FLASHBACK-Report Examines Economy and Social Indicators During the Chávez Decade in Venezuela http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-2009-02.pdf

Among the highlights: The current economic expansion began when the government got control over the national oil company in the first quarter of 2003. Since then, real (inflation-adjusted) GDP has nearly doubled, growing by 94.7 percent in 5.25 years, or 13.5 percent annually.

Most of this growth has been in the non-oil sector of the economy, and the private sector has grown faster than the public sector.During the current economic expansion, the poverty rate has been cut by more than half, from 54 percent of households in the first half of 2003 to 26 percent at the end of 2008. Extreme poverty has fallen even more, by 72 percent. These poverty rates measure only cash income, and do not take into account increased access to health care or education.

Over the entire decade, the percentage of households in poverty has been reduced by 39 percent, and extreme poverty by more than half.There have been substantial gains in education, especially higher education, where gross enrollment rates more than doubled from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008.Over the past decade, the number of social security beneficiaries has more than doubled.Real (inflation-adjusted) social spending per person more than tripled from 1998-2006.

From 1998-2006, infant mortality has fallen by more than one-third. The number of primary care physicians in the public sector increased 12-fold from 1999-2007, providing health care to millions of Venezuelans who previously did not have access. There have been substantial gains in education, especially higher education, where gross enrollment rates more than doubled from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008. The labor market also improved substantially over the last decade, with unemployment dropping from 11.3 percent to 7.8 percent. During the current expansion it has fallen by more than half. Other labor market indicators also show substantial gains. Over the past decade, the number of social security beneficiaries has more than doubled. 

Over the decade, the government’s total public debt has fallen from 30.7 to 14.3 percent of GDP. The foreign public debt has fallen even more, from 25.6 to 9.8 percent of GDP. Inflation is about where it was 10 years ago, ending the year at 31.4 percent. However it has been falling over the last half year (as measured by three-month averages) and is likely to continue declining this year in the face of strong deflationary pressures worldwide.

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VIDEO-Slavoj Žižek - First as Tragedy, Then as Farce http://vimeo.com/8073858

Zizek's latest offering, a book called First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (2009), is a sobering analysis of neo-liberal economics and the ideological 'faith' that supports it. Much to the dismay of many elite power-brokers, Zizek's exposition and deconstruction of the policies and philosophy of neo-liberalism leaves no doubt as to the emptiness and pathological ignorance adhered to by its loudest and most powerful proponents.

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AUDIO--MUST LISTEN-When Neoliberalism Implodes https://brechtforum.org/when-neoliberalism-implodes

Robert Brenner is a professor of history at UCLA. Sam Gindin is Packer Chair in Social Justice at York University, Toronto. Vivek Chibber is a professor of sociology at NYU.

comment-also see...World Economic Crisis: Latvia’s Neoliberal Madness http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17627

Must Listen Interview - Dr Michael Hudson Guns and Butter - The New Junk Economics: From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2010/02/must-listen-interview-dr-michael-hudson.html Article relevant to this interview: Deepening Debt Crisis: The Bernanke Reappointment: Be Afraid, Very Afraid http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17346 The Earth v the Neo-Liberal Paradigm – Prosper Australia speech http://www.prosper.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MH_Classical_Economy.mp3

Latin America after the neoliberal debacle: another region is possible By Ximena de la Barra, Richard Alan Dello Buono(page 189-191)http://tiny.cc/rIme9

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Persecution and blackmail dot the president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article3637 

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez has been directly blamed for the persecution Colombian journalists  are suffering. They complain that in the name of terrorism Uribe shields himself while persecuting opposition  human rights activists, members of the Colombian judiciary or opposition leaders. In fact, two journalists victims of this persecution, Hollman Morris and Claudia Julieta Duque, declared last week that Colombian prosecutors have evidence that President Uribe is responsible, by act or omission in the persecution of  over 300 people. Hollman Morris and Claudia Julieta Duque said that through the intelligence apparatus, Department of Administrative Security (DAS),he has presided  over  these presecuciones. The DAS is the responsibility of the  president as set by the Political Constitution of Colombia. 

