Chief Bootlegger

by Russ Roberts on February 1, 2007

Shocking news. The nations chief bootlegger made a lot of money last quarter. The WSJ reports:

Archer-Daniels-Midland
Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 20%, as higher ethanol,
starch and sweetener selling prices were partially offset by an
increase in corn costs.

Check out the contribution of "bioproducts":

All four of ADM’s business segments posted improved operating profits
compared with the year-earlier period. Corn processing, its largest
segment, posted a 42% increase to $335.5 million. Within corn
processing, bioproducts operating profit rose 55% to $189.3 million and
sweeteners and starches operating profit increased 28% to $146.2
million.

Comments

{ 4 comments }

Patrick R. Sullivan February 1, 2007 at 1:54 pm: And, in the process raised the price of tortillas for Mexican peasants.
Green Baron February 1, 2007 at 8:45 pm: Please see my latest "Muenchhausen" blog. I shall be adding more on the ethanol-fuel topic. http://muenchhausen.blogspot.com. Best wishes.
The Green Baron
jjgreenbaron@cs.com
Ray G February 2, 2007 at 6:03 pm: 20%? And yet "Big Oil's" 9% happen to break a record in actual dollar amount, and so I've not been hearing about ADM on the news.
Will C. February 3, 2007 at 9:24 pm: I have this sneaking suspicion that it takes a ton of energy to grow corn, harvest it, ship it to ADM, and then turn it into ethanol.