CWB Premium Myth Shattered...$226M losses proof.

[parsley]

If I can do anything at all, silverback, out in Alberta, just ask.

Pars

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

You have so took in the CWB... you are blind to the deception.

The vast majority of the 'discretionary losses' have little to do with PPO contracts. They are volume related to the sales pace of the pool as specified by the CWB sales plan... not decisions by 'designated area' growers.

Any idea what 'discretionary losses' means?

How about this for a starter.

'discretionary sales' are

The amount of 'tolerance' that the CWB sales dept. is allowed to stray from the pool pricing sales plan the CWB directors set for volume targets on pool sales at the beginning of the pool year. This progress is monitored daily.

The CWB management had the 'discretionary sales' capacity to loose $226,000,000.00... and that's what they did.

If they are a 'superstar' sales team... why did they bet my farm... ?

Doing nothing... would have been $226M better than what they did. And they had 'planned' and budgeted to make over $50M net. I wouldn't trust these CWB financial statements as far as I could throw the CWB "single desk"!

This is NOT primarily a FPC/BPC issue... it certainly appears the CWB took months to reconstruct the $89 million losses... to take these funds from cash pricing commercial growers. Not only now... but into the future.

[CWB Annual Report Page 52]'However, to uphold the principle
communicated to farmers that the PPO programs will operate independently of the pool, the board of directors also approved a policy that
provides for the repatriation of funds between the pools and PPO programs. The policy states that the funds will be repatriated as quickly as
possible...'

The CWB should not have lost one cent on FPC/DPC contracts. The spreads are looked after in the basis when we signed up the contracts. The CWB made the rules... not 'designated area' growers. This whole PPO system is a figment of the CWB's imagination... and that it works at all...for any one is a literal miracle!

And the CWB admits it made gobs of money on the basis.

"Offsetting these losses were gains in basis. Once producers
have priced, they have locked in their basis levels. If the
final achieved basis of the pool is different from what
producers locked in, a gain or loss will result. The basis,
which is unhedgable, widened over the course of the
year due to the very tight world grain fundamentals that
became apparent after producers locked in their FBC/
BPC prices, resulting in a gain to the program.

"The basis,
which is unhedgable, widened over the course of the
year due to the very tight world grain fundamentals that
became apparent after producers locked in their FBC/
BPC prices, resulting in a gain to the program."

Where are the numbers?

How much was the gain?

This whole accounting system is bogus, deceptive... and close to the status of AWB tactics in Iraq.

Admit it Agstar77... the CWB is choosing not to account for hedge activity for a reason.

BECAUSE the futures trading activity... these trades are done primarily for the pool account... and held to fulfill the pool sales plan... NOT 'designated area' growers cash sales.

This whole system is meant to pillage commercial growers... rip them off... and find a way to tax growers who need risk management for their families and farms.

The CWB thinks they got away with it!

I object Agstar77. This financial report borders on criminal misrepresentation!

Here is my proof:

"Management expects that the revised offerings of PPO
programs as well as the adjustments implemented due
to the previous years’ losses will generate positive results
for the Contingency Fund in the future." Page 62 of CWB Annual Report]


All this 07-08 CWB Annual Report does is prove the CWB is not serious about returning fair cash grain prices to 'designated area' commercial grain growers.

[parsley]

And it also proves that the auditors the CWB hired, are complicit with the disguise, with the masking of truth and forthrightness.

The auditors have forgotten that farmers pay their bills. It is time to remind them


A letter signed by PRODUCERS to Ritz, asking that the same Auditors not be rehired will yank their chain. HARD.

Which CWB directors served on the auditors committee? They need to be yanked, too.

How about a public meeting asking them to attend to answer farmer questions. We set the time and place. And the questions. And chair the meeting so there is no 'plugging up the time', kind of bullshit.


Pars

[cottonpicken]

We should hire the indians to protest for us.

Cheaper than lawyers,fairly effective.

I'm thinkin that mohalk tribe in ontario or was it quebec?

[Fransisco]

Throw some Quebec seperatists into the mix and before you know it the feds would be stocking up on pampers.

[Fransisco]

BTW- agstar when we say we want choice, we mean a choice other than the wheatboard not another choice within the wheatboard.

Nobody asked for crappy programs that cost everyone money.

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77;

What is this?

