Government Bailout
Requires Deeper Analysis
The government’s plan to “fix” the financial crisis is built on an incorrect premise and probably won’t work. In any case, it is either unnecessary or immoral. The government identifies the problem as a lack of liquidity. So the government proposes to buy up to $700 billion of distressed assets, which supposedly will restore liquidity […]
Perishable Thoughts — Youth, Experience And The Subprime Crisis
In a rare example of rectitude, we will withhold our opinions on the relative qualifications of (in alphabetical order) Joe Biden, John McCain, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin for the office that each person respectively seeks. We will, however, extend a hat tip to Richard A. Aust of LiquidPress Company, a cold aseptic bottling technology […]
Tomato Farmers Get A Little Help
Although CDC won’t exonerate tomatoes as a possible cause of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak and the chances for compensation aren’t very good, it does seem as if one segment of the federal government is trying to help: SCHAFER ANNOUNCES PURCHASE OF UP TO 3.6 MILLION POUNDS OF FRESH TOMATOES WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2008 — Agriculture […]
Pundit Mailbag — Obtaining
Leafy Greens For Research
Our piece, Fast-Tracked Food Safety Research Findings Presented at Fresh Express, brought several letters including this one from a prominent presenter whose fascinating research dealt with the potential for internalization of E. coli 0157:H7: My name is Manan Sharma, and I was one of the presenters at the Fresh Express Research conference last (Sept 11th, […]
AIG Bailout Gives Short-term
Relief Many Dangers Long-term
The Fed’s decision to lend $85 billion to AIG in exchange for an ownership stake just under 80% is very dilutive to shareholders, and with the terms of the loan precluding common and preferred dividends and the interest rate being about 10 percentage points over what the government is paying for funds, the most likely […]
Filth Flies And Cultural Research
We wrote a bit about the Fresh Express Fresh Produce Safety Research Conference here, but one of the research presentations — that about filth flies — has occupied many hours of thought as holding the key to food safety. Oh, it is not the actual research, which is quite preliminary. A hat tip to Michele […]
Perishable Thoughts —
Lessons From Bernard Baruch
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 500 points on Monday and The New York Times headlining Wall Street in Worst Loss Since 2001, we thought it appropriate to contemplate the words of a noted financier: “If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don’t get all the facts, […]
Fast-Tracked Food Safety Research Findings Presented At Fresh Express
Missed United’s Washington Public Policy Congress last week as the Pundit was in Monterey to participate in the Fresh Express “Fresh Produce Safety Research” Conference. Our team at United’s DC event reports it was a terrific event, and we always find the WPPC to be the quintessential event by which a trade association demonstrates its […]
Pundit Mailbag — New
Points Of Vulnerability
With each food safety crisis, we seem to become more fully aware of changes in the industry and the broader society that have increased the vulnerability of the trade to outbreaks. For example, by the time the spinach crisis of 2006 was over, we realized the industry developed a number of non-traditional vulnerabilities: The development […]
FDA Should Listen To GSA
When It Comes To Evaluating Risk
We hope that someone at the FDA reads The New York Times, as a recent story entitled, Agency Fights Building Code Born of 9/11 — though about building codes for skyscrapers in a post 9/11 world — might as well have been about food safety policies promulgated by the FDA. The gist of the story […]
