Now we have to bailout soybean farmers

[mister_coffee]

Well, the soybean farmers just need to plant avocado trees so they can replace the avocados that we can't buy from Mexico anymore.

Or they need to come up with a way to make fake guacamole from soybeans...

[Rideback]

22 states are already in or near to a recession
https://scontent-sea5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=68EE035D

[Rideback]

The Toledo Blade: Editorial Board
"President Trump’s plan to bail out soybean farmers with a subsidy check, as was done in 2018, is the predictable consequence of what he called “Liberation Day” — the start of the tariffs policy.

For now, most of the economy seems to be weathering the tariff policy. Wall Street is doing great. Not so much the farmers.

The market for soybeans is in freefall because of Trump’s tariffs. In retaliation for the 50 percent tariffs imposed on China by Trump, China is turning to Brazil and Argentina for the soybeans they once bought from the United States. China used to buy half of this nation’s soybean output.

Meanwhile, Argentina, which has stepped up to sell soybeans to China to replace the American market, is now in line to get a $20 billion cash infusion from Trump to bail out that country’s currency. To facilitate the takeover of the American soybean business, Argentina cut their tariff with China to zero.

The economic crunch experienced by the farmers is added to by the increased cost of production, thanks to Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which makes most of the potash in the fertilizer used in the United States.

While costs have gone up, the price of soybeans has fallen from $17 a bushel in 2022 to $10 this year.

Ohio has 5.1 million acres planted with soybeans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2024 Ohio farmers produced 276 million bushels of soybeans. Now, the cost to produce a bushel of soybeans is about $3.50 more than the market price.

That’s nearly a $1 billion loss for Ohio farmers that will be made up to some extent by American taxpayers with Trump’s farm bailout, the details of which are still being worked out.

The irony is lost on no one. The party that attacked former President Joe Biden for his coronavirus pandemic bailout checks, that has spent generations attacking the welfare culture of the Democratic Party, that voted against the Great Recession bailout of the auto industry, now plans to blanket MAGA country with cash payments that will add billions of dollars to this country’s annual debt and deficit.

The President claims that the tariffs are paid for by other countries.

Tariff revenue is collected from the manufacturers and importers when imported products enter this country. Sometimes the importer eats the tax. Sometimes it’s tacked onto the cost of the product. In any case, the economic value of the tariffs is nonexistent if the money is simply replacing the profits the free market once provided.

Until now, the Ohio farm economy thrived on the global market. Now, thanks to an unnecessary and chaotic tariff scheme, farmers who largely voted for Trump have lost their biggest single customer and are in financial difficulty, even with the planned bailout."