Chavez puts the pedal to the floor

Chavez is clearly aiming to be the next deity in the Ché, Castro and Mao pantheon:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the country's economy must move away from capitalism and eliminate "large" land holdings.

Chavez, who won a recall vote against him on Aug. 15, said the country's businessmen should help the government change the world's fifth-largest oil supplier into a "humanist" economy from a "neo-liberal" one.

"I call on private businessmen to work together with us to build the new economy, transforming the capitalist economic model into a social, humanist and equality economy," Chavez said during a televised speech in Caracas. "The time has come to accelerate the transformation. The revolution has just begun."

Meanwhile, Argentina is also moving to the batty end of the economic spectrum by raising the minimum wage by 29%, supposedly to "spark domestic consumption and power economic growth." Good luck, guys. You might want to consider what this will do to your already high unemployment rate first...

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at August 30, 2004 03:23 PM | TrackBack