Juggling Dynamite

After nearly 3,000 pig carcasses were found in a Shanghai river, CNBC’s Eunice Yoon reports on the many obstacles faced by China to protect its environment as the economy grows. Here is a direct link.

“…if you look at eating out, dining, department stores, the consumer is pulling back – the evidence is there. It’s nice to see a positive number, we just need to sustain that.”

Kristin Bentz, executive director of the private equity firm PMG Venture Group, admits she did expect the February results to be a little worse given the consumer headwinds. However, she says she thinks we will see that pullback with the effects of the sequestration start to trickle in.”

Here is a direct link to the video interview.

This clip makes some very valid points against spending government money to prop up sugar prices. But while we are at it, same arguments decry government-backed-Central Banks from spending trillions to prop up banks and stock markets too.

“In an effort to prop up sugar prices, which have fallen 18% since October, the USDA is considering buying 400,000 tons of sugar — or enough to make 142 billion Hersey’s Kisses — The WSJ reports.

Of course, there’s nothing new about government support for the sugar industry: The government has been lending money to sugar producers since the 1934 Sugar Act.

But reports of this latest bailout are particularly galling considering the backdrop of a debate in Washington over how to address the nation’s long-term deficit and the ongoing “War on Obesity” being waged by policymakers…”

Here is a direct link to the video report.