Of the five directors of the DAS during the Uribe terms, four have had to leave office amid scandals of  ties to the rigthwing paramilitaries, political persecution and illegal spying. In fact one of the four directors of the Colombian intelligence, Jorge Noguera Cotes, currently on trial for manslaughter thru use of paramilitaries, said he received direct orders to put Uribe Jose Miguel Narvaez, who is being investigated for the murder of journalist Jaime Garzon and Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas, as deputy director of DAS. The 7 persons of intelligence in Colombia who are investigated in  criminal prosecutions for the persecution of Colombian citizens agree that the orders for such illegal actions came directly from the presidency and the presidency itself declared it  "was necessary to ensure national security." 

Hollman Morris was victim of  DAS who tried to present him as a guerrilla, he received numerous death threats, was illegally arrested and had his journalistic material illegally seized . Besides the illegal spying agents came to threaten his family and colleagues. According to the evidence available to prosecutors, the Colombian army was also involved in this situation that also included the theft of documents in possesion of  the reporter. During 2009, Morris has received more than 50 threats and accusations by  Uribe of being "sympathetic to the FARC"in order to justify their persecution. This is because the reporter was interviewing some soldiers and police officers released earlier by the FARC. 

Claudia Julieta Duque also received threats not only to her but also her daughter. These threats were to be fulfilled since it has been shown that the orders were "urgently end" ascribed to it. She was exiled for several years. Prosecutors today and based on the evidence have confirmed that other journalists were also targeted. According to the IPS Constanza Vieira Bogota, these are: "Carlos Lozano Guillén, director weekly Voz, Alfredo Molano, El Espectador; Dick Emmanuelsson, international correspondent, his case was called" Operation Cinnamon "Ramiro Bejarano, opinion columnist, newspaper El Espectador , Cesar Jerez, Rural Press Agency. Today in exile, Adriana Cuellar, press chief of the Corporación Colectivo de Abogados(lawyers) José Alvear Restrepo, Nicole Karsin, independent journalist, contributor to the U.S. San Francisco Chronicle, Liam Creig Best, Justice for Colombia, the United Kingdom; Luisa Margarita Gil, Redepaz. 

But there's more. The International Election Observation Mission in Colombia questioned the transparency of the Colombian electoral system and stated that the forthcoming presidential elections to take place in May this year are "a latent risk. These statements are due to have been found that senators and congressmen of the Party of the U (Álvaro Uribe party), "came to the slums and told people that if they do not vote for the ruling party they can in turn end the subsidies, and because of the large  numbers wich receive them it is a threat that is not fair and it has much impact on elections results, "said Laura Carlsen, a member of the International Mission Electoral Obvservación. 

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The Collins Bros Unleashed Episode 16: The Crossroads of the Presidency http://blessedresistanceradio.podomatic.com/entry/2010-02-14T19_04_43-08_00

Paul and Phillip D. Collins continue their discussion of the choice facing President Barrack Obama… Technocracy or transformation. Join us to examine the technocratic elements of the administration’s recovery program, the Trilateralist influences on the President, and the dialectical manipulation of the Tea Party Movement.

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Former Mexican foreign minister calls for ‘North American union’, unified currency http://rawstory.com/2010/02/mexican-foreign-minister-calls-north-american-union-unified-currency/

Prolific Mexican politician and intellectual Jorge Castañeda believes that a greater North American community -- a "North American Union" -- with economies tied together under a European Union-style system, compete with open borders and a unified currency, is the wave of the future.

In a new interview with Web site BigThink.com, Castañeda, Mexico's foreign minister from 2000-2003 and a global distinguished professor of politics at New York University, said that with nearly 11 percent of Mexicans living in the United States, he has stopped seeing his nation as a Latin American country.

"Well, my sense is that we’re moving closer and closer to forms of economic integration with the United States and Canada and conceivably Central America and Caribbean could become part of that in the coming years," he said. "I don’t see Mexico as a Latin American country. Too much of trade, investment, tourism, immigration, remittances, absolutely everything is concentrated exclusively with the United States. So, Mexico has to be part of a North American community, a North American union, which at some point probably should include some type of monetary union along European lines with a free flow of labor, with energy being on the table, etc."