Ukrainian Grains go the Wrong Way, While the Washington Clown Show Continues
The War on Ukraine continues to disrupt Global Grain while US Politicians trade limos for clown cars
Ukraine Grain
The Ukraine Grain deal is back on! Unfortunately, I'm not talking about a serious deal to move Ukrainian agricultural products through the Black Sea and to needy customers in North and East Africa. Nope, I’m talking about the end of the EU embargo on Ukrainian grain transport. Ukrzaliznytsia has increased infrastructure to move grain out of Ukraine, and a many large agribusinesses have invested in new infrastructure. However, moving grain by rail is significantly more expensive than moving it by boat. With a backdrop of global food prices dropping (an otherwise good thing), the economics don’t support moving grain by rail. While global prices are down, grain prices remain high in East Africa and the Middle East. The ending of the grain deal was met with fear in Mogadishu. At the same time, the grain in Europe continues to pile up, causing significant political strain.
The heart of this logistical conundrum is still the War in Ukraine. Should Russia go home, it will be easy to send Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea and to replant war-torn regions. Until then, I expect that we will see continued dislocations as too much cheap grain winds up flowing through Europe and grain prices continue to stay high in poorer countries that are used to Ukrainian supplies.
Washington Clown Show
In asking whether or not we should pay our own military and federal workers, the only thing Congress bought was a new car:
Currently there is a fight in the Republican controlled house of congress about what should be in the budget. And the main players are not acting like adults. There is a ‘far right’ wing of the GOP that continues to demand foreign funding be cut – including military funding for Ukraine and paying for naval bases in the Pacific. Besides being juvenile, it is downright bizarre to hear these demands coming from the political party which holds up Reagan as their standard bearer. The slim Republican majority in the House has allowed a small group of Republicans to hold the entire process hostage for political reasons.
Hall of Shame
With congress this dysfunctional – I am taking congressional nominations for the Finance Hall of Shame. Our inaugural member for his comments this week: Rep Byron Donalds of Florida. He said ‘now is not a good time’ for President Zelenskyy to be in Washington, and his temporal reason is that our deficit is high. I want to know, when is a good time for an elected President facing genocidal war with upwards of hundreds of thousands of kidnapped children?
Rep Byron Donalds has consistently voted against funding Ukraine no matter what was going on – he’s just making excuses. If he truly cared about the budget deficit, he would support raising taxes to fix this (contrary to rhetoric, the US has a shockingly low tax rate for corporations and wealthy individuals amongst wealthy nations). Hanging global democracy out to dry is the only thing Rep Donalds seems to be serious about.
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editing by j_prettybuds on twitter