Venezuela/Mark Weisbrot/US social security

Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of CEPR based in Washington D.C. he is also one of Chavez's strongest supporters in the US. The CEPR "think tank" has many ties to the venezuelan governemt which is made very obvious due to the links on the venezulean government web sites. Weisbrot has openly admitted to talking and getting most of his infromation on venezuela from the Venezulan government. Wow, what a think tank. Well today on CNN.com money
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/15/retirement/what_crisis/index.htm?cnn=yes.
he made a statement that social security does not need to be touched since it is ok for the next 40 or so years. Well I don't believe it.

"Not only is Social Security not in crisis, it is as financially sound as ever, according to the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research, run by Mark Weisbrot and Dean Baker, coauthors of "Social Security: The Phony Crisis."
Here's their argument: ...."

Sorry weisbrot I think most people would disagree with your fuzzy math. He must have used the same fuzzy math he uses about PDVSA when he clamied that it was poorly run and that Pemex (state owened Mexican petroleum company) was more profiatable and better run. This statement was said to my face, when I had the great opportunity to sit in one of his lectures where he was introduced as a Venezuelan expert who had recently returned from Venezuela. Guess what he was actually invited by the Venezuelan government and I'm sure all expenses were paid for. I may comment on this more another day.

Returning to SS, I do belive that it needs to be fixed but I am strongly opposed to partial privatization of the Social Security fund, as Bush wants. I think doing so would be harmfull to those in the lower income bracket. These are the people who depend on SS for after retirement. Investing in the stockmarket can not guarentee a positive return so many people will likely loss money in the long term while others will not. So parital privatization would be a disaster and will only benefit the rich (those who do not need SS) and it will likely hurt the poor. In conclusion I belive Weisbrot is wrong saying that the SS is ok and doesn't need fixing. I do not agree as I feel most people in the US do not agree with Weisbrots point. But privatization is not an answer. One way to fix it is by not allowing the US govt. to use it as a piggy bank (ie like Chavez is using PDVSA).

Chavez and oil

Apparently Chavez is traveling to Cuba to visit Castro on the 13 and 14 of Dec. I guess he needs to consult with his teacher. on the oil front Venezuelan oil is now at ~$30/barrel, so I assume the govt. is going to be under increasing financial pressure to run all there programs and fund corruption at the same time. I imagine something has to give, less corruption or less funding for community programs, which one do you think will get a funding cut?

In the mean time

While I figure out how to work the blog better and figure out what I should post please visit these sites that are very good

www.11abril.com
www.vcrisis.com