economic indicator

[Davestone]

I would agree with bof ya'll.
I lived on a farm in the 70's and saw virtually all of our neighbors go under and move.I went back after 20 years andalmost none of the family farms were still running.If you research Donnie you will find a quote from the then head of agriculture saying we needed to get rid of the small farmer in order to control prices.
How many mom and pop stores,gas stations,or farms do you see?The govt. is always looking out for us,and if it has it's way there will be no small businesses whatsoever left.

[bulldog tile]

Usually when a bubble bursts it doesn't some back as strong as it once was as in the farming real estate bubble of the 70's. I do believe the housing market will come back eventually but it will be a region to region recovery. The recovering economy will look a little different than it once looked and those of us in the service oriented business will have to make adjustments but small businesses are more efficient in making adjustments than behemoth corporations.

The best thing for me in this economy is that the yellow pages have gotten thinner and I don't have to worry about as much competition.

[sandbagger]

remember, one of the reasons you don't see the family farms is the estate tax. Many families didn't have the capital resources to pay the 50% tax and had to sell. The big farms actually paid lawyers to watch the obits in the area so they could be the first to swoop in on the grieving families. Call them vultures if you like, but they didn't write the tax code.

[Steve C]

The redhead and I started farming in the late 70's (against her better judgement - darn, she was right again).

Then, the banks and farm loan agencies like FMHA were throwing money at us hand over fist . Any time I went in for a loan, the only question was "are you sure you don't need anything else?" I was too young and foolish to realize it made no sense that a 22 yr. old could walk in and borrow 6 figures in unsecured operating money, and bet all of that on weather, interest rates, and crop prices.

I also didn't realize that it was just flat wrong that I could borrow money from the government (y'all) to flush down the drought toilet. It was the paradigm of the times; just what everybody did.

Secretary of Agriculture said "get big or get out".

After three consecutive really bad droughts, we couldn't pay back nearly any of what we owed. So what's the govt. (FMHA) say to me?

"You need to sign up for the new low-interest disaster loan."

By the way, we wanted to ask our creditors to write the notes down to where we could pay part of them; at least they'd get something. But we found out that any debt written off by a lender would be considered income by the IRS. Kind of forced our hand.

That was the clarifying moment when I saw just how big the whole scam was. We could have kept playing the game, but decided to get out of it, since I like to be able to look myself in the mirror every morning (not like that's much of a treat).

I like a lot of farm folks, but most of them have no right to complain about government involvement, because they play one of the crookedest games there is.

[jvcstone]

Originally Posted by Art

Call them vultures if you like, but they didn't write the tax code.

I suspect that the "big farm" (some would call it agribusiness) lobby had a lot to do with that particular part of the tax code.

JVC

[mossypath]

Not that YouTube is the best source for truths, but please watch .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DryKw...eature=related

[jvcstone]

pretty good summery of what's been going on.

http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/us-middl...shrinking.html

JVC

[sandbagger]

Lots of good stuff on the Internet, Tammara, but I don't put much stock in anything that doesn't identify the source.

[Davestone]

Next week Germany votes on what it is going to do financially,whatever they vote for is going to send waves into the financial arena,this could be the beginning ...http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...d-panic-button

[sandbagger]

the collapse of the Euro was inevitable from the start - let's just let it happen so we can move on to more rational policies in Europe. Yes, we'll have some short-time chaos and panic, but Armageddon? Hardly. Europe functioned just fine before the Euro, and will do just fine after.

[Davestone]

True,but they didn't have the problems they have now.I don't think it's as bad as all that either but i like their 25 points.There will always be a certain amount of commerce,even during the depression 75% of people were working....for peanuts.
But if they vote to extend what is going on now it will be much worse when it does split,and will remain like this for years,and if they vote to stop helping, the problems start immediately.

[ob1kanobee]

Doesn't the Republican and Democratic congress vote to lend these people money or to the IMF? Always meddling in the affairs of other governments? If that's true, that is one reason why I like Ron Paul. I think he's the guy who would tell them to take their medicine. If that's the case Art, you need to tell your Republican buddies how you feel or get on the Ron Paul band wagon.

[jvcstone]

Ben, It seems that the limited audit of the fed indicates that the fed has supplied many trillions of dollars to its associates in Europe without going through congress.

JVC

[ob1kanobee]

Anybody else here about this supposed "private report" which was apparently leaked to the Wall Street Journal. If you search around you can find a whole lot of info on the Web about it. I'm just wondering if it is credible or misinformation perhaps put out by Goldman Sachs on purpose.

http://www.economicvoice.com/goldman...#axzz1XOdx3Jnu

[MudMaker]

Davy?