Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (pictured left) with other socialist "success story" Fidel Castro.

Yesterday, Hugo Chavez laughably gloated that the U.S. financial crisis was a result of the failure of capitalism. Apparently Mr. Chavez doesn't understand that it was the same sort of left-wing populism and class-based economic prescriptions he espouses that were the culprits of the current dilemma. The market didn't compel Fannie and Freddie to de-regulate and push low-income to no-income ownership, but rather the co-opting Congressional goo-goos like Barney Frank who had previously said that the bloating of the two government chartered entities was "for the good of the country." If its for "the good of the country," with polls showing more Democratic gains American voters are likely to make the violent push for a self-imposed bizarro world, and appear to be striving for their destiny of failure.

If it is common knowledge that free markets caused this mess, let's wait and see how we can achieve Mr. Chavez's insurmountable economic success in Venezuela. With overall tax revenue and spending at 15.4 % and 25.6 % respectively of GDP, Chavez has managed to put the Venezuelan economy "on good footing." So good that the country leads Latin American in inflation rates and over one-third of the population are still below the poverty line. Then again, the Venezuelan people know this, which is why he is finds himself increasingly unpopular at home.

Cross Posted at TheNewNixon.org.