And I’m only half joking:

President Hugo Chavez’s government has nationalized two coffee processors and is planning to purchase a majority stake in a third as it moves to assert greater control over Venezuela’s strictly regulated food sector…

It never ceases to amaze me that so many people refuse to learn from the past. We know that nationalization doesn’t work. It only hurts the people it is often meant to help. Production has already fallen in Venezuela and Chavez has already been forced to “boost food imports” due to “rising local demand.”

Want to help the poor? Elect capitalists, throw socialists out of office. It’s ironic but true.

U.S. President George W. Bush signed another (free) trade deal with South American countries on Thursday. The deal is not new, but merely a one-year extension of an earlier treaty known as the Andean Trade Preference Act.

“We want there to be a prosperous neighborhood. It’s in the interests of the United States that prosperity spreads throughout our neighborhood,” Bush said at the White House. (more…)