GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MONITOR AND COFFEE

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is published. The report is directed by Babson College and London Business School. I think that the report could be discussed at a future IdeaTank meeting at Blue Chip Café. Here is one thing in the report that I want to have an answer to: Why is Venezuela having the "highest level of early-stage entrepreneurial activity" in the world?

Venezuela, where around a quarter of the population are involved in some sort of entrepreneurial activity, came top of the list. In second place was Thailand, with 20.7%, and third was New Zealand with 17.6%.

At the bottom of the list were Hungary, Japan, Belgium and Sweden, where less than 5% of the population is involved in starting a new company. (TheLocal.se, 01/12/06.)

[Editor's comment: So, I am pretty unique here in Sweden then...]

I am preparing for my role as a barista by reading The Perfect Cup by Timothy James Castle. Hugo Chávez is having problem with finding the coffee beans... [Via Publius Pundit.] Maybe I should test some coffee from Nicaragua. [Via InstaPundit.] I am going to try Kona coffee from Hawaii, e.g., Lafayette Coffee Farm.



UPDATE 01/15/06:

Thanks to A.M. Mora y Leon of Publius Pundit for answering my question.

Excellent post, Martin. There's an easy reason why Vz has entrepreneurial activity: Hugo Chavez drove all the legitimate businesses out of business through his anticapitalism policies and forced thousands of people in the streets to be Chiclet-sellers. He can't create jobs and poor people are desperate. That's why Caracas is awash with informal-sector street merchants known as buhoneros. It's only because they can't get real jobs and they are desperately poor and there is an oil boom that this vast informal sector has formed. Chavez has great designs about getting them under state control however. (01/14/06.)