Sugar Subsidies, Housing and Video Games
An agreement over major farm legislation appears increasingly unlikely.
President Bush threatens to veto a Democrat-sponsored housing bill.
Controversial video game Grand Theft Auto IV shatters records with $500 million in sales during its first week.
1. CONGRESS
An agreement over major farm legislation appears increasingly unlikely.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Fran Smith on what the farm bill would do for sugar producers:
“The current sugar program – which has expired but has been extended with other 2002 farm programs — is a system of price supports, domestic production restrictions, and restrictions on sugar imports. The new bill would distort the market even further. It would raise the price supports for U.S. sugar cane and sugar beets, thus guaranteeing sugar producers twice the world price; provide domestic producers with 85 percent of the U.S. market, and protect them from competition by turning imported sugar into ethanol. The Sweetener Users — a coalition of food, beverage, and confectioners pushing for reform of the sugar program — estimates that the farm bill will cost consumers about $2 billion over five years.”
2. CONSUMER
President Bush threatens to veto a Democrat-sponsored housing bill.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the past failings of federal housing policy:
“But far from bringing stability to the mortgage market, over the past decade — under both the Clinton and Bush administrations — the Federal Housing Administration’s underwriting methods have rivaled the carelessness of many subprime lending practices, and have contributed to current housing woes. The delinquency rate on FHA-baked mortgages has been close to that of the subprime category and has sometimes even exceeded it. In the last quarter of 2006, for instance, the delinquency rate for subprimes had increased to 13.33% in the industry’s National Delinquency Survey . But in the FHA category, the rate had risen to 13.46 percent — “a new record.’”
3. TECHNOLOGY
Controversial video game Grand Theft Auto IV shatters records with $500 million in sales during its first week.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Research Associate Ryan Radia on the changing nature of the video gaming experience:
“As game budgets have swelled and public interest in gaming has expanded, more games than ever transcend the stereotype of gaming as a juvenile pursuit with little artistic merit, reminding us that games can be artistic expressions on par with books, movies, or songs. Critics whose gaming experience consists of having played Pacman in an arcade may belittle gaming as a trivial pastime, but anybody who has played Bioshock or Gears of War or Oblivion knows better. Games can critique the harsh realities of modern society and offer insight into the nature of the human soul in ways that less interactive forms of media cannot. Likewise, games deserve both critical admiration and legal protection.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
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