Here in Malawi, deep fertilizer subsidies and lesser ones for seed, abetted by good rains, helped farmers produce record-breaking corn harvests in 2006 and 2007, according to government crop estimates.
Top clubs such as United, which earned £34m last year from domestic-TV rights, resent the implicit subsidy to lesser clubs.
In short: "The employer will pay the lesser of A) the average subsidy in the exchange times the number of subsidized workers or B) $400 times the total number of workers".
Among the most contentious issues: The United States, Australia and many developing countries that have comparative advantages in farm goods are pushing hard on agricultural subsidies against Japanese, and to a lesser extent, South Korean and European resistance.
In many Western countries, budget cuts are increasing pressure to curb subsidies for renewable energy (and, to a lesser extent, subsidies on oil and natural gas).
The industry in Europe blames the crisis on state-owned steel companies in China – and to a lesser extent Russia and Belarus – that benefit from loans and subsidies that allow them to produce below cost.
And while I don't have space to describe all his tussles, or even the lesser ones like his fight with the agricultural lobby against sugar subsidies, I thought that, amidst all these charges, it might be worth noting some of the McCain highlights from the past dozen years.
"And, in fact, with subsidy, many people will be getting better plans at a lesser cost.
Skilled people saw their marginal tax rates increase less because a number of the new subsidies were fixed dollar amounts, and a fixed dollar amount is a lesser fraction of what a skilled person can earn than it is a fraction of what an unskilled person can earn.
When Congress passed a grotesque package of farm subsidies in 2002 and Mr Bush signed it, many Republicans were convinced that it was the lesser of two evils.
