Mises Institute THE DISASTER OF FEDERAL FARM POLICY by James Bovard Someone once defined metaphysics as searching in a dark room for a black cat that isn’t there. For the last 35 years in Washington, I have been searching for rational government policies. And, like that black cat, I’m starting to doubt that it is […]
Future of Freedom Foundation The Great Goober Train Wreck of 2016 by James Bovard The history of federal peanut policy is the perfect antidote to anyone who still believes that Congress could competently manage a lemonade stand. Federal spending for peanut subsidies will have risen eightfold between last year and next year — reaching almost […]
Michael Olson, the host of MetroFarm.com, and I had fun today thumping farm subsidies on his radio show this morning. He seemed perhaps nonplussed at my call in the final minutes to abolish all subsidies and to strip power from politicians across the board. But what the heck – at least Brazilian cotton farmers will […]
The Wall Street Journal today published several testy letters responding to my December 11 article, “Living Off the Fat of Washington.” Here they are: Land-Rich Farmers Still Struggle to Survive Dec. 21, 2016 4:40 p.m. ET James Bovard is correct in several of his observations relating to the Agricultural Department’s outdated farm-subsidy programs, but off the […]
Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2016 Living Off the Fat of Washington If Trump is going to ‘drain the swamp,’ he might start with wasteful ag subsidies. By James Bovard President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to “drain the swamp” in Washington could begin with the Agriculture Department. Federal aid to farmers is forecast by the Congressional […]
Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2016 A Subsidy as Shameful as They Come By James Bovard The U.S. has paid for a million pounds of peanuts it can’t use. Solution: Dump them on Haiti—causing a disaster for its farmers. The Obama administration’s plan to dump a million pounds of surplus peanuts into Haiti at no […]
USA TODAY, March 23, 2016 Oreo closure proof of losing Trump trade policy by James Bovard Trump’s ‘fair trade’ would deliver more ‘winners’ like sugar industry while American workers suffer. Presidential front-runner Donald Trump vows that he will “never eat another Oreo again” to protest the transfer of 600 cookie-making jobs from Chicago to Mexico. […]
