Million Dollar Farmers Would Lose Subsidies

The House Agriculture Committee voted to ban federal subsidies to farmers with incomes averaging more than $1 million a year and stop farmers from collecting payments for multiple properties. Only farmers whose incomes exceed $2.5 million a year are now disqualified from such aid. The Committee is putting together a wide-ranging, five year farm bill to replace the current law that governs Agriculture Department programs and expires in September. The limits are an attempt to appease a growing number of critics, including the Bush administration who say the country's farm subsidies need an overhaul.At the same time, the bill would increase the maximum limit on direct payments, subsidies that are not based on current crop production or prices.

Fixing Up Their House

Our daughter and her husband have been doing a real fixup and updating on the outside of their home. They have changed the siding from green to a nice slate blue and it looks so nice. Then they tore out all the overgrown bushes and trees and landscaped all around the house and it looks so nice. I forgot to mention that they got new windows too. They really have a nice home.

China Starts New Bankruptcy Law

China has introduced a new bankruptcy law that gives creditors precedence over workers when it comes to claiming the assets of failed companies. Previously they existed in a legal limbo. Their assets could not be released and their debts could not be struck from their creditors' books. Now for the first time, the law allows private Chinese firms, that have failed, to collapse. The change is seen as another step in China's move to a capitalist economy. It also means that failed state enterprises can also now be officially liquidated for the first time. Up till now, they estimate there are about 30 million Chinese people listed on the employment rolls of public companies that are no longer in operation.