The Third Rail in Iowa

In spite of the fact that 3-rail electric trains aren't popular outside of New York, everyone understands that there are certain issues that one simply dies not bring up in an election year. This myth is pushed hard by the left to keep the right from pointing out some of their greatest failings. Social Security for example is an unsustainable Ponzi scheme but if anyone suggests this they are instantly denounced as wanting to "toss grandma (who votes Democratic) out on the streets". The Republicans (stupid party) assume that anyone over the age of 62 is too dumb to understand simple economics, and let the cancer grow.

This year in Iowa Cruz has taken a position against Big Alcohol and Trump has waded in on the side of ADM, denouncing Cruz as being in the pocket of Big Oil. So far the folks in Iowa, which boasts one of the best school systems in the country, are favoring Cruz, apparently recognizing that burning all that corn lowers their fuel economy, increases the carbon footprint and tax bill, speeds up the deterioration of their vehicles, and raises the price of food. Even if you get paid well for selling that snake oil, the increased costs elsewhere more than offset the income.

Running a farm is no different from running any other business and if you don't understand the economics of business, you won't be running it for long. Cruz has grabbed the third rail of taxpayer subsidized corn alcohol and has discovered that there is little or no voltage in it as he currently leads Trump in the Iowa polls. I find this encouraging as the more we learn about Trump, the more apparent is becomes that as popular as he is, the man is an economic ignoramus. The world economy is in bad enough shape already and we don't need a trade war right now.

The finance wonks currently meeting in Davos seem to agree with most of them seeing President Trump as no improvement over O'Bungler.

“The globe needs the U.S. to be strong,” she said. “The U.S. is still the horse that’s pulling the cart, and more so now with the capital outflows from emerging markets.”

 With the rest of the world being run by socialists of one stripe or another, that's an accurate picture, made complete by visualizing the cart as being full of the economically dead or dying ("I'm not dead yet!") viz. the Bring out your dead scene from Monty Python.