Word: potatoes
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...weeks, officials at Manhattan's New York Mercantile Exchange had been watching what looked like shenanigans in the trading of potato futures. Prices of Maine potatoes slated for late May delivery were bouncing up and down, apparently without much regard to actual crop prospects. To nip attempts at price manipulation, the exchange boosted its margin requirements on Maine potato futures from $240 per 450-bag contract to $800 for traders who wanted to speculate in potatoes. But the margin boost did little good. Last fortnight, when delivery time for May potatoes arrived, the Mercantile Exchange found itself...
...evidence pointed to a little of both. If Manhattan's potato traders had actually tried to manipulate prices, the city slickers on the exchange had simply been out-slicked by what had happened down on the farm. In theory, the purpose of futures trading is to enable farmers to raise cash on their crops in advance of the harvest. However, Maine's conservative potato farmers are generally leary of the way traders operate, feel that speculation on the exchange often tends to upset the normal laws of supply and demand, frequently depresses potato prices below fair value...
This year Maine potato prices rose in April as a result of a damaging frost in the southern potato fields, hit a peak of $5.15 per 100 lbs. CEA suspects that speculators then sold short heavily in Maine futures, counting on a sharp price drop later on, which would enable them to deliver their contracts at a heavy profit. Furthermore, the traders had counted on delivering minimum-size 2-in. potatoes in the standard 100-1b. bags used by the exchange. But this year Maine's farmers got the Agriculture Department to allow only 2¼-in. potatoes...
...mess is a pleasant spot,-with plastic-topped tables for four men, russet leather and aluminum chairs and a 21-inch TV set. Near the chow line is a "gedunk" soda fountain. The gleaming galley has most of the comforts of modern living, including an electric mixer, a potato peeler, a dishwasher, and a garbage grinder that should frustrate gulls and porpoises. Elsewhere on the ship are a 15-lb. washing machine and a steam dryer and presser...
...that time she already had plans for a school of her own. To raise money, she baked sweet potato pies and sold them from door to door. She peddled fried fish, sang in local hotels. She borrowed a shack, collected boxes for furniture, squeezed elderberries for ink. used charcoal slivers for pencils. When the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute opened, its student body was five girls...