Chavez is a Teabaggers dream for lowering debt

[upi402]

CSPAN is airing Chavez's State of the Nation. Venezuela is struggling like all countries. But he showed charts of their shrinking debt as a percent of their GDP. It's tiny, even as a percent - against Europe. And especially the USA which is the biggest ever.

So lurking Teabaggers and corporate Dems - what is wrong here? How has complete corporatist control during Bush ruined us, while socialist Venezuela is limping along alright?

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good 'ol Hugo !

:thumbsup:

[upi402]

2. He's telling them to cut him off when the 'game' starts

Probably football. He takes heat for talking too long.

He's so much smarter than Bush it's ridiculous.

[social_critic]

3. The statistics Chavez shows are wrong

Venezuelan debt is increasing as a share of GDP. This is the reason why Venezuelan bonds are in the high risk league and pay such high interest rates - they are junk.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110104-713896.html

http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/10/26/en_eco_esp_about-12-percent-of_26A4655059.shtml

It's difficult to shrink the debt/GDP ratio when GDP is falling and debt is increasing, don't you think? The Venezuelan government also has "off book" debts it doesn't show, this is money they owe to companies and nations which they were supposed to pay and they haven't paid. They also have about $20 billion in legal claims against them by companies which lost their properties, and have a special senior debt with the Chinese, which allows for payment in oil.

If you bother to look at the fine details, you'll see Venezuela's economy is a shambles, and it's going to get a lot worse in 2011.

[upi402]

4. Thank you

I like full information and need to come here to find it. I googled it a bit and very old articles came up - so I knew someone here would post a rebuttal to his presentation and charts.

Did you see him speak?

[social_critic]

6. You are welcome

I saw a bit of it, but I don't watch the show unless I know it's really important. It's easier to read the text later. If you read Spanish it's a lot easier when you use a search engine, because the material is posted almost as fast as it happens.

Politicians tend to stretch figures, to be polite. The Venezuelan government does this quite a bit, and some of what they put out shows they don't even understand economics or how things work. If you read Spanish, here's a rebuttal to his speech by a student leader:

http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/01/18/opi_art_memoria-y-cuento_2155697.shtml

[ladjf]

5. And Democratic Brazil is doing even better, by far. nt

[social_critic]

7. It helps when politicians are willing to submit to free and fair elections

This is no longer true in Venezuela.