At 06:57 PM 11/27/98 -0500, you wrote:
 
>I wish I could borrow money at 5.875%.  I am paying a lot more than that
on my
>house which is nearly paid for.  What is the difference between a soft loan
>and a subsidy?
 
Hi Chris,
 
A soft loan would be lower then "prime". This interest rate is based on
prime plus, plus costs. A beekeeper would have to get about 10% above the
loan rate 9 months from now. That may sound reasonable but any large amount
of honey under loan has in the past driven down the price of honey not
increased it.
 
In the OLD Honey Support Program that we had for about 50 years the
interest was forgiven when you redeemed the loan. If you defaulted the
government took the honey and paid to have it packed and gave it away
"free" to school lunch programs and to the low income and old people. And
some beekeepers did qualify for the five pounds per month free honey, but
the government honey was so poor you could only use it to cook with or make
beer. I never did figure what they did to the good honey but at least two
honey packers were found guilty of replacing it with their own poor honey.
 
>When I buy sugar, which is not very often, I pay the equivalent of 30 us
>dollars per 100 pounds.  By the way are your pounds the same as ours - 16
>ounces or 454 grammes? We had a little translation problem the other day
>because your gallons are smaller.
 
Yes our pounds are a pound or 16 onces, 454 grammes or what ever. Seems you
are getting your sugar at about the same list price as in the US. Of course
large users get the best deal they can find. In my hay day I used 20 or
more tanker truck loads a year as I blended it with drugs and filled other
beekeepers feed cans. At the time we had a choice of sugar companys, cane,
beet, and corn, now many are gone because corn products have held the price
down. At the time I could put out one gallon of sugar for about $.75 cents
including the cost drugs and a new can. The cans cost more then that now.
 
BTW: Because of the low interest rates here I can refinance my old 9.50%
home loan at 5.50% a nice savings in interest. The down side is the cost to
do so eats up most of the savings because of state regulations, title
search and the like.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
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