U.S. farm equipment purchases drop $900 million amid trade wars

[applegrove]

Orion Rummler at Axios

U.S. farm equipment purchases drop $900 million amid trade wars

https://www.axios.com/us-farm-equipment-purchases-drop-900-million-trumps-trade-war-6c410d53-c8e0-40f8-ad9a-0ac17d184eb9.html

"SNIP.....

Farmers and business owners' reluctance to invest in farming equipment has resulted in a $900 million annualized spending drop, Bloomberg reports.

The big picture: This is the steepest decline in farm equipment purchases in 3 years. In February, federal data showed that U.S. farmers in the Midwest were filing for bankruptcy protection at levels the country had not seen for approximately a decade. Last year, farm profits sunk to $69.4 billion — that's half of 2013's $136.1 billion in profits, per Bloomberg. President Trump's trade wars have contributed to the ongoing nosedive in prices and decrease in profits for farmers.

Go deeper: Farmers endure another crushing week as Trump trade war drags on

......SNIP"

[3Hotdogs]

1. Add weather to their problems.

[democratisphere]

2. All of this financial stress is causing farmers to kill themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers

[applegrove]

3. That's awful.

[democratisphere]

4. Much of the stress has been brought on by drumpf et al.

[applegrove]

5. Well the suicides in the article mostly take place before Trump but I'm sure he

isn't helping matters with his trade wars and ignorance of climate change.