and journalists. All this took place while we spent three weeks in Merida learning Spanish. Had I gone alone, I wouldn't have experienced any of these things. The tour was very well run. Global Exchange has a website at www.globalexchange.org if you want more information.

Follow your dream and I'll personally give you the grand reality tour of Merida!

[bitchkitty]

16. Only 53 chronologically,

but I've been sick and am pretty much stuck here in Oregon (health insurance). I'm afraid that ship has sailed, and that's a great disappointment to me. If I could shake Hugo Chavez' hand, I would die happy! I have yet to meet one of my heroes in person.

[JohnnyCougar]

5. Rule 5 of the LBN posting rules:

5. Whenever possible, post excerpts and links from reputable mainstream news sources that are available online. Do not link to blogs, vanity sites, or blatantly biased sources, except in cases where reputable mainstream sources are not available. Please make an effort to link directly to the original source of an article, instead of linking to sites that have re-published someone else's content, or re-packaged someone else's content as their own. The moderators have the authority to decide which websites are appropriate for posting in the Latest Breaking News forum and which are not.

I think this qualifies as a situation where "reputable" mainstream sources are not available.

[Flanker]

6. yes but it clearly says oped at the top

nm

[JohnnyCougar]

7. Yeah, you're right.

Well, if someone wants to move it to the opinion forum, be my guest. I think it's a rather important article, though. The CEPR report itself should be late breaking news, but we all know noone is going to report on that here. If we had a legitimate media in this country, you would see a Yahoo! or an AP report on this.

[Flanker]

8. True, I really do agree a lot that the economy has grown and benefited so many

in such a short time, there is always doubts about predicting the future, but no doubts about the past, the economy has skyrocketed to the point where it is one of the top economies per capita in the region. This after serious sabotage no less.

[Doctor_J]

11. There aren't any reputable mainstream sources

so that rule is an oxymoronic one.

[justinaforjustice]

13. How True, But www.venezuelanalysis.com is an Excellent Source.

Venezuelanalysis is an English language, basicially pro-Chavez but extremely objective, news site which has a highly credible news and editing staff. It is one of the best, if not the best, sources of information on Venezuela appearing in the English langauge.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. Indeed it does. Thanks for posting this.

[Frank Booth]

14. This is interesting. Nice to get an objective analysis of Venezuela.

[Baby Snooks]

15. But he's giving all the oil money to the people!!!

What really disturbs the Bushes and the Republicrats is that Chavez is giving all the oil money to the people. Scares the hell out of them. Mainly because it might give people here ideas. As in time for the democracy to replace their oligarchy. Theirs and the Clintons.

[bitchkitty]

17. Revolution here?

Wouldn't that be something? I doubt it will happen in my lifetime, but maybe, hopefully, it's inevitable.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Oh that's not important.

What is important is that Chavez is A DICTATOR who is DESTROYING DEMOCRACY by doing exactly what he was elected to do: implement the democratic socialist programs of the Bolivarian Party. Democracy, in the new terminology of the Washington neoliberal neoconservative consensus, has nothing to do with government by the people and for the people, it has to do with how much regulation of economic activity there is. The less regulation, the more democratic a system is. What is critically important for Washington Democracy in 2nd world economies, is exactly how unfettered US, European and Asian global corporate behemoths are to extract resources from these systems while wrecking any local enterprises.