Rafael Correa: "There are millions of Chavezes"

[Peace Patriot]

5. Try reviewing some basic facts before you comment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_the_South

For instance, the member states of the Bank of the South are BRAZIL, URUGUAY, Paraguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and Colombia has requested to become a member. Neither Nicaragua nor Cuba are members of the bank, and never have been.

You are also way wrong about the economic conditions in member countries. Venezuela, for instance, has the normal debt of a booming economy--economic growth of 5+%, post-Bush Junta worldwide depression, and it got up to a sizzling 10% in the 2003 to 2008 period. Most of the growth is in the private sector (not including oil), with high employment, good wages and benefits, great advances in educational opportunity and health care, and with Venezuelans rating their own country FIFTH IN THE WORLD on their own sense of well-being and future prospects (in the recent Gallup Well-being poll).

You said that you "suppose" that Ecuador's partner's in a bank will be "Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba Argentina and Bolivia." You omit Brazil (one of the three key founders in 2007) and Uruguay (two powerhouse economies) and Paraguay (rightwing coup d'etat, thus still poor), and you include Cuba and Nicaragua which are not members. You also don't seem to know that the Bank of the South has already been founded. It was not Ecuador's idea. It was Venezuela's ('06), quickly joined by Brazil and Argentina ('07).

Debt can be a spur to growth and economic and social health IF the debt is used for social programs--to provide upward mobility for the poor--and IF the government strongly regulates and taxes the rich, and supports small business, labor unions, "the Commons" (public infrastructure), high public participation and other elements of a good society. Debt is deadly when distant banksters such as the IMF get involved, with onerous "austerity" loan conditions that destroy social programs, loot resources and exploit workers. THAT kind of debt results in economic ruin (for instance, what the IMF did to Argentina--where the subsequent leftist government restored the economy.) All of the member countries of the Bank of the South use debt in a positive way, as we should be doing here in the U.S.

Your misconceptions about debt, about the membership of the Bank of the South and about the economic condition of several members make your comment utterly meaningless.