Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalCorn Supply Slumps Most Since ’75 on Ethanol Profit
By Jeff Wilson - Mar 27, 2013
Corn supplies in the U.S., the biggest grower, are shrinking at the fastest pace in almost four decades as improving demand from ethanol refiners drains reserves already diminished by drought.
Stockpiles probably fell 38 percent in three months to 4.995 billion bushels (126.9 million metric tons) by March 1, the biggest drop since 1975, according to the average of 31 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. AgResource Co. in Chicago and Northstar Commodity Investments Inc. in Minneapolis expect prices to jump 12 percent to $8.25 a bushel before supply rebounds with a record harvest in September.
After idling refining capacity when corn reached a record in August, ethanol plants expanded output since January as falling grain costs and rising fuel prices drove profit margins to a nine-month high. Demand from the industry, which uses two of every five bushels in the U.S., provides the “strongest upside risk” for corn, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said March 11. That’s boosting feed costs for meat and dairy producers even as global food prices extend their longest slump since 2009.
“Corn supplies are going to be tighter than we have ever seen,” said Kent Jessen, the director of merchandising for West Des Moines, Iowa-based Heartland Cooperative, which has 52 grain terminals across 17 counties. “Some people are going to run out of corn this summer. Ethanol processors are the best bid for corn, and that is drawing supplies away from exporters and livestock producers.”
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-27/corn-supply-slumps-most-since-75-on-ethanol-profit-commodities.html
Michigan GOP Official Wants Progress In Detroit Before Funds Released
LANSING, Michigan | Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:09am EDT
(Reuters) - The newly appointed emergency manager for the City of Detroit has an impressive resume, sweeping powers and at least a temporary reservoir of good will as he seeks a financial turnaround of Michigan's biggest and nearly bankrupt city.
But a powerful state legislative leader told Reuters that before any funds come from Lansing, bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn Orr is going to have to show progress with realistic financial estimates and measures to help the city's finances.
Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who selected the 54-year-old Democrat to serve as Detroit's manager, has spoken in general about the likelihood a turnaround plan will require new financial resources. But Snyder has carefully avoided making any specific pledges or proposals.
State House Speaker Jase Bolger, also a Republican, said he wants to see results before committing major new resources to Detroit. "We're not the slightest bit interested in providing more money for business as usual," he said.
MORE...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/28/us-usa-detroit-emergency-idUSBRE92R0AC20130328
South Africa's Mandela "Responding Positively" To Treatment
JOHANNESBURG | Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:19pm EDT
(Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela is "responding positively" to treatment for a recurring lung infection after being admitted to hospital overnight, the government said on Thursday.
"He remains under treatment and observation in hospital," it added in a statement, without giving further details about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.
Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, has been mostly absent from the political scene for the past decade, but remains an enduring and beloved symbol of the struggle against racism.
He is renowned at home and abroad for spending 27 years in prison fighting the last bastion of white rule in Africa and then promoting the cause of racial reconciliation.
MORE...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/28/us-safrica-mandela-idUSBRE92R03Z20130328
Amazon Defends ‘C*nt’ Product As ‘Light-Hearted’
By Mark Sweney, The Guardian
Thursday, March 28, 2013 11:43 EDT
Amazon has sparked outrage by defending the use of the word “cunt” in a product image used by a retailer on its website, arguing that it was featured in a “light-hearted” way that was not likely to offend any particular group, such as women.
The Advertising Standards Authority banned an internet ad which appeared on Amazon.co.uk for a Christmas card which featured the text: “You’re a cunt. Sorry, I meant to say ‘Merry Christmas’.”
In its ruling the ASA said it was banning the ad under harm and offence rules in the advertising code, on the grounds that it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
In a submission to the ASA Amazon said that it should not have been banned because “the card was not offensive, aggressive or lewd in its message. It was meant as a bit of light-hearted, irreverent fun”.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/28/amazon-defends-cnt-product-as-light-hearted/
Putin Orders Major Unplanned Military Exercises in Black Sea
Source: Maritime Executive
President Vladimir Putin ordered large-scale unplanned exercises in the Black Sea involving 36 warships and close to 7,000 personnel, two months after Russia held its biggest naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean in more than two decades.
Putin issued the order today at 4 a.m. Moscow time on his way back from Durban, South Africa, where he attended a summit of the BRICS emerging-market nations, the president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on a conference call. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu received the order in a sealed envelope, according to Peskov.
No advance international notification is required for exercises with less than 7,000 personnel, Peskov said. The maneuvers, which will also involve air force, paratroopers, marines and intelligence units, are “in accordance with international laws,” he said.
Russia has used its Black Sea Fleet, based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, to deploy warships near the shores of Syria, its Soviet-era ally where it maintains a naval resupply base at the Mediterranean port of Tartus. Syria’s President Bashar al- Assad is battling an insurgency in its third year.
Read more: http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Putin-Orders-Major-Unplanned-Military-Exercises-in-Black-Sea-2013-03-28/
Has Disability Become A 'de Facto Welfare Program'?
Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:09 AM EDT
By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News
When President Clinton signed "welfare reform" into law in 1996, he promised to end welfare as we know it. Now, some new reporting suggests we've created a new kind of welfare -- only most Americans aren't aware of it.
The number of people who depend on checks from Social Security's disability programs has soared in recent years, according to NPR's series "Unfit for Work: the Startling Rise of Disability in America." The reports, which began over the weekend and continue this week, raise the question: How disabled are the recipients, really? As you might imagine, they have touched a nerve.
A quick primer: the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides monthly cash assistance to people who are poor and disabled, including families with disabled children. The basic monthly SSI cash benefit is a set amount -- currently $710 for an individual and $1,066 for a couple. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program also provides monthly cash assistance, to disabled people who have worked in jobs covered by Social Security. People who leave the workforce and go on disability also qualify for Medicare.
After six months of investigation, NPR reporter Chana Joffee-Walt concluded that Social Security's disability programs have become "a de facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job skills." In the past three decades, she reports, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed:
MORE...
http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/28/17459470-has-disability-become-a-de-facto-welfare-program?lite
Amazon Defends ‘C*nt’ Product As ‘Light-Hearted’
By Mark Sweney, The Guardian
Thursday, March 28, 2013 11:43 EDT
Amazon has sparked outrage by defending the use of the word “cunt” in a product image used by a retailer on its website, arguing that it was featured in a “light-hearted” way that was not likely to offend any particular group, such as women.
The Advertising Standards Authority banned an internet ad which appeared on Amazon.co.uk for a Christmas card which featured the text: “You’re a cunt. Sorry, I meant to say ‘Merry Christmas’.”
In its ruling the ASA said it was banning the ad under harm and offence rules in the advertising code, on the grounds that it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
In a submission to the ASA Amazon said that it should not have been banned because “the card was not offensive, aggressive or lewd in its message. It was meant as a bit of light-hearted, irreverent fun”.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/28/amazon-defends-cnt-product-as-light-hearted/
Consumer Comfort in U.S. Declines for a Second Straight Week
By Jeanna Smialek - Mar 28, 2013
Confidence among U.S. consumers fell for a second straight week as Americans’ views of the economy dimmed.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index dropped to minus 34.4 in the week ended March 24, a six-week low, from minus 33.9 in the prior period. The decrease was within the margin of error of 3 percentage points. A measure of the state of the economy declined to the lowest level since early February.
Concern may be growing that automatic cuts in government spending will slow the economy and prompt some companies to curb hiring. A 2 percentage-point increase in the tax used to fund Social Security that’s cut into take-home pay may also be weighing on sentiment.
“We’re getting a lagged effect of the tax increases beginning to set in on the public, in particular the lower income cohorts and the middle class,” said Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist at Bloomberg LP in New York. “Spending will likely slow.”
Another report today showed more Americans than forecast filed for unemployment benefits last week. First-time jobless claims rose by 16,000 to 357,000 in the week ended March 23, the highest level in more than a month, according to data today from the Labor Department in Washington.
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-28/consumer-comfort-in-u-s-declines-for-a-second-straight-week.html#_
Obama Signs Bill Restoring Military Tuition Aid and Cutting Poli-Sci Research
President Obama signed a bill into law on Tuesday that will finance government operations for the rest of the 2013 fiscal year as well as restore military Tuition Assistance Programs and limit spending on political-science research.
The continuing resolution, as the bill is called, passed both chambers of Congress last week and prevents the government shutdown that would have occurred if legislators had not passed the bill by Wednesday, when the current resolution expired. The legislation was enacted six months after the start of the fiscal year.
The bill keeps in place this month's steep federal spending cuts, known as the sequester, until at least the summer or early fall, when Congress will resume talks on a budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which starts on October 1. However, it does give more spending flexibility in some departments, such as providing an additional $87-billion for overseas military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also restores some funds cut by the sequester from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
"There is no question that we believe we should not have come to this point where the sequester would be imposed," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. "There's no question that we believe regular folks out there are being unnecessarily harmed by imposition of the sequester—which was designed by Democrats and Republicans purposefully never to become law, to be filled with nonsensical approaches to deficit reduction."
MORE...
http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Signs-Bill-Restoring/138171/
Protest Greets Michigan Gov. Snyder As He Promotes Right-To-Work At Pancakes and Politics
As Michigan’s new, controversial right-to-work law goes into effect in the state today, Gov. Rick Snyder said he doesn’t view the law as anti-union, but rather as pro-worker.
--CLIP
Several dozen people outside the Detroit Athletic Club felt differently. They were joined by a larger-than-life papier-mache head of Snyder with a theme of “Let them eat pancakes.”
David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan, said the start of the new law represented a terrible day for Michigan.
"Right-to-work is temporary. Solidarity is forever," he said in predicting the law will end soon, either through a legal challenge or after the next election in 2014.
MORE...
http://www.freep.com/article/20130328/BUSINESS06/130328019/First-day-of-right-to-work-brings-protesters-to-Pancakes-and-Politics-breakfast
Profile Information
Member since: 2003 before July 6thNumber of posts: 29,876
