Word: corn
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...simply an interested farmer (486 acres near Pawling, N.Y.). "Farming," said Tom Dewey, "has been the principal interest in my life for the last ten years." Trim and tanned (he had been getting in his hay, he said), he talked easily about the poor state of the corn crop, the merits of artificial insemination of cattle, and got his picture taken with a prize...
...these jubilant words a Minnesota farmer greeted the news early last week that the price of September corn had reached $2.65½ a bu. on Chicago's Board of Trade, a new alltime high. Wheat at $2.80 was also close to a record price. But what he forgot was that prices bid up by speculators must come down-when the speculators get frightened...
...doubt there was plenty of wild speculation. The commodity exchange division of the Department of Agriculture reported that 90% of all corn futures was held by speculators. This was partly due to the fact that many of Wall Street's speculators, curbed by the 75% margin requirement, had shifted their money to the commodity markets. There they could buy on margins as small...
...might bring regulation. Shortly after Flanders' statement, grain prices had their sharpest break in days; wheat fell 10 to 12? a bushel. As the session ended, the Board's directors, who increased margins the week before, voluntarily upped them again, from 35? to 45? a bushel for corn and wheat. That brought the margin to about 17%. But at week's end, grain prices crept back up again. Plainly, speculation was not the only devil...
Devil No. 2. Grain brokers themselves thought that they knew who the devil was: the Federal Government. As long as the Government kept on buying for export, they thought that they could count on rising.prices, even though corn is now 30% higher than in 1920's boom. Until recently, the U.S. has not been exporting any more food than it did after World War I. But in July and August, grain exports increased to an alltime peak. The traders also put the blame on the blundering way the Government bought. Instead of buying only in dull markets, it hopped...