Oct 17, 2019 - Economy & Business

Billionaire W.Va. governor's family business received maximum amount of trade war farm aid

Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The family business of billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) received the maximum $125,000 allowed under a federal program designed to aid farmers during the U.S.-China trade war, according to records reviewed by AP.

By the numbers: Justice's farming company took in $121,398 in soybean subsidies and $3,602 for corn — despite the fact that the median payments for the program are $6,438 and $152, respectively. A study of Department of Agriculture data from earlier this year showed that more than 50% of the farm aid went to the nation's largest and wealthiest farms.

Go deeper: Farm aid from Trump's trade war has cost more than double the 2009 auto bailout

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Axios
Updated 22 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 8 a.m. ET: 33,137,748 — Total deaths: 998,372 — Total recoveries: 22,952,164 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 8 a.m. ET: 7,116,456 — Total deaths: 204,762 — Total recoveries: 2,766,280 — Total tests: 101,298,794 — Map.
  3. States: 3 states set single-day coronavirus case records last week
  4. Health: The childless vaccine. The long-term pain of the mental health pandemic
  5. World: India the second country after U.S. to hit 6 million cases
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Dion Rabouin, author of Markets
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Big Tech's share of the S&P 500 reached record level in August

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Reproduced from The Leuthold Group; Chart: Axios Visuals

The gap between the weighting of the five largest companies in the S&P 500 and the 300 smallest rose to the highest ever at the end of August, according to data from the Leuthold Group.

Why it matters: The concentration of wealth in a few massive U.S. tech companies has reached a scale significantly greater than it was before the dot-com bubble burst.

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Dion Rabouin, Andrew Witherspoon
44 mins ago - Economy & Business

Fortune 100 companies commit $3.3 billion to fight racism and inequality

Data: Fortune 500, Axios analysis of company statements, get the data; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon, Naema Ahmed/Axios

Big businesses continue to push funding toward fighting inequality and racism, with the 100 largest U.S. companies' monetary commitments rising to $3.33 billion since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police earlier this year, according to an Axios analysis.

Why it matters: The continued pace of funding commitments shows that months after Floyd's death there remains pressure for the wealthiest corporations to put their money behind social issues and efforts.

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