WHAT IS TRUMP THINKING?

Things are getting crazier by the day.  President Trump is planning to give soybean farmers $10 billion (or maybe 11, it's only billions, so what's the diff?) to make up for China's refusal to buy a quarter of the U.S. soybean crop in retaliation for tariffs. 

                  As a side note, you do realize Trump doesn't have any money to give.  The U.S. is bankrupt.  The government can only print money, borrow it, or steal it.  So whenever the government says it'll give someone money, it's not like a business that produces something and with earnings for product or services can make payments to various outfits.  The government produces NOTHING. 

                  Okay, with that out of the way, what will be the result of a soybean bailout?  Those farmers won't even think about pivoting to some other enterprise.  They'll cash their millions satisfied that regardless of market conditions, good ol' Uncle Sam will take care of them.  

                  Now here's the insult.  Trump has the unmitigated gall to complain about high cattle prices, reprimanding farmers for being greedy, and then threatening to bring in cheap Argentinian imports to crash cattle prices.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump's social media post a week ago, "tariffs on Brazil were the reason cattle ranchers were making more money.  'If it weren't for me, they would be doing just as they've done for the past 20 years--Terrible!'"  What an arrogant idiot. 

                  He went on to post "It would be nice if they (farmers) would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!"  Just for the record, as an English major and journalist, I don't trust anyone who puts exclamation points behind their sentences.  It's sensationalism and unprofessional. 

                  But back to soybeans and cows.  If Trump were thinking reasonably, he would realize that the best way to bring U.S. cattle prices down would be to increase the production.  How do you increase production?  You stop growing soybeans and grow grass. 

                  A rational policy would be to quit propping up soybean acreage and let the acreage adjust to prairies.  The high cattle prices are a combination of many things:

1.  The 2.5 year drought in the southern tier of the U.S. liquidated thousands of animals. When the prices bottomed out due to mass liquidation, nobody bailed out the cattle farmers.

2.  Aging farmers.  Many don't want to expand at any price. 

3.  Tariffs--hard to tell the exact impact of that.

4.  Protein-rich diets as a cultural movement:  paleo, carnivore, keto, primal, etc.  That's driving up demand right when there's a shortage.

5.  Processing regulations that don't allow neighbor-to-neighbor commerce, which prohibits community-based commerce and the natural friendly economics of local transactions.

                  Once soybean farmers adjusted to the true market need, their prices would increase which would increase prices of omnivores (pigs and poultry).  As acres returned to grass, cattle numbers would increase, dropping the price.  This is economics 101, folks.   

                  One of the most amazing things in farming is how rich people forget all their common sense that brought them their wealth as soon as they step on a farm.  Their business acumen goes out the window and their brains quit functioning.  The best thing to do is get the federal government out of the market manipulation business.  Period.   

                  Why do rich people in power think they have to micromanage everything or that they even have the capacity to know the solution to every problem?