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Tag: Economy

Hemp Growing Licenses Up In 2019, But How Much Hemp Really Grew?

Posted in Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp

A look at the total number of hemp growing licenses issued this year gives us an important glimpse into the rapidly growing hemp industry.

More people than ever are interested in growing hemp now that the crop is legal. An amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp after decades of prohibition. Even though the Department of Agriculture didn’t issue formal hemp growing guidelines until late October, interest in the crop is already booming.

According to a report by Vote Hemp, U.S. states issued 16,877 hemp growing licenses in 2019, across 34 states, for a total of 511,442 licensed acres. From these numbers, we can learn a lot about the state of hemp in America, and what’s going right or wrong.

Hemp Is Rebuilding Agriculture In America’s Conservative Tobacco Country

Posted in Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp

Hemp is reviving agriculture where tobacco was once traditionally grown.

Tobacco is still a multi-million dollar industry, but its fortunes have fallen greatly due to changes in laws and growing social stigma around smoking and its effects on human health.

At the same time, the excellent climate in many tobacco-growing states make industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana, a near-perfect replacement.

Brazilian President Michel Temer: Dilma Rousseff Impeached Because She Didn’t Support Neoliberalism

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

During a recent appearance at a corporate think tank, Brazilian President Michel Temer admitted that his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached because she refused to implement a neoliberal reform plan published by Temer’s party.

Rousseff was formally removed from office on Aug. 31 after the Brazilian senate voted to impeach her for breaking budgetary laws. This allowed Temer to take office despite a court ruling barring him from running for election.

However, Rousseff and other critics of Temer have argued that her impeachment was actually a coup d’etat which set the stage for Temer to take power, backed by a government that’s more favorable to corporate investors.

Boycott, But Then What? CodePink Wants You To Build A New, Local Peace Economy

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Boycotts are a powerful tool in the arsenals of those seeking justice and a better world.

And while financial divestment from corporations can successfully pressure them to change their most harmful practices, divestment represents just the beginning of the long, difficult work of building a new, alternate economy that puts people and sustainability first.

“What we’re trying to do is encourage people to be more aware of and reflect on how we’re all invested in a war-like, violent, capitalist economy,” Mendoza Castillo, director of Economic Activism at CodePink, told MintPress News in an interview about her Local Peace Economy initiative.

Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia Takes Desperate Measures To Break Its ‘Oil Addiction’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As oil prices grow more unstable, Saudi Arabia is facing a future of upheaval and economic collapse.

In October, the International Monetary Fund published a report in October, forecasting the collapse of the Saudi economy by 2020. Last week, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman unveiled the “Vision 2030” plan, a desperate attempt to break what he called the country’s “oil addiction,” according to Reuters.

“The Saudi government is reeling from the plunge in crude oil prices, which left it with a nearly $100 billion shortfall last year. Petroleum accounts for roughly 80 percent of the kingdom’s annual budget,” Maria Gallucci noted in an April 25 analysis of the plan for International Business Times.

The plan calls for the country to sell a stake in Aramco, its publicly-owned oil company, in an international public offering some are predicting could top $2 trillion.

It also outlines other significant changes to the economy, including reforms to employment and immigration law and redirecting the nation’s resources toward new sources of income such as the tourism and the defense industries.

Iceland Erupts In Protest As Panama Papers Reveal Secret Corruption In Government

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Iceland’s government is under pressure from a tax corruption scandal, and the prime minister could be forced to resign.

For now, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson says he’s merely taking a break from the office.

The massive Panama Papers leak, consisting of 11.5 million documents released to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source, revealed several members of Iceland’s government, including its prime minister are among numerous world leaders with secretive offshore shell corporations, potentially allowing them to hide billions in income from taxes.

A video released Sunday by The Guardian showed Gunnlaugsson abruptly ending a television interview, where he was confronted about selling his share in a shell corporation, Wintris, Inc., to his wife just one day before a new law came into effect which would have required him to disclose his holdings.