E10 flop in Germany

[RSTarga]

Looks like in europe they are smarer than us about using edibles for fuel.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...757812,00.html

[tfmcmahon]

They probably don`t have an EPA jamming it down their throat.We have little choice and our farmers are being subsidized to take corn out of production to produce ethanol.It is now at about 40%.Combine this with the Fed policy and you have a clue as to why our groceries are going up so fast.Governments,no matter whose they are, do not do things well.Tom

[JohnT]

Au contraire Tom

They have the entire European Union cramming it down their throats. Even more interesting is the Green Party coming out against E10 fuel. Sort of like a few years ago when a man running for the presidency of the Sierra Club had the temerety to suggest that population control (immigration as well as natural births) was going to have to be addressed eventually to protect the wilderness.

johnt

[tfmcmahon]

That may be true,John,but it sounds like they have at least retained the right to reject the concept.The only beneficieries here are the ethanol producers.It`s a lobbyist creation with the taxpayer footing the bill at the pump and at the grocery store.When the EPA can simply mandate the increase of ethanol from 10% to 15%,with no vote in congress,it is symptomatic of where we have evolved in a lack of representative government.I need more coffee-------------Tom

[LongRanger]

Maybe the Germans would feel better about bio-fuels if the wheat (or corn) were grown in Saudi Arabia.

Or Libya.

Or Venezuela.

In the mean time, the Europeans can pay Hugo Chavez, King Abdullah, et al . . . and all the other West-supporting, environmentally-conscious, Forward Thinkers with only the Europeans' best interests at heart . . . AND help feed all the poor hungry hungry people in this world . . . . by driving their Porsches. On OPEC-sourced hi-test.

Germans are stupid.

Especially Merkel. She managed to make bio-fuel attractive to everyone. The Oil companies. The Politicians.

Everyone, that is . . . . except the Consumer.

Brilliant.

Rick Kreiskott

[Reza]

corn ethanol is a weak proposal. the US can grow cane sugar in louisiana, HI, FL, and match Brazil's real net benefit from ethanol. Corn ethanol is too expensive(money, our tax subsideies), food inflation(takes acreage away, and pressures food prices, especially for Mexico).

[LongRanger]

. . . . the only beneficieries here are the ethanol producers. It`s a lobbyist creation with the taxpayer footing the bill at the pump and at the grocery store . . .

You're right. Let's just pay Hugo. Keep him in those snappy parrot shirts.

And Leave the subsidies in place. We can't do anything about all those thieving farmers, anyway. After all, this is America --- we don't vote. (Or read, much.) And for gosh sake --- forget all the tax revenue and all that pesky economic growth associated with developing a home-grown energy industry that, you know, might actually create jobs, pay taxes and doesn't blow-up politically every other regime-or-so. The Middle East is soooo much more stable.

Stick with what works --- all those the REALLY BIG Oil companies like BP (and their oil platform partners), the easy-to-understand arrangements between oil producers and all those oh-so-altruistic (and friendly!) Cartels, like OPEC --- that's what I say. After all, I really, really enjoy paying $4.50/gal for gas because a bunch of knuckle-heads in ski-masks are busy playing Rat Patrol out in the Libyan Dessert.

What an Energy Policy, eh?

Rick Kreiskott

[tfmcmahon]

What no one mentions in the media is the effect of Bernanke`s monetary policies on commodities world wide.If you look at a graph of corn and the money supply,they are parallel.The budget debate{fiscal} is a smoke screen for the real issue of currency debasement which is the monetary policy travesty.The beltway boys along with Goldman ,et el, are screwing the middle class big time and the sheeple in this country have no clue.

[LongRanger]

. . . pressures food prices, especially for Mexico . . .

Yeah -- that's it. Let's all chip in for Poor Mexico --- by tanking-up all those pick-ups we drove in to work today. Good on you. After all, Mexico is too stupid and helpless and weak to help itself.

But, you know something . . .

Richest Guy on the Planet?

Guy named Carlos Slim.

Mexican.

Twenty-six billion. NOT pesos.

Made it in telecommunications, too. Phones. In Mexico. ¿Puede usted ahora oírme? Hilarious.

