marketing cattle

[Willowcreek]

Well cowman-- its like this- you can't keep borrowing forever without having some source of paying the debt envisioned...The US now has an $8 Trillion debt (?) and is still selling out its income sources. A lot of that debt is now in the hands of folks who would like to see us go down the tubes- China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela .. They wouldn't mind losing a little to gain a lot.

I don't know about how Canada is-- but I can tell you down here in the rural area, nobody believes our government when they say their is no inflation- not with fuel, heating, fertilizer, chemicals, all going up 100 % in the last year- and all other products- food, clothing, etc. rising accordingly because of the transportation costs.. When GW says there is less than 2% inflation, folks around here just outright laugh..

Heres a couple of links to articles out of true conservative publication- altho these are estimating only a 35% dollar depreciation.

http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15264

http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15263

I just don't think the situation the neo-conservative bunch that have been running D.C. and selling out our country to the rest of the world, have put us in is a very healthy situation-- and especially one where your carrying a lot of debt to operate as a 35-50% devaluation is going to mean it will take a whole lot more to cover those payments.....

Next 6 years could get interesting!!

[farmers_son]

Willowcreek: You overlook what many scholars believe was one of the most significant causes of the Great Depression. I am referring to U.S. protectionism.

Many economic historians consider the Smoot-Hawley Tariff a factor in deepening the Great Depression. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act "imposed an effective tax rate of 60% on more than 3,200 products and materials imported into the US," quadrupling previous tariff rates.

Unemployment was at a troublesome 9% in 1930 when the Smoot-Hawley tariff was passed, but it jumped to 16% unemployment the next year and 25% unemployment two years after that. The annual rate of unemployment in the United States never got back down to the 9% level again during the entire decade of the 1930s.

As countries resorted to protectionism, the general amount of international trade radically decreased, causing the world economy to slow.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was especially harmful to agriculture because it caused farmers to default on their loans. This event may have worsened or even caused the ensuing bank runs in the Midwest and west that caused the collapse of the banking system.

In part as a result of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff and other countries' responses to it, the post-World War II world saw a push towards multilateral trading agreements that would prevent a similar situation from unfolding. This led in part to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the 1950s and the associated rise in U.S. and global prosperity.

I believe you when you point out the hurt in rural America. I would suggest there is a correlation between this hurt and the increasingly protectionist stance of the U.S. government. In regards to the cattle sector, the U.S. cattle producer will not successfully raise their live cattle prices by lobbying for U.S. government policies that would effectively create a pool of cheaper live cattle next door in Canada. I am referring to the present non science based restrictions on trade with Canadian live cattle and the pending implementation of MCOOL, plus delays in implementing Rule 2.

[cowman]

That is pretty interesting stuff farmers son! Might make old Willowcreek think a bit?
Willowcreek: Well you've been fighting a pretty costly war? I don't think that was too helpful for the old bottom line?
Now whether you thought that was a good idea or not, I don't know. But I do know that you should be supporting those boys over there...and I am sure you are!
Bottom line is these Muslim guys are nuts and they hate you guys? I don't know if old George picked the right fight...but these crazies aren't going to go away...and someone had to say Enough is Enough! My personal thoughts are the US made a big mistake...but you guys have to pay the price and I would hope you support your leader...right or wrong? Because if you don't...you can kiss your ass goodbye? No more Vietnams.

[Willowcreek]

That is part of the problem cowman-- we (the US taxpayer) have been paying to keep the world free while many of the other countries of the world that are shirttailing on this freedom and the US's trade are doing/paying nothing. It can't continue that way.

farmers_son-- I am also aware of the fact that many of the scholars credit one of the major causes of the Great Depression as the fact that the US had too much money invested in/loaned to Europe, which most the European countries defaulted on after WWI...

Unless the US's huge trade deficit is turned around there has to be a crash, since even a farmer/rancher knows you can't survive forever just borrowing money and owing more daily with no income source to repay it...

And it has been one of the main goals of the multinational corporates/Bush neo-con Republicans to lower the valuation of the US dollar to make it easier to incorporate in Mexico and Canada into the North American Union...

I wonder what color the "amero bills" will be?

[JD6320]

willowcreek,
Keeping the world free has nothing to do with U.S policy, it about keeping access to vital natural resources. Democratic countries allow better access to their industries than ones behind walls. These actions are not based on moral principles but rather economic gain.

[Willowcreek]

JD6320-- And I suppose Canada, France, Germany, Japan, etc., don't take advantage of all the results of this economic gain, nor of the free world system the US taxpayers pay a huge debt to keep free- eh...

[WilIow-Kreek]

Just remember...we don't have to be friends to Y'all.We could just take what we want and you couldn't stop us.We were the ones to save y'all in WW1 and WW2 and stop the communists from ruling the world after that.How long do you think the U.S. taxpayer will keep paying for all your freedom?

[grassfarmer]

Yeah Willowkreek it's a good job you rescued us all in WW2. Good job the Japanese decided to catch you with your pants down or you might never have joined in - what was the problem? waiting to see which side was going to win before committing? What about protecting the freedom of all the countries overrun in '39 and '40??

[JD6320]

willowcreek,
you are not paying to save my freedom,your paying to be at the front of the line. You buy the line that every action taken by the government is in name of furthering democratic institutions,which in reality is a smokescreen for business interests.

[ddniak]

To Willow Kreek. If you know your history Willow Kreek. It wasn't the Americans that won WW11. First of all The Commonwealth countries were envolved 2 years before the Americans finally decided to join after the attack on Pearl Harbour. Secondly it was Hitlers descision to move his main focus away from Britain to Russia that cost him the war. It was the sacrifice of the Russian people that cost Hitler the war not the envolvement of tha Americans