It's not about the money or the economy, stupid...

"It's the economy, stupid." One of those quotes that will never die--except when it isn't true. In this case, let me start off with (yet another bit of priceless) commentary from Michael Ramirez:

And now to Mr. Chavez' latest move: the nationalization of Banco de Venezuela. This is only the latest in a string of seemingly endless nationalizations. Well, there will be an end to the nationalizations, once Mr. Chavez controls the entirety of the means of production within his personal fiefdom. It was once argued that the nationalizations were in the best interest of the common man of Venezuela, that the greedy and corrupt owners of private industry could not be trusted with the means of production.

However, anyone with the slightest knowledge of economic history can attest, raising the GDP of a country is the surest-fire way to improve the plight of the common man. (Not 100% effective, but generally so.) So it is surprising to learn this fact:

The Venezuelan consulting firm Ecoanalitica calculates those [other] nationalizations have cost Chavez's government some $23 billion.

If they cost the government money, it was most likely from declined tax revenues relative to the amount of cash Chavez was able to siphon off his newfound properties. This would suggest that the industries are faring much worse (from an economic-output perspective) than they were in private hands. Which means our poor Venezuelans aren't doing so well right now.

So--what's the real motive? Chavez knows his actions are not helping industry, which in turn, has increased the plight of the poor. So, it's not the poor that Mr. Chavez is concerned with. Let us follow the game to its end again--controlling the means of production. Control. Power. This, as with every other game played by Chavez, has nothing to do with helping other people or creating a socialist workers' paradise: It is about extending his power as far as possible.

So--why show the "bird's of a feather" cartoon? Because, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the work of the present Presidential Administration in our own country is not at all concerned with the economy. The "stimulus" package was hawked as immediate and necessary, yet the funds have yet to be doled out either with immediacy (most are still unused) or going toward necessary projects. The executive branch executed the most daring increase in its own power since the days of FDR. We should be very, very frightened.