Fixing the economy...

The Today Show had 3 business experts on this morning with their own individual 3 ways to fix the economy. They had Steve Forbes, Jim Cramer, and some other expert.

Cramer had some interesting points...his first (if memory serves) was to nationalize the mortgage industry, the 2nd (which I really like) is to stop ethanol production, and the 3rd was to invest in Natural Gas.

Forbes said to strengthen the $, cut taxes, and something else.

The other person said to also to strengthen the $, give the economy time, and I think recognize that we're in a recession.

Of all of those suggestions, I think the best is to stop ethanol production. Taking our food source and turning it into fuel seems asinine to me.

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:The Today Show had 3 business experts on this morning with their own individual 3 ways to fix the economy. They had Steve Forbes, Jim Cramer, and some other expert.

Cramer had some interesting points...his first (if memory serves) was to nationalize the mortgage industry, the 2nd (which I really like) is to stop ethanol production, and the 3rd was to invest in Natural Gas.

Forbes said to strengthen the $, cut taxes, and something else.

The other person said to also to strengthen the $, give the economy time, and I think recognize that we're in a recession.

Of all of those suggestions, I think the best is to stop ethanol production. Taking our food source and turning it into fuel seems asinine to me.

Nationalizing the mortgage industry?? Nationalizing the oil industry would be better IMHO... but neither seems that great.

I agree that corn-based ethanol isnt the panacea that many of the greens suggest it is. There are other options that make more sense (switchgrass etc).

I found out something the other day that I never knew before. When you see feed or seed corn growing in a huge field, each stalk only bears a single ear.

pez wrote:Nationalizing the mortgage industry?? Nationalizing the oil industry would be better IMHO... but neither seems that great.

There's a chance I may have gotten that wrong. Hard to remember some things when you're running around and the TV is on as background noise.

Obama's magic wand will take care of everything for us.

I will agree with strengthing the dollar is probably the most important. Whether it is corn, soybeans or switchgrass whatever it is that is converted into ethanol will cause the other crops to be reduced. Meaning farmers will grow what ever will pay the best. Of course I still find it hard to believe we are still paying farmers not to plant. The recent US News & Report had a big article on Brazil coming on line in crop production. With enough land available to equal europes production without cutting down anymore of the rain forest.

Not really a big fan of the government nationalizing any industry

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:
Cramer had some interesting points...his first (if memory serves) was to nationalize the mortgage industry, the 2nd (which I really like) is to stop ethanol production, and the 3rd was to invest in Natural Gas.

Forbes said to strengthen the $, cut taxes, and something else.

The other person said to also to strengthen the $, give the economy time, and I think recognize that we're in a recession.

Of all of those suggestions, I think the best is to stop ethanol production. Taking our food source and turning it into fuel seems asinine to me.

Which one would mean NOT throwing away or spending at least 100 million dollars?

Nationalize the mortgage industry, why not? The gov't owns most of the mortgages anyhow.

Picking on the ethanol industry is like reopening restricted petroleum lands. It's a slight of hand trick. They'll go out of business soon enough anyhow... Naturally.

cut taxes... the 3rd time I've heard something similar in the last 12 hours. Another stimulus benefit?

Admitting we're in a recession may actually be a GOOD idea. It may provide the psychological excuse for people to choose to change their behavior.

meta4 wrote:Admitting we're in a recession may actually be a GOOD idea. It may provide the psychological excuse for people to choose to change their behavior.

We'll just whine about it anyway...

I remember seeing this on a show like 60 Minutes or something along those lines.
Corn is the most subsidized commodity in the US. I think something in the tune of 5.5 Billion a year.
It is used in everything, food for animals, food for humans and ethanol.

I didn't know the thing about one ear of corn per stalk, Pez.

I like most of the ideas.. I believe Cramer is for nationalizing Fannie and Freddie again, mostly because they essentially are right now, so just get it over with. Same goes for Ethanol.. it's not helping, so end it.

I don't think many can argue with Forbes when it comes to finances, or Cramer for that matter. The problem is politician's won't listen to them because it'd actually work, and might make some of their party members mad when they can't blame the solved problems on someone else.

pez fyi--i was a farmer for years, raised cattle, a few pigs, several horses, chickens etc. we never bought feed..always raised our own. there may be some spindly corn stalks with 1 ear along the edge of a field, or where it got flooded or something. but definately the corn grown to grind for feed has more than 1 ear per stalk as a rule. ever grow sweet corn in your garden? field corn (feed corn) looks kinda like sweet but usually bigger plants and bigger ears.

floridafun wrote:pez fyi--i was a farmer for years, raised cattle, a few pigs, several horses, chickens etc. we never bought feed..always raised our own. there may be some spindly corn stalks with 1 ear along the edge of a field, or where it got flooded or something. but definately the corn grown to grind for feed has more than 1 ear per stalk as a rule. ever grow sweet corn in your garden? field corn (feed corn) looks kinda like sweet but usually bigger plants and bigger ears.

Well, sweet corn definitely... I lost $5 on this, I called my father in law and he said that they usually get just one... I'm going to investigate...

pez wrote:

floridafun wrote:pez fyi--i was a farmer for years, raised cattle, a few pigs, several horses, chickens etc. we never bought feed..always raised our own. there may be some spindly corn stalks with 1 ear along the edge of a field, or where it got flooded or something. but definately the corn grown to grind for feed has more than 1 ear per stalk as a rule. ever grow sweet corn in your garden? field corn (feed corn) looks kinda like sweet but usually bigger plants and bigger ears.

Well, sweet corn definitely... I lost $5 on this, I called my father in law and he said that they usually get just one... I'm going to investigate...

Oh no... he didn't ...

You gotta tease him about that! Nickname... "big wheat" or something like "gosh what are you feeding that wheat?" hehe

Not big wheat...LOL. Maybe Big Ear? And who's been whispering "sweet nothings" in that "ear"

I was thinking maybe it was another strain of a genetically modified corn to get farmers to purchase more seeds.

Canuck wrote:Not big wheat...LOL. Maybe Big Ear? And who's been whispering "sweet nothings" in that "ear"

I was thinking maybe it was another strain of a genetically modified corn to get farmers to purchase more seeds.

No joke, he grew the best sweet corn I've ever had. One year they had extras and I grabbed about 2 or 3 laundry baskets full and ate it for days. I had so much I had used the turkey fryer to cook it in batches and then froze it.

I found it interesting that there are names for the different varieties of sweet corn... If I remember right the stuff I was given was Silver Queen. Really white, really sweet and small kernels. Some of the ears were a little too close to the yellower (forget the fancy name) and they got some cross pollenation, came out a nice speckled white/yellow color.

Fantastic memory!

Please don't ask me how that will fix our economy

Very nice memory.

Do you ever roast corn on the BBQ? Here they sell roasted corn rubbed with lime/lemon and spices.

He'd better be careful about the cross pollination. Monsanto might come after him.

Oh, to fix the economy just encourage people to buy more corn for actual food. A contributor?