ClessAlvein wrote:This is probably the smartest thing any country has done in the past few years. The IMF and World Bank has a relatively steady record of pushing a neoliberal economic development model on developing countries with loans laden with heavy interest so that they may plunge further into debt in order to push American interests; maybe the Southern hemisphere will follow his example.
Venezuela is not the first country to give the IMF their walking papers. Kirschner's Argentina and Lula's Brazil have more or less paid back their debts to the IMF and no longer do business with them. Why should they? They're enjoying stable, successful economies and currencies right now. The Real is $0.50, unpegged, for Pete's sake.
However, should Venezuela, Argentina, or Brazil experience a currency crisis like all of them have at multiple points in their histories, I'm not so sure they'd keep giving the IMF the bird.