Bolivia summit adopts new currency

[CHIMO]

Source: Agencies

Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed during a summit in Bolivia on creation of a regional currency aimed at reducing the use of the US dollar.

The decision came shortly after members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba) gathered in the central city of Cochabamba for the start of the two-day summit, the AFP news agency reported.

Top on the agenda for the left-leaning regional trade group, which includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, were talks to implement the new currency, known as the sucre, for use among Alba nations.

"The document is approved," Evo Morales, Bolivia's president and summit host, said on Friday.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009101712255748516.html

---

[DavidDvorkin]

1. The big economies don't seem to be members of this group

So the impact may be limited at first.

[CHIMO]

2. Perhaps

Not to the members.

[SoCalDem]

3. The Caribe is born

why not.. Europe has the euro..

Caribbean, Central American & South Americans have a LOT in common.. Maybe it's time now for them to band together.

[Vidar]

4. Good for them. The US isn't showing any sign of cleaning up its financial act.

[naaman fletcher]

5. It won't work.

The reason that Bolivians (and other similar nations) use the dollar is because even as bad as things can get for the dollar we have never inflated away wealth stored in dollars at 1,000 or even 100% per year as the Bolivians like to do. The Euro has worked because while nobody ever trusted the Italians not to inflate the Lira, everyone trusted the sound money policies of Germany and it was made clear that the Euro was going to be run like the Deutschmark was run.

What is the best that Morales can say here? That if you give up your dollars you can trust us, and/or Chavez not to inflate away your wealth? Currently Chavez is inflating away 30% of the value of everyone's savings. Why should Bolivians who currently use dollars give them up for that?

[excess_3]

6. the goal, is to be like Venezuela

friends of Hugo,
can get dollars at the official rate of 2.15 (new) Bolivars
to the dollar,
everybody else has to go to the street and pay 6 Bolivars.

[naaman fletcher]

7. How can that be?

All of my upper middle class friends who I see discussing La Revolucion at various coffee houses where they paid 3.75 for a "Grande" that is not actually very big tell me that Chavez is for the people.

[excess_3]

9. I'm not saying, he isn't for the people....

what I am saying, is that every non-standard, or non-transparent
economic exchange, is opportunity for graft.


another one, selling oil for less that international price.
as gov't to gov't aid.
who knows what money changes hand, out of sight.

better, would be to sell in their normal market,
and have the Ven. Congress authorize the aid.

just my 2 cents

[Judi Lynn]

12. Have you considered moving to Bolivia, running for President? You could help them,

knowing so much more than their elected President who has brought the country along in amazing, HUGE strides, far FAR outshining anything other Bolivian Presidents have been able to accomplish.

They are probably waiting with baited breath to walk many, many miles, as many of them do at election time, just to vote for you.

http://liberalitas.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/01/wt200810253571661h3.jpg http://cache3.asset-cache.net.nyud.net:8090/xc/56451184.jpg

http://www.europarl.europa.eu.nyud.net:8090/eplive/expert/photo/20090126PHT47150/pict_20090126PHT47150.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2009/01/26/timestopics/bolivia_395.jpg http://www.democracyctr.org.nyud.net:8090/blog/uploaded_images/Voting-In-Bolivia%5B1%5D-700744.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2009/01/26/world/bolivia_span.jpg

Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters
An Aymara Indian voted Sunday at a polling station in El Alto, Bolivia, a city of slums on the outskirts of the capital, La Paz.

[naaman fletcher]

14. I take it then..

That you have never ever disagreed with the elected leader of another country on these forums? If so, and you did not move their and run for president, then you are a hypocrite. At the very least your response shows and unwillingness to discuss issues.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Here's an unexpected Reuters article some DU'ers saw when it was published:

By Eduardo Garcia:

LA PAZ, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Bolivia's economy is healthy despite the global slump because leftist President Evo Morales is redistributing soaring state revenue as subsidies to the poor, the country's finance minister told Reuters on Thursday.

The Bolivian economy grew 3.2 percent in the first six months of this year, despite lower export income for natural gas, which is key to the Andean country's economy.

The International Monetary Fund says Bolivia is likely to post the highest growth in gross domestic product, in Latin America at 2.8 percent.

Finance Minister Luis Alberto Arce is even more optimistic. He expects GDP to grow 4 percent this year, largely because Morales has handed out money to the country's poor majority, which is boosting their spending. "Our policy was to make the cake bigger for Bolivians with the nationalization policies, to increase state revenue. Our second policy was to divide the cake better in order to give more to those who have less," said Arce. Arce said the subsidies are the "small engine of growth" that has allowed Bolivia's economy to grow despite lower export revenue caused by drops in demand and prices for natural gas.

Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings upgraded Bolivia's credit ratings last month, citing the country's good macroeconomic performance. But they noted that years of above-trend growth, the benefits of external debt forgiveness, limited foreign banking interests in the Andean nation and the absence of bad debts prevalent in developed markets helped Bolivia to avoid a direct fallout from the global crisis.

CASH FOR THE POOR
Morales, an Aymara Indian from a poor background who took office in 2006, has increased taxes on foreign investors and has nationalized energy, mining and telecommunications firms.

State revenue from the key natural gas sector boomed to $2.65 billion last year, from just over $1 billion in 2005, and revenue from the mining sector increased fourfold in the same period to $128.1 million.

The country's foreign reserves have rocketed to around $8.5 billion from $1.7 billion at the end of 2005.

Morales' government is spending some $320 million a year in grants to encourage parents to keep their children in school, in pensions for the elderly and in cash handouts to persuade pregnant women and mothers to go through health checks.

Earlier this year the government said that in 2008 nearly 2.4 million Bolivians received cash subsidies, roughly 25 percent of the country's population. That is on top of the nearly $200 million donated by Morales' main Latin American ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, that Morales has spent in hundreds of small education, sports and health projects since 2006.

Although critics have said the government is giving subsidies to buy support from poor Bolivians, Arce says the stipends are a good way to redistribute wealth. "These are policies to redistribute income ... tomorrow when the poor of today are no longer poor, of course we're going to have to stop giving this support," Arce said.

But the economist said that the government is likely to continue giving subsidies in the medium term because they stabilize the country. "We can't stop ... because it's something that brings social stability. Social conflicts have decreased greatly with our government because we're solving the social problems that people have," Arce said.

Before Morales took office, three presidents in three years were forced to step down amid social unrest.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/10/bolivia-in-spooky-development.html

[WriteDown]

17. Have you considered?

Traveling to ANY country in South America or learning Spanish? :eyes:

[Grinchie]

8. Good for them, I've been moving away from the dollar for the past 6 years

And i've never felt better.

Whenever I pay for stuff with dollars, it just feels like monopoly money, and most people grudgingly accept it because they are forced to.

[harmonicon]

10. I only wish I had been that smart

I remember about six years ago I had a few grand in the bank - not big savings, but the most I'd ever had. The Euro was going for about $0.85 then, and I thought about putting that money into Euros. I didn't, and very soon after I wished I'd had, as it's seemingly becoming normal for the Euro to go for about $1.50 - I can't think of any other investment that would have had that kind of return (not even to mentioned interest earned). The only plus side is that I've been paid in pounds for the past two years so that when I go back to the US, things seem cheap.

[WriteDown]

18. Playing the currency market is like playing the stock market....

Could have gone either way. You could also put your money into yen now.

[Grinchie]

20. Thats commendable, but it's what they tell people to do to "Make Money"

In reality, speculating on foreign currencies is and insiders game, and we are not part of the club. We are subjected to the seasonal winds of change that have already been charted by the insiders many months in advance to further their balance sheet.

In my comment, when I said I have been moving away from the dollar, I meant that I no longer use Dollars as a measure of wealth or as a basis for savings for the future. It is nothig more than a Government Mandated Symbol of our Fiat Money Supply which is backed by absolutely nothing, other than a stockpile of Nuclear Bombs and a supposed willingness to use them.

I use my dollars as a resource that will eventually dwindle into virtually nothing, simply as a necessity to pay for things that I cannot otherwise pay for in barter and other means.

The surprising thing about drawing down the remaining supply, is that when you are completely out of debt and have trnsferred wealth out of meaningless inert dollars into productive assets, such as fertile cropland, woodlots, quality tools, reliable vehicles that pay for themselves by being able to do honest work, like haul Hay, 1/3 of a cubic yard of Gravel, or the harvest of your orchard, the only real use for dollars is to refuel the vehicles once in a while, perform maintenance, and occasionally by food you cannot grow otherwise.

When one gets to the point where I am now, Dollars last forever, and even grow, regardless of the state of the economy, simply because I have focused on becoming self sufficient, and live a simpler life that honors physical labor, and allowing Nature to provide everything for me. All it takes is a little stewardship of the land, and it repays me everyday in thousands of different ways.

