You need a civilized place to sit while you are watching.

This is about politics and the philosophy it is based on, not management technique.

These are you "friends"? What are your enemies like?

What exactly did the Venezuelan gov't do? The article says several times that it confiscated the plant. "Legal ownership" means nothing in such a society.

The seizure is not "minor" in comparison with the previous interference in business transactions. It is a new (for GM there), more egregious, criminal act by the government based on the same premises and is the logical end result.

It is irrelevant what "the Venezuelan gov't wants with an auto plant". We know what "the Venezuelan government wants" -- stop the statement there -- it doesn't matter what economic reason it might give for seizing a particular asset like an auto plant. "Don't bother to examine a folly, ask yourself only what it accomplishes". They have no rational economic motive; Ellsworth Toohey is in Venezuela.

A better question is "what was GM counting on"?

Handyman... As long as there is laziness and overbreeding without restraint and disgusting politicians pandering to the eternal class envy and hatred, there will be bottom feeding and Federal Marshalls to back it up with the point of their guns and scummy lawyers working to make the U S A the U S S A. It will never end until "Atlas Shrugged" becomes real. KEEP FIGHTING....We have no choice.

Here's one masquerade: socialism masquerades as micromanagement. One Livingston tautology: micromanagement is malfeasance in management.

The bond swindle was imposed by Obama. Did GM support it?

I live in an area of the People's Republic of Oregon that was quite "red" when I moved here almost 15 years ago (from 20 years in the People's Republic of California, with farmers, ranchers, and others living beautifully in what was then paradise.
You can guess the rest, and now we are faced with all the ills of socialism and it is happening before my own eyes, and the "people" from other failing states are moving here in droves to bring "enlightenment."
It truly is right out of Atlas Shrugged, almost word for word, and it's getting worse daily.
Even places in southern Utah where I once considered moving are succumbing to the lure of "free stuff" and the "green revolution."
They bring what they are fleeing, and it is so obvious to me, but not to others.
Galt's Gulch is the only reading that brings sanity to my increasingly dwindling freedom of choice.
Yes, I am exasperated, and that is the mildest term I use.

Why does a tiny part of me wish those protesting in the US for anything but capitalism would win and I just quit my job, sit back, and watch the disaster that ensues.

It continues to amaze me that such a large percentage of people the world over still believe that the administrative state is the preferred social structure. How many different
forms of socialism are there? I don’t know the answer, but it is many. And they’ve all
been tried with many variations and attempts at fine tuning to get just the “right” mixture
of control and human rights. How long and what will it take for people to understand that there is no form of socialism that can work for the betterment of human kind?

Is there anyone out there that feels as exasperated as I do?

The funny thing is that people still try to blame the disaster that is Venezuela on capitalism. They claim it is the greedy capitalists who are undermining the glorious socialist experiment. Hilarious.

A goodly number of my Facebook friends (I live in California) go into apoplexy at the idea that someone would make a profit from doing something. They're sure that paradise will result from no one making money providing them with the goods and services they use.

Cuffy Meigs .

Venezuela is a result of collectivism. Chavez offered the people entitlements and they wanted a free lunch. All for the greater good. Sound familiar? Try to make sense of what they do. Simple answer is destroy.

Closed my consulting business in the late 90's for the same reasons. I think others here are making similar moves as they acknowledge the reality.

Why did Venezuela want the oil refineries? Why did they nationalize their banks? It's all about power and hubris: those who run the country have a god complex and think they have the right and the intellect to run everything - to micromanage. What you'll find in good managers is that they know that stepping away from a project and letting it run is the ultimate sign that it is working well. When micromanagement becomes the operative strategy, its a huge warning sign of impending collapse.

Look at the discussion in AS about the San Sebastian Mines.

Venezuela is a tragedy.

I am interested in the mechanics of this. GE is a multinational company, owned by people around the world. It used its money to buy parts for a plant, workers to get the plant running, and probably the land on which it's located. The Venezuelan plant buys car parts using Euros an Yen, pays its local employees in Bolivares, and probably sells most of the cars to local buyers paying in Bolivares. Some of the plant's Bolívar revenue it uses to pay employees, but it has to change the rest to foreign currency to buy parts and pay back investors. The Venezuelan gov't interferes with currency exchange and foreign remittances, complicating paying vendors and investors.

So what exactly did the Venezuelan gov't do? Did it take legal ownership of the plant and the land it sits on? This seems like a minor thing next to interfering with paying vendors. Did the move also seize GM's local bank accounts? What did the Venezuelan gov't want with an auto plant? Now it has to run an auto business.

This article shows the Venezuelan auto industry was suffering, with total Venezuelan car production falling from 172k to 3k. The industry was on its bottom. Why would the gov't want to own an auto plant?

I sold my finance business in February after realizing that about 80% of my time last year was spent doing regulatory/compliance stuff. Justifying to regulators that you're a good person doesn't put food on the table.

It is sweet revenge that GM should lose its Venezuelan assets to their government, after having used the government to raid ours, particularly $100 K of GM bonds belonging to my parents. That was my tipping point. My partners and I sold our biofuels business after having read AS during that 2008-2009 timeframe. I refuse to start another business until producers are revered, rather than being viewed as ATM's.