Yoshie just posted the *English* version of Luciano Wexler's article on www.mrzine.org
I recommend it. Luciano's article is solid and very informative. He knows the issues firsthand, because he is personally involved in the process of "sowing" oil into Venezuela's basic industry. I am under the impression that the mass media, in Venezuela and in the U.S., suggests that -- unlike nothing that may have happened in Venezuela's past -- the government is squandering the country's oil revenues in "populistic" excesses and an orgy of mismanagement and incompetence. Okay, maybe they don't use these exact terms, but my impressionable soul kind of gets those negative vibes. Without exaggeration or "cuentas alegres," Wexler's article demolishes the wishful thinking of the oligarchs and imperialists. To be sure, Venezuela faces very tough economic challenges and its leaders are sharply aware of them. But those challenges are not of the character insinuated by the mass media. Michael Lebowitz once told me that, with exceptions he had a hard time naming, there are virtually no economists on the side of the revolution. This seems to me like a big loss that makes it harder for the revolution to carry out its tasks. But as terrible as that loss may be, judging by the results, people are making up just fine. Extremely talented young people, with the heart in the right place and a tremendous appetite for learning solid economic principles, like Luciano and others (many of them, perhaps most of them, young women), are working very hard in Venezuela to pull off amazingly complex projects in the midst of incredible inertias and day-to-day problems. Michael could say more than I about this, but this is my impression from one of the briefest weeks of my life. Julio