Ethically and realistically, the U.S. Dollar is nothing more than Monopoly money that is printed soley for Military and the Enrichment of the Corporations. When it comes to the overall Social Health of the country, they have a very hard time letting go of that Monopoly money and letting it flow into the system. When they do let it flow, it comes will devastating strings attached, usually in the form of specualtive bubbles, that end up transferring wealth from the little people up to the top. It's all by design, as they need to destroy trillions of Dollars now and then in order to keep the fraudulent money machine from clogging up from the sheer number of Dollars. They destroy money on purpose, and then as a side effect, feed on the destroyed households and companies for their own gain.

While their are benefits to leanding and banks, that system today is so corrupted and fraudulent it is time for a new system that acknowledges that we can provide for every individual on the planet in an equitable manner. Mankind refuses to evolve into a truly social organism like our own body, or the body of a Bullfrog for that matter. The DNA for Human Society is riddled with cancerous individuals that are destroying man's ability to get along and tear itself apart.

The Dollar is the vehicles for these pathogens to invade every part of the world, and it's a lot like Nicotine. Addicting, Useful, Toxic, Plentiful. Time to wean off the dollar for a while and get back to something that has a real connection to the Earth instead of Government Bankers.

[Joanne98]

11. WOW! This is big news.

[COLGATE4]

13. Sounds fair

Now they can devalue one currency and screw up three economies at a time instead of having to do it separately.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Gifted observation.

Here are a bloggist's comments, information which can be verified, clearly:

Scrawny, mouthy, opinionated people like your humble correspondent have been saying it for a while, but now the people that really matter are daring to say the unsayable:

Bolivia is the fastest growing country in the region.

Bolivia has a strong economy and low inflation

Bolivia is riding out the financial crisis better than any other regional state.

Yesterday the Bolivian Central Bank (BCB) published its half-year report. You can go look for yourself right here, but what you'll find is an economy that will grow by 4% this year (the first half of 2009 saw 2.1% growth acording to head honcho at the BCB, Gabriel Loza, mainly due to the productive sectors). Loza sez:

"The perspective is that growth in the Bolivian economy will continue, we are talking of rates around 4% and therefore Bolivia will not suffer a recession as in other regional countries."

Bolivia also has an economy with inflation reeled in to just 2.1% (again, thanks largely to wise economic policy) and international currency reserves at all-time highs. Not only that, but Bolivia's exchange rate has, in the words of Loza:

"...has avoided unnecessary exchange volatility. Our exchange rate, which is not fixed but a regimen of administered exchange, has shown a moderated, stable and non-volatile behaviour."

Yet again, this is why you never hear about the Bolivian economy in English language media. It's going far too well, y'see. And all this stability and strength has its roots in one, single policy decision from the government of Evo Morales: Nationalize hydrocarbons. And another smart thing that Evo has done is to leave the financial experts to run the finances and not stick his nose in, as the guy knows what he's good at and what he's not good at.

I'm evermore convinced that Evo scares the hell out of the blue-eyed whiteys more than Hugo could ever manage. He's not changing the rules but doing something far, far more dangerous and subversive: He's beating them at their own game.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/08/bolivia-leads-south-america.html

[COLGATE4]

19. Consider the source - also taken from IKN 8/1/09 - "Machetera - uber-cool Cuba blog"

English translation: Machetera

Wendy Elizabeth Ávila was born in Tegucigalpa on June 28, 1985, under a rain of melancholy ashes.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, under a carnival of Asiatic colors.

Wendy went to a public school, poor, like her comrades, and in her arms she always carried notebooks with the word “hope” written in upper case.

Obama went to the prestigious Harvard Law School with its hors d’oeuvres enriched by the protein of the judiciary.

Wendy grew up with an open smile, fresh with dreams.

Obama grew up in the mists of greed and public lies.

Wendy went every day to the sad outskirts of Tegucigalpa, to teach boys and girls to read and write.

Obama attended to the methodical campaigns where he was chosen as a Senator from the Thirteenth District of Illinois, in order to find the alphabet of power’s irrational force.

Wendy attended a university in Honduras in order to become a lawyer and help those who thirst for justice.

Obama was a professor of Constitutional Law on the law school faculty at the University of Chicago, to teach those with a hunger for demagoguery and marketing.

Wendy achieved her maximum honor upon seeing the happiness of children with a diploma for learning to read and write.