"Is it possible that a number of individual producers would have been caught in a short squeeze?"

How many grain companies in Canada... went broke... lost Hundreds of millions $$$ on short Canola?

How many growers do you know?

NONE.

ONLY the CWB... with 'single desk' money... and no respect for those they were to serve... would have blown a quarter of a billion $$$'s on foolish speculation.

I challenge the CWB on their statement that they didn't speculate.

Going into January we all knew (those who listened to CWB sales outlooks) that they were set to sell out by May 30/08.

Obviously the CWB sales dept. were 'ahead' of the sales pricing line normally followed... because the prices offered in the fall off the combine and into the early were good value and easy to make.

The stupid turn to speculation was this... The CWB tried to buy back the stocks it had sold... going through the highest prices in history... and then obviously held the long positions bought at high prices through into summer and fall to lose the $226M.

No sane marketer in their right mind... would have done what the CWB did (go long in Jan/Feb). Growers sold at high values... the CWB bought these positions instead of letting the market work as it should have.

Proof Governments/Courts should never give monopoly power to any institution... especially to those who stake their total existance on that monopoly... with NO REGARD to those (in this case patient commercial farmers with marketing plans) they confiscate the property (grain)they claim to collectively own (to benefit the 'pool')!

Agstar77... Economics 101.

[jensend]

tom there's another more likely (to me) scenario. the board tried to resell with paper what it had sold in physical stocks to try to gain some of the upward movement it had missed. if it had bought back a short squeeze would have been to its advantage. i think you'fe got it backwards and the cwb response to being caught in the updraft was exactly what most farmers would have done - average up. ask any broker

[jensend]

correct me if i'm wrong but the reason i see it as happening that way is that it seems to me the talk of the cwb being caught on the wrong side of the market was during the price rise not afterwards. either way they screwed up and shouldn't have been speculating and certainly shouldn't have followed a trading strategy that has broken a lot of small specs.

[TOM4CWB]

Jensend,

Farmers sell the cash at over $12/bu... $15/bu.. then even more over $20/bu... they do not buy it back. BUYING the grain back... would be pure speculation.

You me find one farmer marketing plan... that would realistically buy back wheat... when it was over $12/bu.... and I will point you out 7 at the CWB... who lost us over a quarter of a billion $$$... and CWB managers that knew they were speculating... and knew they were on the wrong side of History.

I was in Winnipeg for grain world Feb 2008... and watched Ritter sweating bullets. I wanted an export license... to sell to a $22/bu market in Sweetgrass MT. and the buyback was about $500/t. We had till the end of May to deliver.

Ritter and Arison both refused to even talk... said they were much to busy with 'the crisis' to be bothered with my little issue.

Something like loosing $50-100M... every few days.

Remember... the CWB hedges for more than just growers who cash price... they risk manage for grain buyers as well... We need to see who exactly cost us what.

This whole Annual Report is just a cover up.

AND YOU KNOW IT JENSEND!

[TOM4CWB]

Jensend,

Before or after the market peak is not the issue... going long any time during that time was. Reading between the lines it looked to me like Ritter and Arison knew they were in a real box at the end of February 08... when I was in Winnipeg. We had been told the CWB was going to be sold out... by the end of May.

Now how would they manage the pool price line as planned... with big sales... and an obvious crash landing for the pool by holding those long positions... The basis was up to $6/bu over the futures... and we were given plenty of time to deliver (over 3 months) These were cash sales... back to back... our grain customers were willing to pay a kings randsom at the end of Feb.... and we knew once the end came it would colapse... as there would be no more grain to squeeze out of the system.

The CWB ALWAYS sells... month in month out... no need to pay a premium to get them to hold stocks!

I had a British Miller laugh right in my face... I had been an object of dicussion that very day in Feb. at the CWB.

WHAT A FARCE.

[TOM4CWB]

Dear Charlie,

How much of the 650,000t do you guess was priced between Jan 1/08... and April 1/08?

How much of the CWB pool (% sold) do you guess the CWB sold?

A look at the PRO during this period... gives an indication... that a very small portion of the (07-08 pooled CWB)wheat crop was sold during this time period... simply from PRO changes.

Yet deliveries were on track... so basis gains on PPO contracted wheat must have been massive!

Why no results with the breakdown of basis gains vs. hedge losses... ? What were the actual CWB losses?