In the long, glorious history of America, it’s unlikely that April 22, 2008, will be remembered as anything other than just another balmy, bureaucratic spring day in Washington, D.C.
Meetings met, talkers talked and, in typical Washington fashion, the day ended with little movement other than finger pointing.
Such were the outcomes of key meetings that day […]
Spring finally found the legs to arrive in central Illinois nearly a month after the calendar alerted us to be on the lookout for it.
Certain signs — corn planters and daffodils blooming in every barnyard, Queen Mary-sized fertilizer trucks cruising down every county blacktop — suggest the season’s here to stay. Also here to stay […]
American humorist Will Rogers once joked that “there’s no trick” in coming up with political wisecracks “when you have the whole government working for you.”
That insight was confirmed again March 14 when President George W. Bush addressed the Economic Club of New York. The U.S. economy, the president finally acknowledged, was sputtering.
But, he confidently told […]
The last time the hefty price of wheat was a dinner conversation topic the then-secretary of agriculture, Earl Butz, hit the road to deflect consumer anger from farmers.
His only weapon was a loaf of stale bread.
“Farmers don’t set the price of food,” Old Fencerow to Fencerow would proclaim as he unwrapped the bread […]
Today’s barely functioning cash grain and livestock markets will soon be getting their price signals from the world’s largest single, for-profit, around-the-clock money, grain, meat and metals futures trading operation.
One fine spring evening 35 or so years ago, I rang the doorbell of the home of the young lady I intended to ask to a high school dance. After a short pause, the front door opened to frame her father, his bare feet and a can of refreshment in the doorway.
Momentarily stunned at the […]
If either you or I get in a high-stakes poker game and we lose our shirts, an absolute certain bet is that the government will not bail us out.
When a former National Football League player known for his dirty play was asked if he ever “threw” a game — purposely helped the opposing team win — the player replied by stating the obvious.
A furrowed brow and clenched teeth usually accompany the phrases “Officer, you’re right,” and “I don’t know.”
The former hasn’t split my lips since, oh, probably 1974, but the latter is quickly becoming a staple of daily conversations with farmers and ranchers emailing or telephoning to ask how long today’s grain and land markets can continue […]
History doesn’t record who first uttered the ageless business maxim that “Time is money,” but a good bet might be a meatpacker because minutes and hours, like cattle and hogs, are valuable commodities under constant assault by packers.
As such, the most efficient packer — or, as they say in the business, the one that puts […]