Chavez expropriates another company

[COLGATE4]

More 'enlightened socialism' from fearless leader. No wonder "Venezuela's gross domestic product shrank 3.5 percent in the first half of this year after contracting 3.3 percent for all of 2009."

"President Hugo Chavez ordered the expropriation of Venezuela's largest privately owned steel producer Sunday, the latest in a series of takeovers that has raised concerns among business leaders.

The president said the seizure of Siderurgica del Turbio SA, or Sidetur, is part of his strategy to transform Venezuela into a socialist state. Sidetur, a subsidiary of Siderurgica de Venezuela SA, or Sivensa, produces 40 percent of the rebar used for construction in the country.

Founded in 1948, it produces 835,000 metric tons of steel a year, including beams, angles and flats that are sold domestically and exported to nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/31/AR2010103103648.html?hpid=sec-world

[Incognitus Czar]

1. a drop in GDP...

a drop in GDP is only natural since the companies are now in the hands of the government. And a drop in GDP doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing.

That's if of course that Chavez knows how to run the economy efficiently.

As for the rest of the private business owners, I'm surprised they haven't packed up their shit and leave the country before they have their own goods and property confiscated.

[niyad]

2. welcome to DU

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Gee. The economy contracts during a world-wide recession.

That THAT's a surprise.

Chicken, meet egg.

[Radical Activist]

4. "that has raised concerns among business leaders."

Really? Business leaders don't like socialist nationalization of industry? You don't say... :rofl:

It's nice that they tell us what business leaders and the opposition party think. Why doesn't the article tell us why Chavez did it and what the majority of Venezuelans think?