It looks obvious

If ethanol is a key element for reducing oil price why does the US government impose a tariff of 54 cent per gallon on imported ethanol? I was not impress with ethanol before, this is just confirming that the ethanol policy is just a way to subsidies corn farmers.

Food rationing cannot be good news, and when it is reported to happen in one of the richest countries in the world it is even worse. I’m pretty skeptical about the real reasons behind the rice shortages in Wall-Mart stores, and the publishing of this story now. I’m pretty sure, however, that there is no shortage in the corn supply….

Wal-Mart, the giant retailer which many like to hate, using its market share to force lower prices on music: 

The major music companies have been resistant to lowering their price on CDs, but now they may be dragged to that point: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of music with an estimated 22 percent market share, has proposed a five-tiered pricing scheme that would allow the discounter to sell albums at even lower prices and require the labels to bear more of the costs. 

According to sources, the Wal-Mart proposal would allow for a promotional program that could comprise the top 15 to 20 hottest titles, each at $10. The rest of the pricing structure, according to several music executives who spoke with Billboard, would have hits and current titles retailing for $12, top catalog at $9, midline catalog at $7 and budget product at $5. The move would also shift the store’s pricing from its $9.88 and $13.88 model to rounder sales prices.

One of the clearest examples of the weakness of central planning, and the evil results it usually generates is the Farm Bill. This story is only one additional example:

IF you’ve stood in line at a farmers’ market recently, you know that the local food movement is thriving, to the point that small farmers are having a tough time keeping up with the demand.

But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.

[...]

The commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables. Because my watermelons and tomatoes had been planted on “corn base” acres, the Farm Service said, my landlords were out of compliance with the commodity program.

[...]

Why? Because national fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers like myself. Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country’s fresh produce markets. (my emphasis)

And the final link for today is much funnier. If you think that government monopoly on the legal means of violence is limited to live people - think again!:

The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

I guess that this kind of story couldn’t come from anywhere on earth but France