I might suggest that the people best equipped to take care of Mexico . . . . might be Mexican.

Whaddiya think?

And where's my F150?

RK

[LongRanger]

. . . What no one mentions in the media is the effect of Bernanke`s monetary policies on commodities world wide. . . .

That's 'cause it's not worth mentioning.

Bernanke controls nothing.

The Fed controls almost nothing. Money multiplier? Malarky.

Interest rates aren't set in Washington.

They're set by the lenders of dollars. And DC's not a big Lender, right now. Big borrower, though. Huge.

Ya wanna know who is lending, though? Happens to be the biggest holder of US Dollars and other negotiable financial instruments on the planet, too.

China, babies.

Remember all those gazillion-dollar trade deficits we have with those jokers? The ones we've all kinda learned to stop paying attention to . . . . 'cause they're so ginormous and scary to even think about any more? What did those busy busy Chinese Guys do with all those dang dollars? Sure, sure --- the bought a ton of stuff. Including --- anybody? Not BMWs. (Or Porsches --- yet!). Not Big Screens. Nope. China bought the stuff they needed to make those Big Screens . . . that they sell to --- US! Including? . . . . can you say . . . . commodities. They get lumber from Canada, and iron from Australia. From us? They get the dollars to pay for it all!

Sound familiar? That's how the English treated their colonies. (Like us.) That's how Europeans treated China, back before Mao. Looks like we're a colony, again, huh? Only, instead of the British making us buy their tea, China boinks us for our 'raw materials' --- our dollars --- then sells us back all the iPods/iPhones/plasma TVs they can build with them. On credit.

Anybody else might say we're being exploited. We just call it a Best Buy. (Everybody . . . . 'We're Number One! We're Number One!')

Anyway, one way to think of a currency is that it's like a stock. And, if you've been kinda-maybe following some of the goings-on in DC, lately . . . our country's got a lot of 'shares outstanding.' Had to borrow a $hit-load, too. Guess where we got 'em from. (Just ask Ben.) Right now, as far as I can tell, our monetary policy (if you wanna call it that) is geared to preserving 'share-holder value.' About all The Fed can do any more . . . is print the $hit. Maybe sell it. (Or try.)

Chinese must just loooove watching our budget debate. Those Guys can swipe an ATM card and flush the whole mess down the pooper, if they wanted. No missiles. No troops. And the only reason they don't is because they don't want to de-value all the warehouses-full of dollars they've already got. Them is Us. Pepto, please?

Think about all those dollars, sitting in Shanghai or Bejing, the next time our Prez, The Leader of the Free World, flies over to China for a 'little chat.'

Or the next time you buy that really, really nice TV to watch The Price is Right on.

What we spend our money on --- and who we give that money to --- entitles those people to have a say. And you might wanna ask yourself who that is . . . and what they want. (Hint: it ain't Bernanke.)

As for the price of commodities . . . well, as if the Chinese buying-up everything they can get their dollars into wasn't enough . . . there's always Everybody Else. If you can't make money in Real Estate, and you can't make money in the Stock Market, there's always Commodities. Like Oil. And Coal. And Corn. (Old Cars, maybe?) Oo! Oo! --- price o' gold anyone? ($1500/oz!) And that ain't Gentle Ben, either. That's just your basic Pursuit of Happiness (US Constitution)/Invisible Hand (A. Smith) . . . . doing what it's always done. Capital seeks out profit. Bernanke? He's just The Guy Waiting on Our Table, giving us a bill for a lunch we thought was free.

Bill's here.

Back to E10. It sorta looks like the Germans feel safer giving their money to OPEC . . . . than to a farmer out in Nebraska. (Some of us here, too . . . . apparently.)

After all, corn --- or 'cane, or wheat --- don't grow in Greece. Or Ireland. Or the Middle East.

And besides . . . what would we do with all the revenue generated by all those thieving farmers selling commodities to poor starving Europeans? And bankrupt Oil Companies? And poor Mexicans? (Caiga ese teléfono maldito y déme algo comer!)

'Cept maybe pay the Chinese back?

Ain't debt fun?

And I thought the Germans were stupid.

RK