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Venezuela: Seizing corn meal an option [price controls and communism]
Business Week/Associated Press ^ | January 17, 2006

Posted on 01/17/2006 3:25:10 PM PST by grundle

Venezuelan authorities are prepared to seize inventories of corn meal if producers protesting price controls hoard their supplies, an official said Tuesday.

The South American country has seen coffee disappear from the shelves in recent weeks as producers refused to sell over price controls that they said eliminated profits. Officials said a 60-percent increase in coffee prices announced Monday would make coffee plentiful again.

But some corn producers also have told Venezuelan media they are dissatisfied with current price controls.

"I don't think it's necessary to go straight to expropriation, but it's an option," Food Minister Rafael Oropeza told reporters during a tour of state-operated grain silos in the southwestern state of Barinas.

He said the government is prepared "to defend the right of access to food."

Corn meal is key to Venezuelans' daily diet of "arepas," corn cakes served steaming with chicken, meat or cheese inside. It is one of many basic food products under price controls in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez says he is leading a socialist revolution for the poor.

Scattered sellouts of powdered milk, corn meal and sugar have been reported recently, but officials denied there were shortages at a national level and said they would make sure state-run markets are fully stocked.

The consumer protection agency, Indecu, has seized more than 150 metric tons (165 tons) of powdered milk this month from companies hoarding the products, according to its Web site.

Authorities also have seized inventories of coffee allegedly being hoarded by producers and resold at the official price.

The higher price for coffee should help ease the shortage, Light Industries and Commerce Minister Edmee Betancourt told the state-run news agency.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: coffee; communism; cornmeal; hugochavez; marxism; pricecontrols; trade; venezuela; wesleymouchwillfixit
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To: expat_panama

141 posted on 01/23/2006 5:04:31 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: expat_panama
I should never have allowed you to con me away from a discussion of ideas and suck me into a contest of personalities with this silly "loyalty" schtick in the first place

Thats an odd thing to say because no one was even talking to you on this thread.
142 posted on 01/23/2006 8:19:12 AM PST by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: grundle
Seizing corn meal an option

Not really. It tends to run through your fingers.

143 posted on 01/23/2006 8:20:33 AM PST by Lazamataz (I have a Chinese family renting an apartment from me. They are lo mein tenants.)
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To: 1rudeboy

That is a classic! Seems like maybe once or twice a year I see something so great I print it out and paste it on the wall ---that was it!


144 posted on 01/23/2006 8:52:52 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama
I believe it originally appeared in New Yorker magazine a number of years ago, and yes, it is a classic. Google the phrase if you have some idle time.
145 posted on 01/23/2006 8:58:53 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: conservativecorner
All except Colombia seem hell bent on following the easy road to socialism.

They all want governments like North Korea where people are selectively starved to death for the good of the state.
146 posted on 01/23/2006 9:01:03 AM PST by OKIEDOC (There's nothing like hearing someone say thank you for your help.)
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To: grundle

Another Robert Mugabe.

Will these idiots never learn from history?


147 posted on 01/23/2006 9:02:09 AM PST by Rocky (Air America: Robbing the poor to feed the Left)
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To: expat_panama
Have you ever seen this one? Given the political-predisposition of the author, it's funny on a number of levels.


148 posted on 01/23/2006 9:10:52 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Jaysun
We have to continue to push for free trade the world over.

I'd settle for us practicing it ourselves.
149 posted on 01/23/2006 9:16:41 AM PST by kenavi ("Remember, your fathers sacrificed themselves without need of a messianic complex." Ariel Sharon)
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To: 1rudeboy
Google the phrase if you have some idle time. 

Personally, I never have time for idle activities.  Then again, this is important. 

Wow-- 31,000 links-- seems that cartoon first came out way back in 1993, thirteen years ago-- where have I been!   One of the links went to a chilling thought from an advertising company-- "They may not know you're a dog but they do know when and where you last bought dog food from and how much you paid."

150 posted on 01/23/2006 10:24:17 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: endthematrix
Oh my. My Dad works out of Chicago, and has an undying love for Daley! /sarc
151 posted on 01/23/2006 10:55:11 AM PST by proud_yank (Aspiring CEO of a multinational corporation)
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To: hedgetrimmer
From the Chinese constitution, BTW

Article 6 [Socialist Public Ownership] (1) The basis of the socialist economic system of the People's Republic of China is socialist public ownership of the means of production, namely, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working people. The system of socialist public ownership supersedes the system of exploitation of man by man; it applies the principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work".

Are you serious? Do you really believe that the Chinese government adheres to the Chinese constitution?

Do you really believe that there is "freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration" in China because the Chinese constitution says so?

I thought you were a serious poster.

Let me repeat my previous position:

Red China and Vietnam rejected the main tenet of communist economic theory, the need for banning private property. Therefore, those countries are something other than communist in their economic policies.
The Communist Manifest, Lenin's tenets, and the Chinese Constitution have been rejected the the current Chinese leadership.

Private property is allowed in China, from kiosks selling CDs to huge factories. And by definition, private property is incompatible with communism.

152 posted on 02/01/2006 8:19:12 AM PST by george wythe
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