Des Moines, Iowa: Corn Growers in America’s heartland have had enough of Wall St. and their cozy ties with Washington. Over the past year the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions have received over $800 billion in government support. Just this week, one of the largest recipients of federal funding, AIG, indicated that it would be issuing $165 million in bonuses to its staff following a stellar year in which the company lost $61.7 billion and received $173 billion in federal bailout funds. Blue-collar citizens are understandably outraged. On Wednesday this outrage took to the streets in this usually quiet farming town. Said one local resident, if tonight’s rally doesn’t call attention to corporate greed, what will?”
If the rally of 3,000 strong doesn’t have the desired effect in Washington, local leaders have hatched a new strategy that may have the desired impact. What new strategy you may ask? Iowa corn farmers have announced that they will demand that the government issue them retention bonuses or else they will quit. When asked how much each farmer is expecting for a bonus the general consensus was that farmers expected pay commensurate with that of Wall St. These everyday Americans plan to fight fire with fire.
What caused these simple people to take on such a controversial stance? “We were number one until these guys came along,” said corn grower Randy Wolfort referring to the amount corn growers receive in federal funding annually. He has a point. Corn growers have received over $56 billion in funding over the past 8 years, and have currently reached an annual funding level close to $10 billion.
"They just waltz in with their fancy suits and think that they can rule this roost. Well, it ain't so!" said another protester. Leading this protest was a small make-shift float contributed by the company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). ADM is the country's largest corn grower.
ADM CEO Particia Woertz was leading the cheers of "Down with Wall Street greed!" as the float slowly moved through Main Street USA. When asked about the bonuses received by AIG, Woertz had this to say, "Those pigs on Wall Street have lost touch with reality. This right here is America. America needs corn. America demands accountability. America expects pay for performance, not pay for entitlement. You shouldn't get bonuses if you survive on government aid" To these remarks, the crowd surrounding Woertz broke into cheers.
When asked to confirm reports of a $17 million bonus was paid to her in 2008 Woertz responded with, "ADM had a very profitable year last year, and performance was rewarded accordingly at all levels of the company." When asked about a government report that highlighted the fact that close to 50% of ADM's profit is derived directly through government subsidies, and that the rest is attributed to markets created by the government explicitly for corn growers (high fructose corn syrup, ethanol, foreign tarriffs, etc) Woertz ignored the question and yelled into her megaphone, "Wall Street and Washington are full of greedy communists! They will send your jobs overseas! Corn is America and we will fight them!" At these comments the rally carried Woertz down the streets on their shoulders wrapped in an American flag.
If this protest in Des Moines is a signal for times to come, the protest lines could become even longer if other jilted industries hit the pavement as well. The airline industry indicated that they were examining their legal options after they considered the fact that they only got an $18.6 billion bailout in 2001. It seems that Wall Street is really going to get an ear-full from these farmers for some time to come.
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