Socialist Dictator Hugo Chavez has seized private businesses in Venezuela and many Venezuelans are fleeing the country, yet BusinessWeek magazine found a silver lining:
“In some respects, business has never been better,” claimed Geri Smith in the June 25 issue.
Smith quoted Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce President Edmond J. Saade who said:
“It’s a bit like the … French Revolution. Power to the people, death to nobility.”
Smith’s claim that business has never been better even ignored the Venezuelan businessman she quoted in her story. The businessman who didn't reveal his name out of fear said “his company has shrunk to just 100 employees from 300 since Chavez came to power in 1999, and sales have fallen by half.”
It also ignored the fact that stealing assets harm those people who no longer have control of their own properties:
“Chávez has already forced global oil giants, phone carriers, and power companies to hand over control of key assets. Now he says he might nationalize banks, hospitals, and steel companies,” Smith wrote.
The media have had a bizarre fascination with the Venezuelan dictator over the last few months, as the Business & Media Institute has documented. BusinessWeek managed to put a new spin on it by suggesting Chavez’s ways are partly good for business.
Smith also praised the way Chavez stole oil revenue and spend $13.3 billion on redistributing wealth, and left out the negative impact on poverty and human rights that the dictator has created.
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“It’s a bit like the
June 19, 2007 - 18:55 ET by AtheistRepublican“It’s a bit like the … French Revolution. Power to the people, death to nobility.”
Didn't the French revolution end with a... dictator? Who then tried to take over the world?
What, that?
June 19, 2007 - 19:06 ET by c5thenNo no no. Completely unrelated. That dictator thing didn't happen for weeks after the revolution.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic
revealing or revolutionary?
June 19, 2007 - 19:05 ET by acumen“Chávez has already forced global oil giants, phone carriers, and power companies to hand over control of key assets. Now he says he might nationalize banks, hospitals, and steel companies,” Smith wrote.
It is interesting that a writer with a major publication would leave out, of all things, 'big media' to the list of companies that were forced at gunpoint to hand over control to the Chavez government....er....."the people". That is revealing - if not revolutionary.
Chavez spokesman
June 19, 2007 - 19:40 ET by LionKingIntroducing the spokesman for Hugo Chavez...Bagdad Bob.
I just knew Hugo would set th
June 19, 2007 - 19:42 ET by TruthMongerI just knew Hugo would set things right - said the American liberal dictator/terrorist-lover/worshipper/sychophant...
...it was hard but I managed to keep religion out of it:)...
Chavez, the left's newest hero
June 19, 2007 - 19:52 ET by RJThe left has always had a fascination and admiration for socialists. Chavez is their newest hero.
Venezuela has a monster inflation problem, stagnant/shrinking growth, growing unemployment, etc...yup, Chavez has been good for business, all right.....
he did attack big oil
June 19, 2007 - 19:54 ET by LionKingRJ...remember, he did take on Big Oil. They are more evil that socialist-dictators like Hugo and Fidel. Hugo and Fidel care about people.
Chavez is a nice man, LK
June 19, 2007 - 20:02 ET by RJChavez is a nice man, LK, just ask Baba Wawa....
Julia, Hugo was elected
June 19, 2007 - 20:38 ET by Night WatchmanJulia,
Hugo was elected president in 1998, 2000, and again in 2006; not a dictator.
Gas is 20 cents a gallon in his country, but no one in his oil company
gets $250,000,000 bonuses a la Exxon. Can't have everything, yacht
sales must be down I bet, and disgruntled trust fund kids are leaving
for Paraguay.
elected a la Saddam
June 19, 2007 - 20:42 ET by LionKingHugo got elected a la Saddam. No wonder gas is 20 cents a gallon...over-supply..no one can afford cars so there is no need for gasoline.
Thompson/dead wood I'm O
June 19, 2007 - 21:02 ET by Night WatchmanThompson/dead wood
I'm OK with Thompson.
You are so right, why a dic
June 19, 2007 - 22:29 ET by AtheistRepublicanYou are so right, why a dictator would eliminate the free press, so Chavez surely is no dictator! Oh wait...
"but no one in his oil
June 19, 2007 - 22:52 ET by ckc1227"but no one in his oil company gets $250,000,000 bonuses a la Exxon."
No one but Chavez himself, who I'm sure is getting much more than $250,000,000. Life is good when you can steal the private property of others for your own gain. I wonder how that would fly if I gave it a try. My neighbor has a new H3 I'd love to take possession of for the good of the neighborhood.
It really speaks volumes about the type of person you are when you're okay with the theft of private property, but you can't stand it when a private business legally spends its own money however it chooses.
The oil was stolen 50 years
June 19, 2007 - 23:35 ET by Night WatchmanThe oil was stolen 50 years ago, Hugo just took it back. Look it up.
"The oil was stolen 50
June 20, 2007 - 00:29 ET by ckc1227"The oil was stolen 50 years ago, Hugo just took it back. Look it up."
I have a better idea: back it up. I'm not going to waste time searching for fairy tales. I did read one interesting tidbit recently though: The per capita income in Venezuela in 2007 is the same as it was in 1957. Way to go, Hugo, way to go.
Really? You know very littl
June 20, 2007 - 01:04 ET by UnsaneReally? You know very little about Venezuela then.
The oil production there is controlled by the PDVSA, the state-owned oil company. That has been the way before Chavez came along and began stuffing what was once a very well-run state oil operation with his cronies. Trouble is that Venezuela's oil fields aren't your typical ones like what you would find, say, in western TX. The oil fields of Venezuela need LOTS of TLC from experienced management and workers in order to produce. The oil they produce can't even be refined by most places outside of the Carribbean and the United States.
Now that Chavez is firing the most competent personnel from PDVSA to turn it into his patronage machine, he risks Venezuela's future. He is installing people who don't know a damn thing about the oil business or the nature of the Venezuelan oil fields, so production at some locations is dropping, and could perhaps permanently go away.
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Night, in your rush to defend
June 20, 2007 - 01:11 ET by UnsaneNight, in your rush to defend someone who loves to steal from other people as much as you do, you seem to have forgotten that Hugo's love for democracy is a recent phenomenon. He did attempt a coup there in 1992. Why didn't the opposition field anyone against him last year? Because they were too divided amongst themselves to do anything about it.
I guess by your standards Ahmadinejad of Iran isn't a dictator either...never mind that when he was "elected", the opposition candidates mysteriously got disapproved by the mullahs.
Or, was North Korea's Kim Il-Sung a dictator by your standards? He DID get 100% of the vote back in 1962, after 100% of the North Korean people turned out to vote for him.
How about Enver Hoxha of Albania?
But all of that does not matter to you; so long as they steal from the successful and the producers, you LOVE them unquestionably. That is because YOU want to steal from the successful and the producers. I see Lee Raymond of Exxon as grossly underpaid at $400 million. (Actually, he is in fact worth that much because he was paid that much.) You see him as someone to steal from because he is far more successful than you can ever be, seeing as that you Leftists love to sit around and whine endlessly about how the Nanny State should be pampering you.
MAKE WAY FOR THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS!!! THE 1999, 2003, 2005, AND 2007 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!