Governments Infect Markets
VANCOUVER - Oct 22/11 - SNS -- Once again, governments have become one of the biggest factors in pulse and specialty crop markets.
In Canada, legislation was tabled to give western Canadian farmers the ability to opt out of selling wheat, durum and malting barley through the Canadian Wheat Board.
By giving farmers more control over the timing and price at which they sell those commodities, Canada's federal government has irrevocably changed the competitive landscape with respect to what crops farmers will plant in 2012 and beyond. There is a sense the downtrend in wheat and barley acreage will reverse itself as farmers gain control over marketing those crops.
Meanwhile, The European Commission is looking at the idea of banning rating agencies from publishing their assessments of EU countries facing financial difficulty.
By doing so, objective analysis would give way to rumors and pure speculation about the true state of the economies in Greece and other financially troubled European nations. Worse, such a suggestion implies the financial troubles are deeper than anyone realizes.
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