Man, when I get an idea into my head, the whole world conspires to rub my face in it, hmm? Check out this recent article in Slate. Yes, I know the topic's kind of boring, but then this graph leapt out at me:
"High crop prices are good news for the farmers who grow carbohydrates and for the companies that process them. ADM, one of the world's biggest processors of grains and oilseeds, just reported record annual results, with sales, margins, and profits all on the rise. Here's a one-year chart of ADM against the S&P 500."
If you're wondering WTF, George's grandfather is the chairman emeritus of ADM. So, for example, I think of George whenever I order a veggie burger or see that the gas I'm pumping has ethanol in it.
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2 comments:
Weird. Where did you see this?
Clooney's a producer in The Informant, directed by Soderbergh, which is the story of Mark Whitacre (book by Kurt Eichenwald of the NYTimes). Whitacre was the whistleblower in a big price-fixing sting that led to ADM paying a $100 million fine in 1996.
Would be odd if he was on board in a movie that will take his grandfather to task.
Funny, Amanda and I got mixed up on the two Georges last night.
George #1 is my husband, Clooney, in my humorous fantasy life. Manda said that the lumberjack was just a placeholder until I marry George, and I pointed out that George is already married with kids, but she meant Clooney. Who, of course, is still totally free and eager to settle down with me for blissful life.
George #2 is very real, the one I've been talking about in the recent posts, this one and the earlier one about meeting cute and the guy who got away. He was Wes class of '91, I dated him at BU in the summer of '96, while his family was under the investigation that led to the historically large fine you mentioned. (For the record, his stance on the price-fixing was, "how can we be conspiring to fix prices on corn syrup when we're the only ones who make it?" and that Whitacre was a disgruntled employee who'd been passed over for an expected promotion.)
If we really want to dig into Maggie's George curiosity, there is the original George, my dad. So maybe all of this is just a daddy complex....
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