Obama achieved his maximum honor upon becoming the first black president, thereby inscribing his destiny and history for those in the empire who cannot read.
English translation: Machetera

Wendy Elizabeth Ávila was born in Tegucigalpa on June 28, 1985, under a rain of melancholy ashes.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, under a carnival of Asiatic colors.

Wendy went to a public school, poor, like her comrades, and in her arms she always carried notebooks with the word “hope” written in upper case.

Obama went to the prestigious Harvard Law School with its hors d’oeuvres enriched by the protein of the judiciary.

Wendy grew up with an open smile, fresh with dreams.

Obama grew up in the mists of greed and public lies.

Wendy went every day to the sad outskirts of Tegucigalpa, to teach boys and girls to read and write.

Obama attended to the methodical campaigns where he was chosen as a Senator from the Thirteenth District of Illinois, in order to find the alphabet of power’s irrational force.

Wendy attended a university in Honduras in order to become a lawyer and help those who thirst for justice.

Obama was a professor of Constitutional Law on the law school faculty at the University of Chicago, to teach those with a hunger for demagoguery and marketing.

Wendy achieved her maximum honor upon seeing the happiness of children with a diploma for learning to read and write.

Obama achieved his maximum honor upon becoming the first black president, thereby inscribing his destiny and history for those in the empire who cannot read.
English translation: Machetera

Wendy Elizabeth Ávila was born in Tegucigalpa on June 28, 1985, under a rain of melancholy ashes.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, under a carnival of Asiatic colors.

Wendy went to a public school, poor, like her comrades, and in her arms she always carried notebooks with the word “hope” written in upper case.

Obama went to the prestigious Harvard Law School with its hors d’oeuvres enriched by the protein of the judiciary.

Wendy grew up with an open smile, fresh with dreams.

Obama grew up in the mists of greed and public lies.

Wendy went every day to the sad outskirts of Tegucigalpa, to teach boys and girls to read and write.

Obama attended to the methodical campaigns where he was chosen as a Senator from the Thirteenth District of Illinois, in order to find the alphabet of power’s irrational force.

Wendy attended a university in Honduras in order to become a lawyer and help those who thirst for justice.

Obama was a professor of Constitutional Law on the law school faculty at the University of Chicago, to teach those with a hunger for demagoguery and marketing.

Wendy achieved her maximum honor upon seeing the happiness of children with a diploma for learning to read and write.

Obama achieved his maximum honor upon becoming the first black president, thereby inscribing his destiny and history for those in the empire who cannot read.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Please see the Reuters article at Post #16:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4108087#4108480
It was well discussed recently by Latin America forum DU'rs.

[Judi Lynn]

22. The person who wrote that was mourning the killing of Wendy Elizabeth Avila at the end of September.

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/08lk8H3cxfd2m/610x.jpg

A relative of Wendy Elizabeth Avila puts flowers next to her coffin during the funeral in Tegucigalpa on September 28, 2009. Avila died by the inhalation of tear gas during a protest against the de facto government in Honduras. Ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown from power last June 28 and made a surprise return to the country on September 21, is currently holding out at the Brazilian embassy.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_AJlQqDkRT8U/SsD0Kr1yPUI/AAAAAAAAAMw/FNSyf7v8C6w/s320/Honduras+-+Wendy+Elizabeth+Avila.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_DDgppJucbUk/SsDmn8GHs6I/AAAAAAAAAKk/efPYkhFtW9Q/s320/Wendy_Elizabeth.gif

http://www.jornada.unam.mx.nyud.net:8090/2009/09/28/fotos/027n1mun-1.jpg

http://media.argentina.indymedia.org.nyud.net:8090/uploads/2009/09/92dias-2.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0a8yevY9J6bxL/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/04kY1gM1gq3Xp/610x.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_ckFzLiESH1o/SsfQRmce6pI/AAAAAAAAA4M/dn-1CRF1qTU/S220/Golpistas+asesinos.jpg http://photo-media.daum-img.net.nyud.net:8090/200909/29/yonhap/20090929140106214.jpg

http://photo-media.daum-img.net.nyud.net:8090/200909/29/yonhap/20090929140106214.jpg

Wendy Elizabeth Davila

[Judi Lynn]

23. Had to run before checking the last photo. Here's the correct one.

I accidently duplicated one.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_qgB7LaT6x_g/SsGQt9R3bpI/AAAAAAAABZE/IbPQ-wi5NLc/S960-R/Wendy_Elizabeth_Davila.jpg

Wendy Elizabeth Davila

Killed during a non-violent (on the part of the people) protest in Honduras.