You Can Only Seize So Much Wealth
President Obama’s bro-shake buddy is up to more deviltry.
A fresh round of expropriations in Venezuela has raised fears that the Opec producer’s already declining oil output could sink to its lowest level in the past 20 years.
Troops were mobilised over the weekend to assist Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in seizing the assets of some 60 oil service companies, after a law was approved last week that paves the way for the state to take increasing control over its all-important oil industry.
“To God what is God’s, and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” said Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, as he presided over the expropriation of at least a dozen rigs, more than 30 oil terminals and some 300 boats.
It’s hard to say which one Chavez thinks he is.
Glenn Reynolds says, “capital is being scared away, because of ‘regime uncertainty’”. Kind of sounds like our economy these days. The difference is that our uncertainty isn’t about how long the Obama administration will last but what economic policy it draws out of the Hat of Random Statist Platitudes on any given day. What Chavez, and to a lesser degree our President, simply do not understand is that a ruler can only seize so much money before it runs out. While wealth is not a zero-sum game in a more or less free capitalist economy, it can easily become so when a Statist (or, in Chavez’ case, a socialist) government makes it very clear that it will take as much of what you own as it wishes.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Why We Love the Newt.
- Meet Your New Neighbors…Russian Bombers?
- Barack Obama – Bringing the Best of the Last Two Presidents?
Category: Anti-Americanism, The Economy and Your Money
