American politicians love to propagate the fiction that the U.S. practices the separation of church and state, as laid out in the constitution and the Bill of Rights. The truth is that the subject is not mentioned in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. It was talked about by the founding fathers, who were Christians drummed out of their native lands because of their faith. What they were talking about was protecting the church FROM the state.
So while the U.S. practices this non-practice most of the time, they also don't hesitate to take advantage of the church when it is more conventient. Take the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for instance. They close on one of the most blatantly religious holidays of the year, Good Friday. That's right--there was no trading today due to the overtly Christian holiday, Good Friday--the commemoration of the day when Jesus was hung on the cross.
As relates to the cattle futures trade on the Merc, Thursday was the last day of trading. Cattle futures were up sharply. It was also the day USDA issued its monthly Cattle-on-Feed Report after the Merc close, which was considered bullish for cattle prices, because it showed more cattle sold in February than forecast, and fewer head placed in the feedlots than forecast.
That still left fed cattle trading to be done on Good Friday, despite having no government reports or futures trading to guide the way. Based on Thursday's good news for cattle prices, the cash market for cattle would have gone wild, right?
Wrong. Packers held out to the last minute to buy cattle. In the dressed trade in Nebraska and Iowa, prices were indeed up $2-$4. But in the far larger trade on a live basis in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, sellers struggled to get packers to keep prices steady. It was thought that having a day since the government report and the higher futures to digest it, the old saw came into play "Oh, it was already figured in," so there's no need to raise prices.
Packers are very short of cattle. It's thought that some they bought today were killed today. Usually they hold them a day or two, unless they're short-bought. This condition usually results in paying higher prices, to get more cattle purchased. Closing the markets for the Christian holiday of Good Friday, and issuing the USDA report early for the same reason, probably held fed cattle prices down.
What happened to the separation of church and state when we need it?
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