Corn Prices Hit Ten-Year High at $3.95/bu
1. Ethanol is already one of the most coddled and protected industries in America. Before even pulling into the filling station American taxpayers have already paid between $1.04 and $1.45 in government subsidies for each gallon of ethanol, according to a report from the Global Subsidies Initiative. That adds up to an annual total of about $6 billion. Read more here in today's NY Sun.2. Skyrocketing prices for corn on the world market have pushed up the price of the humble tortilla, the mainstay of the Mexican diet, by nearly a third in the past three weeks, to 35 cents a pound in Mexico City and even higher in other parts of the country. Some economists blame the increased demand for corn from ethanol plants in the United States, and it is true corn prices in the States last week reached their highest point in a decade (see graph above). Read more from NY Times article Cost of Corn Soars, Forcing Mexico to Set Price Limits.
3 Comments:
Won't prices limits on tortillas have the same effects that we have seen in rent control? There will be excess demand for tortillas that will result in lower quality tortillas and discrimination against some Mexican consumers.
the gas station in my neighborhood went from 1.76 this morning to 205 this afternoon. why such a big jump?
This is crazy how we subsidize a less efficient higher priced form of energy. Why not develop alternative forms of energy such as non-internal combustion technologies?
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