La Muerte de Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator is dead.  Maybe now, that country can recover.  During the decade and more that Chavez ruled, the economy of that South American country nearly collapsed.  Inflation has run on average at more than 25% each year.  Oil production, the key to the country's economy, has plummeted even though the world price of oil is now about four times higher than in 1998 when Chavez took office.  Per capita GDP of the non-oil economy has also fallen drastically.  Unemployment is substantially higher.  In short, things in Venezuela are miserable.  Indeed, the only one who did well during this last 15 years was Chavez and his family who amassed a fortune of well over two billion dollars.  Apparently there is nothing like socialism to make the leadership really, really rich. 

Five years ago, at the UN, Chavez said that president Bush was the devil.  He was wrong.  Nevertheless, with his passing today, it seems likely that Chavez is going to get to find out in person just how wrong he was.