and Atlas PUKED!!!
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 ...
Who is "John Gault" in real life?
That'll work once, but come next fall...
how rewarding would it be for us to send a few ships filled with corn and arepas down to Hugoland after his little NYC oil stunt?
They won't "it will be different this time"
They are following the European example.
(The consumer protection agency, Indecu, has seized more than 150 metric tons (165 tons) of powdered milk this month)
I can't wait to see how many metric tons of powdered milk will be produced next month!
Silly me. They just didn't 'try hard enough'.
Keep it up, Hugo, baby. That country will be ripe for a popular uprising in no time flat. Thanks for the help.
Nixon tried wage and price controls in 1971. Didn't work then either.
Communism promotes equality. Every one is equally poor and hungry, except the rulers.
Jesus, what a bunch of economic ILLITERATES
Can these b@$t@rds be any more stupid? Companies expend precious cash to buy a product that they then HOARD? Any CEO in the world would be fired on the spot for such an outrageously stupid business strategy, especially with a perishable product. Commies (and Democrats, same thing) have no understanding of even basic economics or business. And the rules of economics are like the laws of physics, they can't be repealed or beaten.
and Atlas PUKED!!!
Its perfectly 'legal' under a "free trade" agreement to export price controlled products. Chavez is a good "free trader".
Nothing Chavez is doing violates any "free trade" agreement. You see, "free traders" embrace communists. They embrace China, although China enslaves their people in laogai to produce goods for "free trade". They welcome Viet Nam into their waiting arms, although they use forms of slavery as well. Now if Chavez wants to starve his people so other consumers can get stuff cheaper, why thats the name of the game to "free traders".
In case you didn't read it, this article mentions price controls and expropriation. [chuckle]
That would be truly hilarious.
You want to see price controls and communism, look no further than right here. As of 2003 the US government has stockpiled 650,000 tons of powdered milk - about $1 billion worth. This is bought from dairy farmers for no reason other than keeping the prices up.
If every cow in the country dropped dead tomorrow, this stockpile contains enough milk to supply the entire country for 16 months. It sits in caves and warehouses for a few years until it's unfit for human consumption and then sold as animal feed for a few dollars per ton.
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