Thursday, July 28, 2016

Farmland Investment: Kiss Your Money Goodbye

Boom and bust is more intense on farmland since it gets down to the price of the produce the farm offers.  Washington State farmland is in a boom, like Marin County 30 years ago.
The average sale price of high-quality Washington farmland has increased 25 percent in the last year, and is up 47 percent in the last four years, according to new data from Farmers National Company.
During the "great depression" the democrats went "full soviet" and introduced the "Perishable Commodities Agricultural Act" (PACA), a peculiar set of rules for the road different from the UCC under which the rest of commerce operates. Since capitalism is collectivism for the few, PACA was an initial effort at the Federal policy of "Get Big or Get Out."

Now, what happens in a big bust?  Prices fall, even produce.  But your taxes are based on what you paid for the land.  If you paid 50% more, the taxes on the land go up 50%.  And your neighbor feels the pressure too.  No problem when produce prices are high, but when they are low, the state says, "ƒœç© you, gimme my money!"  And when you do not have it, well...
State Forest trust lands are another category of state trust lands managed by the department. Most State Forest trust lands were originally privately owned forest lands forfeited to counties in the 1920s and 1930s due to unpaid property taxes. These lands were subsequently turned over to the state and today DNR manages State Forest trust lands for the benefit of the county where the lands are located. Most State Forest trust lands are in western Washington.
Forests have the crop ready to go.  In the roaring 20s, what better place to put excess wealth accumulated than in the booming forest industry? In the bust of the '30s, that wealth was redistributed to the Hegemon.  People investing in farmland today, and farmers expanding, are a delight to the hergemon.

Will there be a big bust?  Well $10 trillion in bonds at negative interest rate suggests a whole lotta smart people think so.

Property, pension and paycheck... all low hanging fruit for the hegemon.  Best to start a business and own the means of production and a customer list.  The you are too high and far apart for the hegemon to get to.

Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi John,
Many of us can start the business and get the customer list however, the costly part is owning the means of production. If we are working as an agent, would you suggest that we own that we aim for exclusivity with a supplier/manufacturer instead? Thanks.

John Wiley Spiers said...

That post relates to people with more assets credited to their tally than they know what do with... they know its all nebelstreif, so they want to convert it to something solid. My point is, that something solid is low hanging fruit for the hegemon.

Better to take that money and invest in the means of production, say pizza ovens on wheels so you can move quickly if necessary.

But for the rest of us, yes, we exploit excess production capacity, since it is there and we have no money to buy the means of production. And note, money invested in customers created is safer than the owning the means of production.

John