There is one thing in which Hugo Chaves and FMI can agree: both favour bank nationalization. That bastion of the "free market" and "capitalism" that is the IMF states in a report released in late April that governments in the world should nationalize banks to "recapitalize" them and restructure.

It hasn't occurred to the the IMF's "capitalists" that maybe the solution to the financial crisis consists in letting capitalism do its job, eliminating non viable banks and, in the process, strengthening banks that have been conservative in their credit practices and risk taking.

No, on the contrary, the defenders of free market at the IMF propose exactly the opposite: punish the "good" banks(and everyone else that is not in trouble) to save the "bad" banks. Well, where do you think governments are going to get the money to save the banks from?

Of course, if you are a frequent reader (despite CANTV), by now you know that the IMF is not a free market capitalism defender , but on the contrary it is a tool for global collectivism. Next time someone tells you that IMF is a paladin of "wild capitalism", you already know how to answer.

 Economics, International