GDP per capita under Bush vs. Hugo
Real GDP Growth under Hugo vs. Bush
Unemployment under Hugo vs. Bush
Inflation under Hugo vs. Bush
Murders under Hugo vs. Bush
Corruption under Hugo vs. Bush (sorry, my bad, map was previously pointing to Peru. No offense meant to Peruvians)
But here's my favorite. Hugo Chavez, alleged hero of the left, advocate of the poor, who constantly slams on neo-liberalism and capitalism, joins forces with the few remaining communists left on the planet, Cuba and North Korea, who champions the confiscation of "rich people's" wealth to redistribute it to the poor HAS AN EVEN WORSE INCOME DISTRIBUTION THAN THAT EVIL COUNTRY UNDER THAT EVIL CAPIALIST DICTATOR GEORGE BUSH!!!
(to be intellectually honest I would like an updated gini coefficient if anybody has it)
And we have to listen to this 52-year-old-come-spoiled-breat-18-year-old-Chomsky-college-student-reading schmuck-putz lecture us about Bush being the devil???
It is glaringly obvious that Hugo has no desire to actually help the poor people in his country or the rest of the world, it's just about him and clinging to power and feeding his ego. And for all you leftist hypocrites out there who actually endorse this scumbag under the guise, "he's advocating socialism and helping out the poor" WHEN HE HAS A WORSE GINI COEFFICIENT THAT THE UNITED STATES it just shows the rest of us the truth;
That you're absolutely not about helping the poor as much as you are being anti-American or so utterly stupid that you will bring this great country down and lose those precious social freedoms you cherish so much because of your ignorance.
You literally should be ashmed of yourself for such stupidity, hypocrisy and being so damn gullible.
Yeah, that's one of the problems. It's not like Venez. is as prompt and up to date (nor reliable) as the FRED database at the Federal Reserve.
ReplyDeleteThe best longitudinal data I found came from The World Bank (among other sources) that I listed in this post;
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2006/09/much-needed-repost-you-go-for-hugo-i.html
It shows you that standards of living have more or less tanked since the 1970's and at a rapid rate since Hugo took over.
The price of oil helped Venez. in the past 2 years, but they suffered an oil worker's strike in 2003 so they only recovered partially.
30% of Venez's GDP comes from oil, so you're right in your speculation that if we took that out, Venez would be continuing it's decline or be very stagnant. A ballparkinmind figure would be that it's GDP average growth rate would be 0 to maybe -1%
I say it not because I hate him, but because it's true, Hugo is really doing a crappy job managing his country.
Great graphs.
ReplyDeleteChavez, like Che Guevara, is a folk hero. More myth than reality.
Seeing as how Amazon's sales of Chomsky's book increased exponentially overnight, I think the Bush administration has done a very poor job in the PR department. You're making up for their slack.
I've emailed you some links for Estonia data.
can you explain what a "gini coefficient" is, for all us aspiring junior economists?
ReplyDeleteIt's a way to measure wealth distribution. The higher the # the more money in fewer rich people's hands.
ReplyDeleteIt show just how utterly hypocritical Chavez is in that he is presumably this "socialist" when there is more extreme wealth distribution in Venezuela.
Cap't,
ReplyDeleteI'm not using Citgo, but a econ question about the boycott. While the boycott might cost him a little, couldn't he just sell to someone else, or to a middleman that would just charge US more and he still sells all his oil. Just wanted to know if the boycott is more b/c he's insane, or there was some real economic detriment to him.
Yeah, he can sell it, but he would have to incur higher transport costs. He recently has been courting the Chinese to supply them with oil, but then you have to ship it.
ReplyDeleteThe short answer, no, it won't cripple Venezuela, but it will cost them some money as they have to shut down and close their Citgo operations. Additionally he'll have to go an additional 3,000 miles to sell his goods.