Our next president will be grateful. Grateful to those who underwrote their campaign, and hopefully grateful to a few voters too.
Wall Street is where the money is. Wall Street calls the rest of us "protectionists" and "isolationists" even as they hold and invest our money, globalize us, and sell themselves to Chinese and Middle Eastern governments - through sovereign wealth funds.
Here are the big Wall Street contributors to the leading candidates from data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics:
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D.-N.Y. Clinton raised $26.6 million in the fourth quarter and nearly $117.7 million through year-end 2007. Top contributors so far: DLA Piper ($470,150); Goldman Sachs ($407,561); Morgan Stanley ($362,700); Citigroup ($350,895); and Lehman Brothers ($237,270). Sen. Barack Obama, D.-Ill. Obama raised $22.8 million in the fourth quarter and nearly $102.2 million by the end of 2007. Top contributors so far: Goldman Sachs ($421,763); UBS ($296,670); Lehman Brothers ($250,630); National Amusements ($245,843); and JP Morgan Chase ($240,788). Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R.-Mass. Romney raised $26.9 million in the fourth quarter and nearly $88.5 million through year-end 2007. The CRP notes that $35.4 million of his funding has come from his own pocket. Top contributors so far: Goldman Sachs ($223,925); Merrill Lynch ($163,020); Citigroup ($162,950); Morgan Stanley ($152,050); and Lehman Brothers ($137,450). Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz. McCain raised $9.7 million in the fourth quarter and $41.1 million as of the end of 2007. Top contributors so far: Merrill Lynch ($155,950); Citigroup ($153,362); Blank Rome ($143,501); Greenberg Traurig ($130,587); and Goldman Sachs ($85,252).
According to the New York Times, Brazilian beef producers are angry that European leaders have banned beef imports from Brazil. One Brazilian cattleman was quoted as saying that Brazilians were being penalized for being competitive. Analysts state that Europeans would most likely experience beef shortages.
Beef shortage? That conjures images of gaunt queues full of hungry French beef eaters. I don’t think so.
Vote today.
If you live in these states, vote today: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, New Jersy, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah
And by the way, vote today.
Dennis Olson of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy wrote this op-ed on the elimination of certain ag tariffs via NAFTA.
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Farmer Agreement Offers Alternative to NAFTA’s Failures By R. Dennis Olson February 4, 2008 On January 1, 2008, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into full effect after a 15-year phase-in for more sensitive agricultural products like sugar, white corn, beans and dairy. This means the last remaining tariffs are no longer legally binding, including those on sugar imported from Mexico to the U.S., and vice versa. Additionally, the Mexican government will no longer block imported high fructose corn syrup from the U.S., which competes directly with sugar in the Mexican sweetener markets. The expected fallout threatens to hurt sugar farmers on both sides of the border. This threat is so dire, that it has provided an impetus for Mexican and American sugar growers to reach an historic agreement to modify the final implementation of NAFTA. (read more)
While we are rightly concerned about steroid use among our athletes, we serve our families beef produced with the same performance enhancing chemical compounds. Cattle are implanted with various growth promoting compounds from Ralgro (Zeranol), "which has been found to be biologically active in stimulating breast cancer cell growth," to Revalor (Trenbolone-Acetate), one of the cattle implants that has gained popularity among bodybuilders.
