Libertarian wins presidential election in Panama

[qh4dotcom]

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=17678

[sailor]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted.

If only we knew how much power does the president in Panama has compared to the parliament.

[krazy kaju]

How sure are you that this guy is actually libertarian and not just another establishment shill like Glenn Beck?

This guy was some kind of Panamanian social insecurity bureaucrat.

[emazur]

Good to hear - let's see if he introduces sound money to Panama. If I recall, they have no Central Bank and use US dollars as their currency

[silverhawks]

He's the President of the Democratic Change Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Change_(Panama)) of Panama.


Mr. Martinelli is the founder of his own party, Democratic Change which he describes as not belonging to the left or the right, but which was openly supported by the Panamanian political establishment.

Panamanian president elect compared to Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi (http://en.mercopress.com/2009/05/05/panamanian-president-elect-compared-to-italys-silvio-berlusconi)


Besides building the supermarket chain virtually from scratch following the 1989 invasion of Panama by the George Bush Sr. administration, he has also held important posts in his country: he was minister of the Panama Canal and director of Social Security.

Berlusconi is about as far from libertarian as you can get. In fact, he's widely being considered neo-fascist. (I would agree with that assessment myself, seeing as he is a typical "Third Way" politician - same as Bush, Blair, Brown, Gadaffi, both Clintons and Obama)


But while Berlusconi himself enjoys being compared to il Duce, in truth he is completely different. Mussolini's Italy was a bit like 1984; Berlusconi's is more Brave New World. He does not use a truncheon; he is more like a dispenser, through his TV channels and publishing empire, of ceaseless titillation and trivia. The ancient Romans used to say that the masses would be content as long as they had panem et circenses, bread and circuses. Berlusconi guarantees them the second. He provides the entertainment, he is the ringmaster of the teatrino, the "little theatre" that is Italian politics.

In his 1946 preface to Brave New World, Huxley wrote: "A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned ... to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and schoolteachers." That is the sense that one gets in Italy today: a feeling that Berlusconi's television is a sort of electronic babysitter that keeps the populace quiet while he goes off to cut a deal in another room. Ominously, one of the favourite topics for his politicians is the rewriting of certain history books and syllabuses.

I'd appreciate some more info on exactly why this man is being considered libertarian.

[specsaregood]

./

[Paulitician]

They do use the FRN as their official currency. Since they can't print money, it turns into a "gold-standard" type system. Or as this mises article puts it: " a completely market-driven money supply".
More here: http://mises.org/story/2533
It's nowhere near a market-drvien money supply... it's a fiat-driven money supply, the US/Fed controls it (or tries to anyway).

[JdotRdot]

Panama is controlled by the US...main interest being the Panama Canal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama

there's still quite a bit of a stink in Panama among the population about this

[RevolutionSD]

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=17678

He's NOT a libertarian by any stretch of the word.
He's more like a lighter socialist than most of Latin America. Here's a post by someone on that link who looked at his website:

"Ricardo Martinelli is a classical liberal?? I don't know about that.

I looked up his campaign website, and, while my Spanish isn't perfect, it looks like his campaign issues were:

* Creating a government job-training program
* Starting an "Enterprise Management Program," in which the government will "help" failing businesses stay afloat
* Funding industrial parks to develop pharmaceutics and computer chips (???)
* Sugar cain, palm oil, ethanol, and biodiesel subsidies
* Tourist industry subsidies
* Increasing government education funding
* Funding Internet access for all school students
* Starting a government scholarship program
* Taxing casinos to build more government schools
* Creating a Department of Higher Education, Science, and Technology
* Organizing sports leagues and building new sports facilities
* Curbing domestic violence and strengthening the family by implementing a government "family education program"
* Passing legislation that "eliminates discriminatory dispositions" such as xenophobia and racism
* Creating a Department of Indigenous Policy to teach farmer's agricultural methods, and to fund health, education, and "eco-tourism"
* Guaranteeing houses for all indigenous people, building communities that keep indigenous people "nucleated," and ensuring cement floors and indoor plumbing for all
* Mandating that businesses be "environmentally sustainable"
* Establishing a program within the Department of Farming and Forest Development to protect forests and plant new trees
* Establishing a "Sustainable Development" program to "ESTABLISH POLICIES, REGULATE, FACILITATE, AND CONTROL all matters concerning the atmosphere and the country's natural resources" (his website put those four phrases in all caps, not me)
* Granting the public prosecutor special authority and personnel in order to pursue "environmental justice"
* Providing pensioners with more medical attention and housing
* Building "Rest Centers for Older Adults" to give pensioners recreation and relaxation
* Funding a "system of massive public transport" ('massive' being his word, not mine, really!)
* Rationing the amount of cars that can travel on certain public roads in order to optimize traffic
* Making the "application of traffic fines severe" (his words, not mine!)
* Placing cameras on all traffic lights (seriously!!!)

My goodness! Some "classical liberal" this guy is! Where do you get your información, Don, seriously??!?"

[cindy25]

I'll believe it if he restores bank secrecy, eliminates the income tax, and defends internet privacy

[shenlu54]

Good to hear - let's see if he introduces sound money to Panama. If I recall, they have no Central Bank and use US dollars as their currency

I don't think a country without enough gold to back up the money can maintain a sound money policy alone.

If they do so,they will probably have no foreign trade at all,since all those foreign countries have are fiet currencies.:(

[specsaregood]

./

[Don't Tread on Mike]

Thats very good news, I'm looking forward to see what he does differently.

[nobody's_hero]

Cool. So they don't actually need gold to back their currency, they just don't print it up at whim.

Still though, they should probably be looking for alternatives to the Dollar. I'd hate for the dollar collapse to happen during a libertarian's (I guess he is by Latin-American standards?) administration and make him look bad. :(

[Paulitician]

Did you read the article I cited? It may be "fiat money" but since Panama can not print the currency, they are completely reliant on importing and exporting goods to increase/decrease the money supply. Or from the article I quoted:
Ah, sorry I got mixed up there. I thought the RoP forced the dollar on their market--that's kind of what I meant. Obviously it's less than ideal that the people within Panama have to choose among fiat curriencies of the world instead of currencies spring up from the market, but yes this probably is the most market driven money supply in the world (doesn't mean it's completely market driven though...)

[specsaregood]

./