A Model Worth Emulating

Populist-socialist and petro-dollar squandering wanna-be third-rate tyrant Hugo Chavez (who I have always admired for his ability to thumb his nose at Washington) has actually done something right and truly noble with this:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.
“We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone,” said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions.

Chavez said he wanted to formalize Venezuela’s exit from the two bodies “tonight and ask them to return what they owe us.”

Venezuela recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million. It paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. The IMF closed its offices in Venezuela late last year.

More nations should pull out of the IMF and World Bank. (It would be nice to have Paul Wolfowitz preside over nothing, not that he or any of his predecessors have actually done real work, for there is no real work to be done at the World Bank.) The “development” they claim to champion is a sham, and always has been, a way to assuage the guilt of the very, very rich all the while enriching important investment bankers in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia. It is a semi-circular transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich that benefits no one but the signers off loans, government officials and various well-connected international do-gooders.

The solution to debt in the developing world is default and repudiation, not forgiveness and rescheduling. It is to borrow no more, to lend no more, and put the lenders out of the business of government-arranged and guaranteed loans. Permanently.

Share

9:45 am on May 1, 2007