A run on the bank

No, not Citi or another one of the megabanks, although they are doubtless wincing at this news. Venezuela’s President Chavez announced yesterday, during his trip to Brazil, that Venezuela has sold its foreign currency reserves, which were held in U.S. treasury bonds, and deposited them in banks in Europe. “We have had to withdraw our international reserves from U.S. banks, due to the threats we have,” said Chavez, according to the Associated Press. It's not even a run on the local credit union. It's a run on the World Bank: In the course of the meeting, which leaders from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina attended, Chavez proposed that they should all consider depositing a part of their foreign currency reserves in a newly created South American development bank. Venezuela would be willing to launch such a bank with an initial deposit of $5 billion. This could be the means for the Thirld World to get out from under indebtedness, by replacing our government's phony "charity" with real development aid. This is an earthquake. This is dangerous In a very, very welcome kind of way.