On the same day Venezuela’s charismatic president, Hugo Chávez, died the Dow Jones and Financial Times indices broke records, wiping out the losses of the last five years. As capitalism appeared to recover its old swagger, a hero of the Left passed from the scene. The significance of Chávez’s experiment in “21st century socialism” (as he described it) goes beyond Venezuela. His attempt to harness the market to the needs of the poor emerged from a long and well established tradition in the Spanish-speaking world. The shortcomings of his 14 years in power, however, may have had as much to do with oil as with ideology. Chávez’s achievements – and more schools, more clinics, more amenities … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Rich and poor
Financial Times
The importance of being ‘El País’
One of my clearest memories from the years I spent working at the English edition of El País newspaper was a 6pm editorial meeting in 2007, the day of the launch of rival publication Público. These evening meetings are when the paper’s section heads tell editor-in-chief Javier Moreno what they are going to publish. I remember them as dull but rather tense affairs, where each head would deliver his (it was almost always a man) spiel, and hope not to have it verbally machine-gunned by the boss. But on this particular occasion, Moreno began the meeting with an appraisal of new arrival Público. “Whatever else one might think, they have a very clear idea of Spain and who their readers are,” he … [Read more...] about The importance of being ‘El País’