Marc... with all due respect, your reply resembles what normally comes out of a Politicians mouth. If farmers who produce corn receive $2 billion in subsidies to grow and harvest the corn that goes into making Ethanol, then how else can that be misunderstood as not an INDIRECT SUBSIDY?

You are more than welcome to continue posting comments as a VP of the AutoChannel... but I find it quite interesting that a Vice President doesn't have anything better to do than spend time blogging via comments.

steve

Alexis.... first, I never stated in the article that the Ethanol Industry was subsidized. Others may have stated that.. but not me. However, the Corn Farmers were subsidized approximately $5 billion in 2016... according to the USDA data. If 40% of corn grown in the U.S. goes to produce ethanol, than 40% of that $5 billion, or $2 billion was an INDIRECT Ethanol subsidy.

steve

Marc... you are a funny guy. Two can play at that game. Go ahead and continue posting comments everywhere you see my article on different websites. However, I am done here..... LOL.

steve

Normally I don't respond here, but this is a good exception.

The issue with corn-ethanol goes far beyond the limited scope of it as a fuel versus liquid petroleum such as gasoline. The problem with ethanol is that its high rate of production is only viable with a high EROI of Oil and Gas production.

Unfortunately, the U.S. oil and gas industry is cannibalizing itself to stay alive. The U.S. Shale oil industry has not made any money since 2009, but has seen its debt explode. Even worse, this huge DEBT WALL becomes due over the next five years. It will balloon to $65 billion this year to $200 billion by 2020... and even higher each year.

Without cheap and abundant petroleum based fuels, large scale corn-ethanol production will not be viable. Basically, the U.S. farm industry is made possible by dumping massive amounts of oil and natural gas onto the soils... figuratively.

The U.S. is in serious trouble as its oil industry will likely disintegrate within the next 5-10 years. Thus, the 9+ million barrels per day of domestic oil production will fall precipitously by 2025. Which means, ethanol production will decline along with it.

Lastly, I have no problem with local organic based ethanol production by farmers who save their own corn. However, the modern AG-Business will not survive the disintegration of the U.S. Oil Industry. While Ethanol production will continue going forward... it will be at a much lower volume.

steve

Gary,

I appreciate the thoughtful reply. While bonds presently have a higher rating than gold, I don't believe this will be true several years down the road. Furthermore, there are a shortage of bonds, because of the massive #liquidity injections by #CentralBanks. Bonds can be in short supply when Central Banks print money to buy them.

Actually, the #Fed and Central Banks are running out of assets to buy. This is why several analysts believe the next Central Bank BULLET will be outright #HelicopterMoney.

Lastly, the production of energy is different than comparing outstanding #EnergyDerivatives to the Interest Rate Derivative Market. While it's true that the Interest Rate Derivative Market totally overwhelms anything else by several orders of magnitude, I would like to kindly remind you financial instruments are worthless without the burning of energy. Burning #energy translates to economic activity. Profitable economic activity translates to a functioning financial system.

When U.S. and global expensive oil production declines in earnest, this will cause a serious dislocation in the Financial System that will result in collapse. Unfortunately, this will be a depressionary collapse we never come out of.

Of course.. this is my humble opinion.

Steve

Gary... interesting comment. However, I would not use surplus funds to buy a new car. When the system finally cracks, there will be a huge glut of new and semi-new cars at a huge discount.

How are investors paying down debt?? U.S. debt is now $19.4 trillion. How is that heading lower? Maybe you can clarify what you mean.

Lastly, Government #Bonds are like gold until expensive oil production declines. Cheap #oil production peaked several years ago, now we are waiting for the peak of expensive oil. Actually, if we don't see tens of trillions of Helicopter money dumped on the market shortly, expensive oil production may have already peaked.

Government bonds are #DEBT. The world is full of debt up to their eyeballs. Without growing energy production, this debt will not be paid back. #Gold and #silver are two of the best assets to own going forward.

Steve