Sounds Vaguely Familiar, Doesn't It

Of course one of the things keeping outside investments down is the highest murder rates in the world, Caracas Venezuela had 130 murders per 100,000 people in 2008.

President Hugo Chavez is pressing Venezuela's private banks to increase lending in an attempt to trigger economic activity in the last months of the year, a move that could ram the financial industry against the wall.

A cornerstone of the government's economic stimulus plan is to rekindle lending to key industries, according to Chavez. His announcement comes as the government is wrestling with a 2.4% drop in economic activity in the second quarter, the first since 2003, and struggles to fight off a contraction for the year.

The president said Monday his administration is studying 54 measures to address four key areas: the drop in economic activity, inflation, the gap between the official and parallel exchange rate for U.S. currency, and commercial bank lending.

Seems like I have heard the same preaching from Obama .... hmmm hmmm, hmmph.

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