Quote: (01-04-2019 02:13 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:
Batka just wondering, do you have any background in economics? What do you do as a profession?
In other news, my friends in Brazil are now all talking about buying some Glocks.
To answer your question, I work for an IT company. I majored in Political Science and Modern European History. Part of my BA included Economics.
If you want to know what the Chicago Boys and 'shock doctrine' libertarian economics are, just read up on Naomi Klein. About 10 years ago she produced the documentary, "The Shock Doctrine" which details the disaster that neo-liberal economics had in Latin America. One of Bolsonaro's ministers comes from this School. These were guys trained in the US and whose task was to dismantle state assets and hand them over to private capital for a song. I fear the same thing will happen in Brazil. Bolsanaro has already ditched the minimum wage and is in the process of handing over vast swathes of the Amazon to his big business cronies. I'm intelligent enough to figure out that things wont end well in Brazil.
Yes the PT were corrupt and do have a lot to answer but what Bolsonaro is about to do will eclipse any of that. Wall Street and the MSM are singing his praises, even the neo-cons like Nikki Lena FFS. Some time ago, I posted up a link about Bill Browder and what he and the architects of the Chicago School did in Russia including the likes of Jefferey Sachs. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to work out what happened in Russia in the 1990s. Look it up. All I can say is that millions of Russians died prematurely including members of my in law's family - lost to rampant alcoholism, poverty and disease. Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi of the eXile magazine published numerous accounts of economic and societal collapse in Russia in the 1990s - one of Taibbi's stories from Vorkuta is utterly harrowing. I have posted these links before. The Chicago Boys and shock doctrine nearly destroyed Latin America and Russia.
Anyway before I wander off track, here is the aforementioned documentary -
Back to Brazil, Bolsonaro's neo-liberal policies of deregulation and tax cuts for his wealthy friends will gut and destroy Brazil. The track record is there. Second, relaxing gun controls will not solve the crime problem in Brazil nor will police death squads. If you want to solve it, get to the systemic problems. Offer social programmes, education, housingm employment opportunities. Offer the carrot but carry the stick.
As for Venezuela, the country is under severe economic sanctions that are hurting its economy. Is Maduro exempt from blame? No he is not but the campaign to destabalize and destroy the economy with a view of regime change is very well documented. Russia has recently sent nuclear bombers to Venezuela. This was in response to Bolsonaro threatening to invade Venezuela. The message from Putin was clear. You mess with Caracas, you mess with me. Venezuela is heavily in debt to Russia and the last thing Putin wants is a right wing coup that would repudiate all the debts of Maduro and tell Moscow to fuck off. The last thing you want is to owe money to some burly Russians. Bolsanaro has sounded out about positioning US troops in Brazil so now we have a standoff between the US and Russia in Latin America. It's like the 1980s all over again.
https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/...venezuela/
And now the Iranians are to send a flotilla and park it right off the east coast
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/106...amic-state
Two can play that game mate.