Chavez Watch

Let's see.....Second highest murder rate in South America, only country in the region to not begin growing again after the global recession, 30% inflation, evidence of supporting the terrorist group FARC in Columbia....

What to do?

Chavez stays the course.

Government takeovers of anything in Venezuela are bad, bad ideas. I can't imagine how there can be any confidence at all in the countries economy.

"Firms operate under the permanent threat of confiscation ... The state of despair and uncertainty is generalized," said Mauricio Cardenas, director of the Latin America Initiative at the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank.

"The economic model that has taken hold in Venezuela does not work. Without legal protection, there is no investment, and without investment, there is no growth."