Venezuela's Chavez seizes U.S. food giant unit

[SASKFARMER3]

Venezuela's Chavez seizes U.S. food giant unit. He finally got mad at a company for creating shortages in FOOD. Sort of like the fake shortage in Fertilizer, Roundup etc.etc.
You know I love the free market but I for one am getting tired of the BS that's taking place with these companies.
Use share holders money to build up business and buy out people. Shares crash CEO still gets huge dollars, shareholders loose their shirt.
Good on Chavez for giving them a good hit.

Again no I am not against free market but when its going crazy like now that's not free market. Then ask governments to prop them up after years of waste.

[agstar77]

Careful you will be labelled a commie on this site! Anti-trust laws with teeth would help.

[dave4441]

Saskfarmer you commie. Has Cargill asked for any public help?? What does the finacial sector have to do with taking the assets of a private company. They need to get rid of Chavez. You see companies that sell you products as crooks, not partners. Complete joke.

[jensend]

chavez might be a loon but he also might have cargill figured.

[liberty]

Chavez is a thief, plain and simple. Anyone who lauds this thug is promoting thievery.

Why anyone would willingly invest a dime in Venezuela is beyond me, given that any successful investments will inevitably be stolen.

[Fransisco]

Jeez, if that's your attitude sask maybe you don't deserve to ever get ownership of your grain back.

[Hopperbin]

Apparently they were selling rice without the price controlled price stamped on the bag. Apparently by their laws and the will of the people they are able to do it.
We do have price controls on CNCP shipping of our grains. So cannot say we totally cannot have price controls on fertilizer here.

[SASKFARMER3]

Ha Ha Ha. Got you all. But Its time to discuss real things that matter.
Chavez is a crook True.
But what he is doing is trying to cling to power. Food is essential to that, so take over food supplier and your days as dictator continue.
Now to the core of this post.
Companies acted bad in the run up in prices. Perks, bonuses, allowances, private islands jets etc. Share holders got a little profit (some lots) and alot of BS about the skys the limit.
Well it came to an abrupt end. My dad use to say when things look way better than they are the end is near for that run up so get out. Well last summer was the time to bail.
Now it seems were bombarded by how much farmers will make in the year 2010 because the world still needs food. I agree the world still needs food but farmers need to make some real money or they will be lost.
Maybe thats happening already since alot of the land owned in USA is not owned by the individual farmer but someone else. In Canada we have super farms now run by a farmer (HA HA) and an advisory group who over see the system. These farmers are good at growing the crop. Well guess what these guys also take all the risk if the crop freezes or drys up two or more years in a row guess what the advisory group takes their losses and goes home. THe farm is bankrupt call Richie Brothers.
So farmers remember food is important to keep stability in a dictatorship and in Communist Countries, well may as well add the free world to that if price contols come in the near future.

[Zaphod]

Chavez is simply trying to cling to power. The problem is that taking over the food industry will drive it into ruin. People will starve just so he can stay in power. Ownership by a corrupt government who rigs elections will destroy agriculture. Just wait, that country will explode.

[Zaphod]

You got me, SF. A good reminder to re-read stuff before I start typing. Chavez is still a nutbar though.

[classicalliberal]

Chavez is a socialist piece of S#$%. Saskfarmer, there was plenty of good prices available for more than six months to sell up to three years in things like corn, 2 years in canola, one year in oats and three years in soybeans at extremely profitable prices. For some reason, not many people that I know took advantage of it. By the way, those companies are controlling the prices when they can because they are greedy. It is something you would do if you could but it wouldn't be criminal if the farmer held its consumers randsome on the prices.

[gregpet]

When you say profitable Classic, have you locked in your input costs for these 'sales prices.' That includes fertilizer, chemicals (herbicide, pesticide, etc...), seed, fuel, .....

How can you be certain you have locked in profitable returns unless all your input costs are covered?