The Washington Posts’s Jackson Diehl just published a must-read column in which he proves with numbers and bullet-proof arguments that the “the implosion of Chavez’s self-styled “Bolivarian socialism” is accelerating”.
In his piece, “Hugo Chavez’s implosion continues in Venezuela”, Diehl writes:
“Figures reported Tuesday by the Chavez-controlled central bank portrayed an economy that is completely out of sync with the rest of the region — and perhaps unique in the world in the degree of its current distress. Gross national product fell by 5.8 percent in the first quarter, while inflation remained at 30 percent. Private investment plummeted by 27.9 percent as capital continued to flee the country.
Private economists suspect the economic contraction is even worse than what the official figures concede. But let’s assume they are correct. Venezuela’s crash compares with quarterly growth rates of 8 percent in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. It comfortably exceeds the collapse of Greece, which contracted by 3 percent in the first quarter.
Inflation in Caracas is triple the next highest rate in Latin America (Argentina) and is more than double that of the next worst economy (Pakistan) among the 56 tracked by the Economist’s website. Even Zimbabwe, which used to be considered the world’s economic basket case, looks good compared to Venezuela: it is expecting 6 percent growth this year, while inflation is under 5 percent.
In short, economic recovery is taking hold across the world — except in Chavez’s Venezuela.
When I pointed out back in January that Chavez’s revolution was collapsing, a chorus of left-wing bloggers rose up in protest.
The extremists among them claim that Venezuela is actually doing better than the rest of the world, because (loony version) Chavez is destroying evil capitalism or because (slightly less loony version) Venezuela’s implosion is irrelevant to the rest of the region.”
You can read here the entire piece.
Related columns:
Peter M. Burelli on Jackson’s Diehl column (PMBComments, May 27, 2010)
Hugo Chávez’s revolution crumbled (Jackson Diehl, Washington Post, January 25, 2010)