So just a quick update on my high-fructose corn syrup friend of yesterday, today Cargill's rice production in Venezuela was seized by the government, i.e., nationalized.
As with many dictatorships, there are food shortages, so Chavez is blaming the rice shortage on the rice companies. Sort of an unlikely source, but hey, you don't get to be a dictator by being rational...:)
Of course, Cargill is just the beginning of the end for a travel-friendly (that is, my reason for being interested in Venezuela) country that is beautiful and could be a tourist mecca. I don't doubt that things will come back, but not any time soon (see, what happened to the Cuba of yesteryear...)
Cargill did, however, get a reassurance that no more plant takeovers were planned - not much of a reassurance from a company that just forceably seized your assets, but as good as you're going to get when you're exploiting a 2nd/3rd world country. You get what you pay for, in the end.
Intriguingly, the day before the nationalization, Cargill sold $450 B in bond notes (10 yr). Coupon about 7.35, rating A. But interesting. Did Cargill know this was coming? It was a private placement, so the info is limited, but it's a question that simply popped into my head when I noticed the timing. Given my personal business experience, the answer is yes. Which means, Chavez is in cahoots with western businesses doing business in Venezuela. Which means...a lot of really troubling things. That I won't get into, b.c. I need to return to another exercise.
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