Da Weaz on Bolivia

Da Weaz adds to his comments on Bolivia. I don't really know Weaz that well, but he's a pretty smart guy and certainly very opinionated. I appreciate his viewpoint, even if I disagree with many of his conclusions. For example:

These events represent a truly scary prospect of business relationships to the privileged capitalists: when poorer nations are able to effectively negotiate within the parameters of the global marketplace the consistent pattern of exploitation will effectively be broken, and the countries that consistently preach the gospel of free trade and competition will actually for the first time have to practice it, paying "fair market value" for the goods, services and inputs that they consume. And for a nation such as the United States that has profited quite lavishly through its ability to exploit poorer and weaker nations, particularly in Latin America, this will be a sea change from the parasitic position of privilege that it has enjoyed. And currently seeks to enjoy in its robber barron oil effort in Iraq.

Weaz rightly points out the mistakes of the past. But he seems to imply that economic principles are therefore incorrect and should be ignored. He doesn't demonstrate how nationalizing the oil industry will give Bolivians better return than simply, for example, increasing taxes. He does, however, link to a very intersting article on Norway's efforts to work with Bolivia and other emerging oil exporters. Norway has had a great deal of success by combining both private and public ownership:

"Even if they are not given preferential status, they often have access to data – such as seismic information – before their competition," said one senior executive at an oil company active in Africa. Indeed, a presentation by Norwegian officials highlights the state's partnership with the private sector, naming Statoil and Norsk Hydro, Norway's two biggest, partially state-owned, oil companies.

So Norway is pushing their model and hoping their own oil companies benefit from the relationship with Bolivia and others. I hope they succeed. But the question remains: how willing will Norway's oil companies be to make investments in Bolivia given the history of nationalization? If a future Bolivian government feels that they can get a better deal by nationalizing Norway's investments, will they do so?