My treatise on Economics

I was thinking yesterday that, at least in this hemisphere, neo-liberal economic reform has been the worst thing for the poor since slavery (although AIDS is probably going to take the lead). I read a simple explanation of neoliberal economics - each country does what it does best and nothing more. Things like NAFTA that do away with protective tariffs are the way this is accomplished. Corn grows better in Nebraska than in Southern Mexico, and when you do away with the importation tarifs on corn into Mexico, they get cheaper Nebraska corn and the corn industry in South Mexico goes away.

People talk about <> and <> but generally it is considered to be the best thing for the global economy. And it may be, I don´t know enough to say, but it definitely seems to be terrible for most of the worlds people. I think the growing gap between rich and poor is probably a result of these policies.

Venezuela is probably good at two things - cattle and oil. But, Argentina is probably better at cattle, so maybe it shouldn´t count. If oil is the only thing venezuela produces, that´s great for people in the oil industry (who are pretty well off to begin with) but terrible for everyone else. I think a humane government needs to understand that while it may be inefficient in an abstract economic sense, protecting national markets and production is critical to protecting the standard of living and well-being of all of the citizens of a country.