To understand the failings of existing farm programs, it's important to understand the roots of the current farm crisis. At the heart of the problem is money—how much there is and how much it costs to borrow. A farmer is a debtor almost by definition. In my own state, it's not unusual for a wheat farmer with 1,000 acres to owe several hundred thousand dollars for land and machinery. In addition to making payments on these loans, it's common for such a farmer to borrow about $40,000 each spring to cover fertilizer, diesel fuel, seed, and other operating expenses. The months before the harvest will be anxious ones as the farmer contemplates all the things that could bring: financial hardship, bad weather, crop disease, insects, falling commodity prices. If he has a good year, the farmer can repay his loans and retain some profit in a bad one, he can lose his whole farm. Money thus becomes one of the farmer's biggest expenses. Most consumers can find some refuge from high interest rates by postponing large purchases like houses or cars. Farmers have no choice. In 1989, for example, farmers paid $12 billion in interest costs while earning $32 billion last year they paid $22 billion in interest costs, while earning only $20 billion. In a business in which profit margins are small, $4,000 more in interest can mean the difference between profit and loss. Since 1985, 100,000 family farms have disappeared, and while interest rates have fallen recently, they still imperil the nation's farmers. This is why the most basic part of our nation's farm policy is its money and credit policy—which is set by Paul Voicker and the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board's responsibility for nearly ruining our economy is well-known. What's often overlooked is how the board's policies have taken an especially devastating toil on farmers. While high interest rates have increased farm expenses, they've also undermined the export market farmers have traditionally relied on. High interest rates, by stalling our economic engines, have been a drag on the entire world's economy. Developing and third world nations have been particularly hard hit. Struggling just to meet interest payments on their loans from multinational banks, they have had little cash left over to buy our farm products. Even those countries that could still afford our farm products abandoned us for other producers. Our interest rates were so high that they attracted multinational bankers, corporations, and others who speculate on currencies of different countries. These speculators were willing to pay more for dollars in terms of pesos, yen, or marks because those rates guaranteed them such a substantial return. This passage is intended to______.