I think to answer the question of "how would you.." or "what if" we really need to look at " what is " and "how it got there"....so the stabilization fund, (a favorite of the World Bank and the IMF, tailing here, as they usually do, private banks who secure debt lines to producing countries with dedicated fractions of oil revenues), or the windfall, is not a philanthropic gift either in origin or in its dispersal.
The tremendous destruction of physical assets that marked the restoration of capitalism in the fSU, becoming the radical depreciation of living standards-- wages, education, health care, life expectancy, women's equality-- has not been reversed, and cannot be reversed by the increase in oil and gas revenues since 1999. It would take a counter counterrevolution to do that. Historically, Venezuela has tried variations on the theme of "plowing the petroleum".... using oil revenues to develop and "balance the economy." In the 70s and 80s Venezuela attempted just that, using oil revenues as down payments on intl bank loans for investing heavily in new and existing industries, just in time for the overproduction that knocked down rates of return and oversaturated the world markets. We know what happened next. And it wasn't pretty. "Plowing the petroleum" did not work then, didn't work in the 30s or 40s, or 60s and I don't think it is going to work any better this time around in Venezuela...or Russia, although I don't think Putin and the Russian ruling class have an inclination to do even 1/10th of what Chavez is doing. What would I do with all that money? Honestly? Everything I could to organize and finance an international socialist revolutionary movement, hoping to beat the clock and get to them before they got to us. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marvin Gandall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 6:06 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Russia's Stabilization Fund: Interview with Economy Minister German Gref
