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| Remarks before the DTN/The Progressive Farmer Ag Summit 2013
This is no doubt a phenomenon you will be pursuing at this summit on “Tactics to Tame Volatility.”
As you consider potential tactics, I hope you will keep the following in mind:
a.Free trade is essential for farmers everywhere. Protectionism is the surest path to economic hell. We want a global breadbasket, and we want U.S. farmers and all those interests in the U.S. who make it possible to till fields everywhere—from our great machinery makers to our fertilizer and agribusiness firms—to be able to compete in every market worldwide as well as with foreign companies in our own market. Competition sharpens wits and strengthens muscles. In an openly competitive world, I have no doubt our producers and companies will continually outperform others.
b.It is important that Borlaug’s revolution of genetic modification be responsibly carried forward. Otherwise, the freer-trade regime that has been achieved can be threatened. Or be exploited so as to instill protectionism. I am thinking particularly of the current situation of the millions of tons of corn currently sitting off China’s shores, held out of the Chinese market ostensibly because of its GMO (genetically modified organism) characteristics, despite its acceptance in other major markets, including our own. I have no desire to enter into any argument with greens and environmentalists; I simply wish to suggest that you might consider ways to reach internationally agreed-upon standards for GMO enhancement.
I would add a “c,” a third point for you to bear in mind: You had all better use to the good this unusual period in economic history of proactively accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks. The FOMC has made money the cheapest and most widely available of any time in American history. Interest rates dipped to their lowest level in 237 years; bond and stock markets rallied to historic highs in both nominal and real terms; bankers and investors are flush with liquidity; for anybody who is creditworthy, money is über-abundant. This will not last forever. One would be foolish not to exploit it now.
Edited by Gottlieb 12/9/2013 13:38
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Richard Fisher, pres. of Dallas Fed. Reserve speaking now on monetary policy & Ag
