7
POPSCorporate Welfare End the corporate welfare, close up the loopholes, subsidies, and the offshore enabling, and it might be feasible to lower corporate taxes to between 15 and 25 percent, on the record. Not that most don't pay this percent now...
6
POPSMagical Thinking vs. Reality amount to $1.05 to $1.38 per gallon, or 42 to 55 percent of ethanol's wholesale market price. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver. The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it.
4
POPSDon't Blame The Market For The Global Food Crisis!
New products, impossible if corn had been sold at its market value, were developed to make use of the artificially low cost commodity. The ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup replaced sugar and became the sine qua non of the modern American diet, leading to today’s “obesity epidemic." If using corn to force-feed grazers like cattle* flies in the face of reason and sound market principles, using it to fuel cars is absurd. In essence, ethanol is nothing more than the continuation ad absurdum of the same policies begun in the Nixon administration as part of its corporate welfare package to agribusiness. *grass-eating animals whose stomachs are not designed to eat grains. Thus, they require massive injections of enzymes and antibiotics to be able to digest what we force-feed them. “Ethanol is so costly that it wouldn’t make it in a free market,” said Williams. The only reason it is produced in the first place is that it is subsidized heavily with money confiscated from citizens.
3
POPSSubsidies And High Crop Prices Dooley says the net impact is bad for the food producers he represents. "For most American farmers, they're producing commodities—they're seeing their best years ever. But for farmers that have to feed grains and corn to livestock, they're seeing very tough times.... The policy is having a significant adverse impact on a significant sector of our agriculture, while I admit it is helping some farmers." These higher costs are also seen in consumers' grocery bills, and that has made ethanol subsidies an issue in Washington. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York this month proposed legislation that would end the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff* as a way to stop a spike in milk prices. "There are a lot more milk consumers than ethanol producers in New York. He's hearing an earful from his constituents," Griswold says of Schumer. *The federal government gives preferential treatment to domestic, corn-based ethanol in the form of a 54-cent tax on imported Brazilian ethanol.
4
POPSTime Running Out For Farm Bill (continued)_Over the last 20 years, the opportunity cost to American consumers and taxpayers of supporting agricultural producers has totaled over $1.7 trillion. The harm to agricultural producers abroad, including many developing countries, does not help U.S. foreign policy. American intransigence over reducing farm subsidies is a significant impediment to a successful conclusion to the Doha round of world trade talks. It is time for the government to get out of the business of managing agricultural markets and supporting the incomes of farmers, many of whom are relatively well-to-do."
2
POPSA Coup For The Kiwis Forced to adjust to new economic realities, New Zealand farmers cut costs, diversified their land use, sought non-farm income opportunities and altered production as market signals advised — for example, by reducing sheep numbers and boosting cattle ranching. Farmers were aided on the cost side as input prices fell, because suppliers could no longer count on subsidies to inflate demand.
2
POPSThe Biggest Big-Government Conservative Candidate Most of the leading Republicans running for president show some support for Bush's ideology, but no other candidate so completely embodies it. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee dramatically increased state spending. During his two-term tenure, spending increased by more than 65 percent — at three times the rate of inflation. The number of government workers increased by 20 percent, and the state's debt services increased by nearly $1 billion. Huckabee financed his spending binge with higher taxes. Under his leadership, the average Arkansan's tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, including increases in the state's gas, sales, income, and cigarette taxes. He raised taxes on everything from groceries to nursing home beds.
0
POPSFarming ETF An easy way to play this sector is through a new farming ETF. According to All Star Fund Trader, "it's a pure play on the red hot agriculture space."
8
POPSMalawi averts famine by dropping free-market policies Interesting story. After being pushed for years to adhere to strict free-market policies with regard to agriculture (i.e., abandon subsidies, encourage the cultivation of cash drops, and use foreign exchange to import food), Malawi finally decided to ignore the advice of the World Bank and others and begin aggressively subsidizing inorganic fertilizer and seed for farmers raising food for domestic consumption. As a result they now have a surplus of food and child malnourishment has fallen sharply.
0
POPS Ethanol's Subsidy::It Has No Commercial Merit The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes the practical limit for domestic ethanol production is about 700,000 barrels per day -- in 2030. In 23 years, that will translate into about 6 percent of the U.S. transportation fuels market. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver.
0
POPSTake The Federal Out Of Farming Why, oh why is Big Agri so subsidized? This piece says the farming biz needs to undergo the transofrmation that every oher American industry has undergone in the past 75 years.
0
POPSHow Malawi stood up to the "free market" worshipers Read "'Free' market religion kills" at http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/10/13/104534/75 for an excellent commentary on how the "worship of the so-called free market" tried to stamp out a program that brought this African country out of famine and poverty.
4
POPSSubsidies still flow as Corn Farmers Prosper Hhhmmm, an African-American or Latino seeking public assistance is denigrated as a taxpayer's burden. A midwest Anglo republican voting farmer receiving public assistance......pure apple pie americana.
13
POPSWhy is fast food so cheap? "Many consumers would like to support skilled farmers who produce healthy products, are good stewards of their land, work to preserve clean water and open spaces around our communities, and are contributing to a secure food system. Our representatives need to know this is the kind of farming we want to support with our tax dollars in the new 2007 Farm Bill. " See source for links, information and opportunities for change. Get educated and get involved!
1
POPSChina reports on Indian Farmer Suicides Highlights both the significant gap between farmers in india and those in other countries- and the complicity of government sources and scientists in the current crisis. Death toll: 147 in the first two months. The agriculture authorities blamed the low yield of cotton to spurious Bt cotton seeds but Tiwari said there has been few spurious cotton seed in the market since U.S. bio-agriculture giant Monsanto lowered the price from 1,780 rupees (39.56 U.S. dollars) per bag to 750 rupees (16.67 U.S. dollars). Other factors that worsen the situation are reducing price of cotton in the market and competition from cheaper cotton imported from the United States. The cotton price dropped by 60 percent since 1995 but the U.S. subsidies to its 25,000 cotton farmers reached 3.9 billion dollars in 2001-02, doubling over that in 1992.
3
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update