Correa has debts to pay. Ecuador is unable to access finance on international markets. Instead it has sold more oil and borrowed more from China – both of which add to the impetus to exploit fossil fuels in the Amazon.
Because the stupid tosser decided not to pay off debts that the country could well afford and so defaulted on their bonds.
At which point no one will lend him any money. Thus, borrow from the Chinese against future oil revenues. Which does mean of course, that you\’ve got to drill for the oil.
Entirely his own fault.
[…] are willing to pay for. But given that Mr Correa has already shown, as Tim Worstall points out, that he considers payment of his country’s debts to be optional, I think the required foundation of trust might be lacking for this one. Sadly there were quite a […]
Isn’t it fun when idealistic hand wringers collide head on with reality.
[…] Tim Worstall weist mit Bezug auf einen Beitrag im Guardian darauf hin, dass Correa das Ölgeld nicht für den […]
I see the reporter uses the word pristine, a code word amongst environmentalists. Pristine means untouched, virginal. The picture shows a human dwelling in the foreground, so the lady is a little bit pregnant.
From tha Graun article:
“Polls show that between 78% and 90% of Ecuadoreans are opposed to drilling in this sensitive region.”
WTF do they get this stuff? Has the Graun of idea at all about the realities in S.America? Equador’s got over a third of its people living below the poverty line. They’d happily strip mine the rain forest if it put food on the table.
Is the poll something like the one in Balcombe where 82% were opposed to fracking, but only 34% of the village voted, so in reality only a minority are against fracking. Is the Graun’s poll of the 10% (or whatever) of Ecuadorians living in the major cities
SBML: Of course, you don’t think they’d get mud on their shoes do you? Either that or it was a phone poll, which would also ignore the villagers.
[…] Funny argument Tim. Ecuador entered the 2000s with a large accumulation of debt ran up successive kleptocratic dictatorships. Practically I understand that paying off this debt might be worth the cost. Access to capital markets is really useful even if they are inhabited by the sorts of people who lend to money hungry kleptocracies. But that’s a tragedy, it definitely doesn’t make someone a “stupid tosser.” […]
[…] Update: Tim Worstall weist mit Bezug auf einen Beitrag im Guardian darauf hin, dass Correa das Ölgeld nicht für den Kampf gegen die Armut, sondern zur Tilgung seiner Schulden benötigt. Das hochverschuldete Land hat trotz seiner Öleinnahmen zunehmend Probleme sich auf den internationalen Kapitalmärkten zu refinanzieren. Also können neue Schulden nur gegen zukünftige Ölerlöse gemacht werden. Fragt sich nur, wo das Geld geblieben ist. In die Armutsbekämpfung sicherlich nicht. […]