The federal government provided millions of dollars in subsidies to large farmers to pay for much of the cost of their crop insurance policies last year, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.

The federal crop insurance program is intended to encourage farmers to protect their crops against natural disasters, extreme weather and other destructive events by purchasing private insurance that is heavily subsidized with taxpayer dollars.

The cost of the federal crop insurance program ballooned last year, reaching $17.3 billion, according to Agriculture Department data. Roughly $3.7 billion of that amount was paid to insurance companies and agents that sell and service the policies. In 2021, the program cost the federal government roughly $9.4 billion, according to Agriculture Department data.

The crop insurance program does not have restrictions such as income or payment limits, so farmers can get millions in federal subsidies to cover the cost of their insurance regardless of their income.

The report found that 19 policyholders with the largest subsidies each received more than $3 million in federal funds to help pay for their insurance last year.

Much of the funding is also paid to insurance companies that participate in the program, along with agents who sell and service the policies, the report found. From 2011 through 2022, the federal government paid insurance companies about $36.6 billion, or about one-third of the program’s total cost.

Although the federal subsidies are meant to encourage more farmers to buy crop insurance, many smaller farmers still cannot afford to participate, said Scott Faber, the senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

“There ought to be reasonable limits on who can receive subsidies and the amount that they can receive,” Faber said, adding that he also wanted to see “reforms to how much we pay agents and how much profit we guarantee to insurance companies.”

— New York Times

Uber set to join S&P 500 index

Uber’s stock is set to join the S&P 500 index later this month, the latest sign that the ride-hailing and delivery company is turning its business around after struggling through much of the pandemic.

The San Francisco company will be added to the benchmark index prior to the opening of regular trading on Dec. 18, S&P Dow Jones Indices said Friday.

Shares in Uber Technologies Inc. rose 2% Monday to close at $58.63. That’s not far from their all-time high of $63.18 per share set in February 2021. The stock is up more than twofold so far this year.

The strong rally marks a major turnaround from as recently as the summer of 2022, when the stock was at $20.46.

Spotify announces third round of layoffs

Spotify said Monday that it would cut nearly one-fifth of its workforce, its third round of layoffs this year, as it has struggled to become consistently profitable after spending aggressively to expand beyond music streaming into areas such as podcasting.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a note to employees posted on the company’s website that the platform now needed to “rightsize” to account for a “very different environment.” Spotify, which is based in Stockholm, will let go of about 1,500 people, or 17% of its staff.

Spotify’s cuts come as the technology industry reckons with the end of a decade of rock-bottom interest rates that propelled their growth, prompting the industry’s giants such as Amazon, Meta and Salesforce to cut costs and shed jobs.

— From news services