What was I talking about?

George Washington complained about the quality of the Powder supplied, a Complaint common throughout Military history. AEY Inc. represents the traditional military supplier who wishes a greater Profit from each Cartridge, than it had paid to obtain it. Military officers always attempt to blame the Suppliers, who remain a particularly noxious form of Agent without Production facilities, though they promise adequate Supply. The Military has to assign a military officer to either obtain the ammunition personally, or to review and accept every Consignment before forwarding any Purchase funds. No military officer ever wants to damage his career with such an Assignment, where a Charge of Corruption or Failure of Duty always follows, due to the magnitude of Consignments which must be reviewed in alternate locations. The Military always shifts responsibility to Civilian Contractors, so that they can avoid complicity in the failures eventually encountered (No Cash Cow Left Behind!). The Solution always contains the same element, which is direct Contact and Contract with the Production facilities, with the Contract provision that they must accept any Outdated Munitions for Quality testing of their Serviceability; all as the primary control of issuance of such Munitions to subsidiary military client organizations; a factor almost impossible to achieve when subsidiary military organizations do not utilize standard American military weaponry.

American Consumers are reacting rapidly to the economic downturn, at Speeds probably highly influenced by the existence of the Internet. Blowing Our own horn, I would suggest Most Household Purchasers currently read one of the many Econ or Business blogs currently on the Air. The Problems are more quickly recognized with swift purchasing changes, and this quicker downshift may actually alter the Markets themselves. Business must recognize the greater difficulty of hiding Bad News, and devise a business format to deal with Recession conditions. I would suggest that Business switch to an immediate Price-Cutting policy, where Production and Sales are maintained without Layoffs or Profits, simply paying the Cover Charge for Production Costs. Management and Stockholders might find this policy onerous, but easily shifted after Sales again pick up. The Objective is to ensure that Consumer fears are not raised by loss of Jobs, and/or forced inability to purchase.

I asked myself if I wanted to finish with Tyler Cowen’s excellent article on Rice production, or if I wanted to continue with my first impulse, and comment on this article in the NYTimes. Then I conceived of the brilliant idea of combining them with the Question: What if some idiot combined the MicroFueler with a Rice feed Stock? Congress granted ethanol subsidies to Corn, and the price of Corn went through the Roof. The high Corn prices have incited heavier Capitalization of Corn production, Corporate expansion in foreign lands to raise Corn and other ethanol feed Stocks; maybe, it would only take Congress’ promise to pay for turning Rice into ethanol to guarantee an expansion of Rice production (if I sound Stupid, think about Congress!). Tyler mentions that Government action often is a tad Retarded and retarding, but the ATF may have a hard problem deciding if Moonshiners are drinking their Car fuel. lgl