The Farm Debt Crisis of the 1980s.

• Author: Zacharias, Thomas P.

The Farm Debt Crisis of the 1980s is Neil Harl's personal account of the events leading up to and surrounding the recent farm debt problem in the Midwest. Harl's expertise in the fields of agricultural law and finance, along with his excellent understanding of the institutional and political infrastructure of modern agriculture, makes him well qualified to address the topic.

According to Harl, the essence of the farm debt crisis rests with the macroeconomic policies of the early 1980s. These policies basically resulted in high interest rates and a strong dollar which "set up" the agricultural production sector for the fall it took in the mid 1980s. Throughout the book Harl maintains that the macroeconomic forces impacting the sector were the major cause of the problem, not farmers. In part, I agree with Harl and his assessment of the deleterious impacts that national economic policy had on the sector. However, farmers and lenders at the local level should have been aware of the large amounts of debt being incurred. Harl does not shake a bony finger or preach to the victims of the crisis at all. Perhaps he believes the victims of the...