Oppenheimer: Ecuador’s sham “economic miracle”

Andrés Oppenheimer: Correa’s ‘economic miracle’ in Ecuador was actually a monumental sham. Huge public spending bigger government, more regulations, confusing tax changes:

Under Correa, Ecuador was the South American country that most increased public spending during the oil boom years, Hidalgo says.

Public spending grew from 25 percent of the gross domestic product to 44 percent. The number of public employees swelled, and the government went from having 15 cabinet ministers before Correa to 30 ministers currently, he said.

And during that period, Correa hit private businesses with hundreds of regulations and more than 20 tax reforms, sowing growing confusion and scaring away private investments.

During his 10 years in power, the government sector’s participation in overall investments more than doubled from 20 percent to 52 percent, the CORDES figures show. Not surprisingly, when oil prices started to fall, investments came to a standstill.

As for the runoff,

The only reason why Ecuador will have a runoff is because numbers don't lie. But correístas do. Cannot trust these guys with #dollarization.

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) February 26, 2017

Meanwhile, opposition candidate and runoff frontrunner Guillermo Lasso said yesterday that, if he wins, Julian Assange will be asked to vacate the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but “we vow to take all the steps necessary so that another embassy will take him in and protect his rights.”

Good luck with finding Assange a new embassy to live; the WaPo reports that his relationship with the Ecuadorian embassy staff has been strained for years.