Thursday, June 28, 2018

"Teh Tariffs!!!!!" On the Farm? Fake News!

The Fake News machine is working overtime on "Teh Tariffs!!!!".  We're all going to die in the SMOD brought on by Teh TARIFFS!!!.  Or maybe nuclear war from Teh Tariffs!!!!.  How about Tariffs driving climate change?  Killing off same-sex "marriage"?

Whatever. 

The Fake News (Gannett edition) ran a story today about how "Teh Tariffs!!!!" are going to kill off dairy farmers.

But waaaaayyyyy down in the copy, we see this:

...Farmers say the downturn is worse than one they experienced in 2009 because it has lasted longer and their costs are higher now. Many dairy operations are drowning in debt; in some cases, they have a half-million dollars in unpaid bills. 

Hardin says many dairy farms don’t have much financial staying power left after more than three years of depressed prices. He’s also hearing that rural banks and towns are being hurt by farmers struggling to pay their bills and buy things....

Huh.  "Depressed prices" for three years.  THREE YEARS.  Maybe the supply/demand equation has been off-kilter for a while, eh?  This is not a "Tariffs!!!!" problem.  This is typical of the dairy markets.

But "Teh Tariffs!!!!" is what the Fake News has, so that's what they'll yammer and drool about.

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