Economy and Finance Minister, Alí Rodríguez Araque, stated on tuesday that the new ALBA bank will have 85% of its initial US$ 1 billion in capital subscribed by the Venezuelan government. The bank's capital could be increased in the future to US$ 2 billion. This means, the Venezuelan government will have to put US$ 850 million to fund the initial bank operations.

First of all, what is the ALBA bank? The ALBA (for Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, in Spanish) bank is the new pet project of our president Hugo Chávez. This, "anti-capitalist bank" is his way to compete with the IMF and the World Bank. But this is clearly a no-win proposition for the Venezuelan people, at least from the economics point of view.

The partner countries, such as Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua, will put only 25% of the bank's capital and of course, will get most of the funding. They will be net receivers of capital, while Venezuela will be a net payer.

The only people benefiting from this new wealth squandering scheme in Venezuela will be Hugo Chávez and his cronies, who are obsessed with spreading their "bolivarian" revolution to the rest of America.

 Venezuela, Economics, International