The Devil's Excrement

I had set aside the time for tonight to write about the economic plan. The opposition did not invent it. It was first announced around the beginning of September. Both Merentes and Ali Rodriguez said that it would be announced in a week. But then Chavez went on his Dictator’s tour and everything was postponed.

Chavez was away almost two weeks, came back and said that 40 measures would be announced the week after.

Then, Hugo himself “announced” stuff that was more of “wishful thinking” than measures. I recall these:

1) An employment plan

2) CADIVI would be more efficient

3) Barrio Adentro would be reactivated

4) A bond would be issued (This one was done)

5) The swap rate would be lowered

6) Housing would be built

7) PDVSA would pay its suppliers

But Chavez also said that the number of measures in the “plan” had been upped to 54 from 40.

Then, it was announced that the plan would be announced last night, but we had another postponement. Thus, today after about 38 days, we finally saw the Ministers of the Economy together ready to announce their plan, but in the words of the Minister of Planning:

“Those waiting for a package of measures were left with their guayabera on”

Well, sorry Jorge, I did not even wear one…I don’t even own one, but I do have a wedding at the beach soon, so I will buy one.

But hell, why did they have the press conference , then?

Because all I heard was some false statistics about the US (Giordani did not even get right the population of that country and told us about the millions living in tents there). He also said that 75% of Venezuelans had social security coverage (hello?). And then he went into la-la dreamland about how wealth redistribution has improved (Did he understand the bond?) and how now people don’t take their money out of the country but reinvest it (Hold laughter please). We also heard about the GINI index, loved by Gioradnu and the Government and which has as an input the minimum salary at the official rate of exchange.

Measures on the plan?

-There will be a PDVSA bond before the end of the year.

-They will make a budget for CADIVI (after 5 years of  controls, I can only say about time)

The rest was wishful thinking and predictions for  next year’s economy and excuses for inflation.

That’s it!

There are 45 measures to go, but they may never happen at the rate we are going…but they are laughing…

Today in announcing the economic measures (none were truly announced), Minister of Planning Jorge Giordani expressed that his dream was to have not one Ferrari but three, one yellow, one blue and one red, as you can see in this video:

and then he proceeded to blast the three former and current pro-Chavez Mayors of Caracas: Freddy Bernal, Juan Barreto and Jorge Rodriguez, because his dream is frustrated by the potholes of the streets of Caracas.

Jeez, ten years in office and they have not even been able to find a Mayor that would allow Giordani’s Socialists dreams to come true.