Could this be the end of the Great Corn Conspiracy

The Great Corn Conspiracy may just be foiled after all. Ethanol subsidies, a huge federal boondoggle and nothing more than corporate welfare, are now getting some heavy duty opposition in the form of The New York Times and the Washington Post.

These subsidies not only promote an inefficient source of energy, they also put increased demand on corn, driving up food prices.

Kill the Ethanol Monster!

Force feeding corn to the economy

According to Commentary magazine, the Obama administration is attempting to raise the percentage of ethanol in mixed gasoline from 10 to 15 percent. Oh brother. Nevermind that it will further increase food prices by artificially increasing the demand on corn which is in, well, everything, it won't even accomplish the purposes it's designed to accomplish:

One of the plans being considered by the Obama administration is to raise the ethanol content of blended gasoline from 10% to 15%. Apparently, this is being done to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, decrease pollution, and stimulate the domestic economy. What’s unclear is precisely how this is supposed to work.

Read the rest here.

More on the government imposed ethanol famine from the American Conservative

Here is a sample from Timothy Carney's article in the American Conservative, "Burning Dinner: Government’s scheme to fill gas tanks leaves stomachs empty":

As food prices worldwide shatter records, a quixotic campaign has been launched on the Left and the Right to roll back the government programs that force ethanol upon the American population. Other countries, too, are rethinking programs that turn plants into fuel. The lobby to defend ethanol subsidies and mandates is entrenched—agribusiness, some venture capitalists betting big on government action, and certain hawkish conservatives hoping to end our dependence on Arab and Venezuelan oil. But with corn futures topping $7 a bushel, riots over food prices erupting around the world, and landscapes in the U.S. changing forever, political support for this subsidized moonshine may be on the wane.

Are biofuel requirements working against the poor?

The BBC reports that Oxfam is telling the EU that the emphasis on biofuels is working against the poor by raising food prices and that it won't help on carbon emission anyway.

Where Obama and McCain stand on ethanol subsidies

Before someone jumps me justifiably for not knowing where the two presidential candidates stand on the federal ethanol subsidies travesty that is partly responsible for rising food prices, there is this word just in (June 25) from Greg Mankiw's excellent economics blog about where the candidates stand.

Biofuels largely responsible for higher food prices says World Bank report

If you have already thought about this economically, as many of us have, you know this already, but the Guardian is now reporting that the emphasis on biofuels has pushed global food prices up 75. Anyone with the least bit of economic sense would have known this from the beginning (and did), but it was apparently lost on the Busy administration and the many Republicans and Democrats who voted for the several pieces of legislation that have succeeded in bring this about.

This is one of the chief economics questions that people should be asking Barak Obama and John McCain.

"KY Tonight" to discuss Ethanol Monday night

Wonder how the corn lobby will explain those high food prices.