Department

Ranticles: “The irony…”

By Canticle

Venezuela is paying off 15.2% of its foreign debt in an ongoing plan to reduce its foreign debt. Their bond rating has been upgraded as a result, and they are now on par with Brazil, South America's largest economy.(*)

This is the threat Hugo Chavez poses to the Bush Regime. An independent nation, absent foreign debt obligations, that can use its wealth as it pleases.

This is the horrific menace to democracy, that a nation repurchases its debt obligations and finds itself the master of its own future, to sink or swim on its own merits.

Every time the Bush regime opens its yap to whinge about Venezuela I have to laugh. The Bush Regime is 8 trillion dollars in debt, it requires a billion and a half dollars a day of foreign investment a day just to stay in debt. Much of that comes from China, a nation the Bush Regime vilifies and criticizes on near constant basis (rightfully so in many cases, but it's kind of like walking into the bank you're financially dependent on for your loan and pissing on the office managers spider plant).

Then you have Venezuela, run by the menace to freedom, Hugo Chavez. More jobs, lower poverty, higher literacy rates than ever before. Has he been wrong? Oh yeah, I can't praise the man because he's done some stupid acts. But overall, Venezuela is far better off now than it was before he came to power. I can't say the same for the United States.

So whose the bigger menace to his people, then? The one who spends like a drunken sailor while allegedly curtailing individual freedoms in the name of security? Or the one who pays off his nations debt, builds infrastructure and social programs, while allegedly curtailing individual freedoms in the name of security?

* Venezuela is buying back some $3 billion in Brady Bonds issued by the United States, and Brazil has announced that it will be doing the same. The economic impact of this on the United States is tiny, but not invisible. Venezuela and Brazil are collectively repurchasing some $7 billion in Bond issues early, removing the value of those Bonds from calculations in the US Federal Budget. In a budget as large as that of the United States, it's a drop in the bucket, but the danger to the US Economy lies in the decision of these nations to forego future involvement in US funded Bonds, a critical component of Federal income.

Canticle on 2/26/2006.