Cluelessly Hoping Policy Falls Off Of The Moon

GAO Report Faults Post-‘Surge’ Planning

The administration lacks an updated and comprehensive Iraq strategy to move beyond the “surge” of combat troops President Bush launched in January 2007 as an 18-month effort to curtail violence and build Iraqi democracy, government investigators said yesterday.

While agreeing with the administration that violence has decreased sharply, a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office concluded that many other goals Bush outlined a year and a half ago in the “New Way Forward” strategy remain unmet.

I thought it was a six month surge, so the lack of planning is a feature not a bug.

If It Works For Silver…

Numbers and greed without limit

Ed Steer, who is called “correspondent-at-large” at Casey Research, says, “I see that the derivatives market expanded 44% last year (according to the BIS) and now sits at US$596 trillion dollars … that’s spelled with a ‘t’. If this pace keeps up, by this time next year, total derivatives will exceed one quadrillion dollars … that’s spelled with a ‘q’!!!”

Update: Oh Dear

Farmers and Floods

Decisions await farmers with crop insurance

Indiana farmers who insured their 2008 crops have decisions to make if recent floods damaged their cropfields, said a Purdue University Extension agricultural economist.

“In some instances, farmers may not have been able to plant their original crop in a timely manner, and in other instances farmers have lost crops due to flooding,” George Patrick said. “These producers, if they have followed good farming practices, may be eligible for different crop insurance benefits depending on the type of insurance they have and their individual circumstances.”

Producers prevented by weather from planting their intended crops on time have three options, Patrick said.

“They can go ahead and plant the original crop even though the yield may be reduced,” he said. “Second, they can plant an alternative crop, such as shifting from corn to soybeans. Or third, they can abandon the acreage and take a prevented planting payment.”

Multiple peril crop insurance plans based on a producer’s Actual Production History (APH), Crop Revenue Coverage, Revenue Assurance and Income Protection all provide a 25-day late-planting period, Patrick said.

“In Indiana, this begins June 5 for corn and June 20 for soybeans, with yield coverage levels being reduced one percent per day that planting is delayed, with a maximum reduction of 25 percent,” he said.

More here