China's $6 billion soybean buy benefits Minnesota

AP ^ | January 28, 2011

[nwrep]

MARSHALL, Minn. (AP) - China's recent purchases of more than $6.6 billion in U.S. soybeans is being called good for Minnesota, one of the largest soybean producing states.

Jim Call, who grows soybeans near the southern Minnesota town of Madison, tells The Independent of Marshall it's a "huge deal" for Minnesota, which exported an estimated $900 million in soybeans to China last year. He says about half the U.S. soybean crop must be exported, so China is an important market.

[nwrep]

We buy advanced electronics from them, they buy Soybeans from us. Makes sense for trade between a technologically advanced country (China) and a country which is primarily an agricultural supplier (US) to the high-tech economies of Asia.

[aSeattleConservative]

We buy advanced electronics from them, they buy Soybeans from us. Makes sense for trade between a technologically advanced country (China) and a country which is primarily an agricultural supplier (US) to the high-tech economies of Asia.

What would make more sense is to quit keeping a mass murdering communist regime afloat and bring American jobs home.

[nwrep]

I just returned from a trip to China. Flying from Shanghai and landing into JFK gave me the distinct impression of leaving an advanced country (immaculate transportation, well-behaved citizens, extraordinary service standards, polite English) to a third world country (USA) riddled with rude employees who do not speak good English, ill-behaved crowds, and filth everywhere.

[nwrep]

a mass murdering communist regime afloat

Well, we have a mass murdering regime also. Just look at how many millions have been slaughtered here since 1973.

[elpadre]

Maybe if we stopped the production of ethanol and sold the corn we would be better off.

[proxy_user]

And use the money to buy oil? That would be too sensible.

[OldDeckHand]

"Maybe if we stopped the production of ethanol and sold the corn we would be better off. "

I'm not a fan of ethanol subsidies, but honestly, some of the anti-ethanol hysteria is a bit overblown. What we spend in federal tax dollars on ethanol isn't even a rounding error on the annual federal deficit. Moreover, at least when the government spends American money on ethanol, it's money that is eventually reinvested into the US economy - this is very much unlike the money that Americans spend on petrol, which of course goes back to the middle-east to help some crown prince put a new solid-gold toilet on his Airbus 330.

Would it be nice if ethanol subsidies went away? Sure. But does it really impact the deficit in any substantive way? Not really.

[wildehunt]

Try to find freshly frozen soybeans or edamame for cooking in the grocery store. They are all marked produce of China.

[aSeattleConservative]

Well, we have a mass murdering regime also. Just look at how many millions have been slaughtered here since 1973.

Thanks to atheism. What's your point; because we've sold out God and the unborns' God-given right to life we should do business with the Chi com barbarians?

[aSeattleConservative]

I just returned from a trip to China.

Go back, but this time make it a one way ticket.

[musicman]

Less Than $2.9k To Go!!
Just A Reminder
Please Don't Forget
To Donate To FR

[investigateworld]

I've been predicting this for a while. China believes the 2012 event is a swarm of meteors hitting the earth. They will buy up every food stuff they can get their mitts on before 2012. Remember Zero saying we would 'double our exports?'.

We will. Like a Third World nation. Cattle, lumber, hides and foodstuffs.

[Caipirabob]

I just returned from a trip to China. Flying from Shanghai and landing into JFK gave me the distinct impression of leaving an advanced country (immaculate transportation, well-behaved citizens, extraordinary service standards, polite English) to a third world country (USA) riddled with rude employees who do not speak good English, ill-behaved crowds, and filth everywhere.

Sorry, but it's very true. Many cities like New York and even areas like South Florida no longer resemble the United States nor is representative of Americans.

When my Morena Latina wife and I moved from South Florida to Arizona, we had a major culture shock. People were wonderful to us. Service was/is outstanding to us. Going to restaurants yielded uniformly excellent service. It took almost a year to get used to people being nice to us.

That was when it struck me that when I had moved out of SoFlo to Arizona, I had moved back to America.

There's no other explanation for it.

Even the kids, raised in tropical weather their entire lives love Arizona and don't want to live in South Florida even if they had the choice to return.

This is HUGE (I'm series?) coming from me...

Arizona is my home and I am proud to live amongst such wonderful people.

[elpadre]

I just like the idea of maximizing the production of farm products and keeping their exports high.

[OldDeckHand]

"Try to find freshly frozen soybeans or edamame for cooking in the grocery store. They are all marked produce of China."

I saw a pack of "fresh" garlic bulbs in the supermarket this week. It was marked, "product of China". We can't even grow our own garlic, in Florida no less?

[Iron Munro]

Federal Government Financial Acumen:

• As of Dec. 31, 2010, the "Total public debt outstanding" was $14.03 trillion. That is 95.6% of 2010's annual GDP of $14.7 trillion.

• Interest on the debt was about $414 billion in Fiscal Year 2010.

• The US government subsidizes US agriculture with taxpayer money. The current payments are around $20 billion per year to farmers in direct subsidies.

• US agricultural products are then available on the world market for less than the cost of production. So every product sold costs the US taxpayer money.

• China (and others) purchase US grown food products and transport them across vast oceans for less than the cost of growing them, thanks in part to US taxpayer subsidies.

• Some of the money they save is loaned back to the US at interest rates above what our own government and banks pay to us for our savings.

• The feds then take more US taxpayer money to pay the interest on the money borrowed from China and other countries.

• China holds about 20% of the US debt so they receive about $80 billion a year in interest payments from the US.

• China's defense budget in 2010 is estimated at about $75 billion. So our interest payments essentially finance their military.

[nwrep]

we should do business with the Chi com barbarians?

We already are doing business with China. The only question is whether one accepts reality and adjusts, or stays in denial with some sort of affected protestation as a self-delusional charade.

[Will88]

I just returned from a trip to China. Flying from Shanghai and landing into JFK gave me the distinct impression of leaving an advanced country (immaculate transportation,

Thomas Friedman of the NYT shares your misinformed view of China. Maybe you both need to take a more extensive tour of China and see how more of the 1.3 billion live, beyond the 10% - 15% who have so far benefited from their selective capitalism.

I understand they have some state run factories and mines that are real eye openers, and the per capita GDP is now near $7,000 compared to the US of $47,000.<>p>

[nwrep]

That the vast majority of Chinese live in abject poverty is not a mystery to experienced world travelers. I think the point is that the 80-85% who have not benefitted from capitalism are irrelevant. The economic agenda is being set by the 10-15% who have, they are relevant, and those are the ones we need to pay attention to, instead of trying to construct a losing argument based on the income disparity which exists in China.

The fact that Shanghai can support two (not one, but two) Ferrari dealerships should say something about China's economic ascendancy. It is not out of nothing that China has blown past Germany, UK, France and Japan's ecnonomies to become #2.

[aSeattleConservative]

We already are doing business with China.

Thanks to traitors like you.

The only question is whether one accepts reality and adjusts, or stays in denial with some sort of affected protestation as a self-delusional charade.

I accept the reality that America is doing business with an evil regime so that fat cats like yourself can make an easy buck.

Here's what America's death certificate will read like: "Asphyxiation due to greed".