Uh Oh...

Isn't this what Mr. Chavez from Venezuela does?

The Crisis in Honduras

I do not pretend to fully understand the crisis in Honduras, one interesting perspective can be read here. I am concerned that the United States seems spring-loaded to the message "no overturning a democratically elected politician," without much analysis of what was going on in Honduras. It does appear that Mr. Zelaya was trying to force through a referendum to make him in effect "president for life," which is what Mr. Chavez also tried to do in Venezuela. Ironically, this is also what Adolf Hitler did in Germany. He was democratically elected, he eventually became dictator. In fact, the path to dictatorship was remarkably similar. Given the same circumstances, if Germany had kicked Hitler out of the country before he could manage to bring about his dictatorship, would we have insisted that he be allowed to return?

Stand by for disaster if Mr. Zelaya regains power. As one Honduran said, If this guy comes back, God help Honduras.

Venezuela Heading Down the Path of Zimbabwe

This is totally unsurprising because one can ignore the laws of economics all one wants to, but one cannot escape them. Apparently the Venezuelan central bank is turning to "alternative means" to finance its disaster of an economy. Meanwhile, rather than blow through most of its dollar reserves, it is trying to put one over on Brazil by borrowing money from them. Good luck getting paid back, unless oil goes to $120 a barrel again.

The Next Zimbabwe

Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez, is headed down the road to being the next Zimbabwe. Chavez does not understand that you cannot dictate economics, it doesn't work and never has. All his attempts to prop up his economy are failing and taking over more of the oil industry will not help. Oil at $120 a barrel, that will help. Nothing else will.