Uncle Sam, Get Out of the Private Sector

To the Editor:
Regarding “How Trump Sparked a New Era of State Capitalism” (Cover Story, Oct. 22): The U.S. government took a de facto equity position in U.S. agriculture nearly 10 decades ago. The economic trend of the industry is revealing. Although cyclical, the long-term trend is that we have pretty much deflated the industry. We lack creativity and line up at the farm-subsidy trough regularly when prices or competition gets “too tough.”

Crop insurance is a classic example. It’s much easier to raise corn when insured to provide a decent return on substandard farmland that is more suited to raising cattle. The result is that we have a shortage of beef and a surplus of corn. Getting Uncle Sam involved in the private sector? Be careful what you wish for.

Thomas C. Dorr
Former Undersecretary of Rural Development, USDA
West Des Moines, Iowa

Chasing the Same Assets

To the Editor:
Whether it was tulip bulbs 400 years ago in Holland, the South Sea Co. 300 years ago in England, British railway stocks in the 1830s, or dot-com stocks 30 years ago, when everyone is chasing the same assets and overpaying for them, anyone with half a brain should be running in the opposite direction (“Private-Asset Star Blue Owl Has Been Flying High. Is It Too Close to the Sun?” Up & Down Wall Street, Oct. 24).

The problem with private equity is that buyouts with 3% interest rates don’t make sense with rates over 7%. Previous investors (e.g., Harvard University) can’t get their money back because no one can afford to pay the quoted prices (by the PE managers). The only solution is to sell these problems to the public; otherwise, a lot of Wall Street managers are going to see their bonuses disappear.

Robert Ray
On Barrons.com

Know When to Fold ’Em

To the Editor:
On Oct. 23, Barron’s announced that “24-Hour Stock Trading Is Coming—and Wall Street Isn’t Ready.” Well, neither am I. My discomfort with equity markets is growing, especially with the rise of special purpose acquisition companies, zero-day options, meme stocks, leveraged exchange-traded funds, and rapidly growing brokers whose websites look and act more like a casino than investment tools. Sadly, you report that “24-hour trading is inevitable.”

At age 72, I’m pleased that in the same issue, Barron’s introduced us to the Pimco Multisector Bond Active ETF and its portfolio manager, Sonali Pier (“A 6% Yield Without Much Risk? This Bond Fund Manager Knows Where to Find It,” Interview, Oct. 23). The actively managed fund currently offers a 6.6% yield. I’ll bet that when 24-hour trading arrives, a lot of us baby boomers, with a reported $70 trillion to pass along, will “know when to fold ’em” (as Kenny Rogers reminded us in his song “The Gambler”) and increase our bondholdings.

Tom Ward
Cumberland, R.I.

Send letters to: mail@barrons.com. To be considered for publication, correspondence must bear the writer’s name, address, and phone number. Letters are subject to editing.