Posted on 04/23/2008 11:49:19 AM PDT by JZelle
With the world consuming more food than it produces and global grain stocks the lowest for 30 years, food prices are soaring from Indonesia to Indianapolis. Some experts called it the Perfect Storm and others a tsunami.
The global food crisis has a common denominator with the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now estimates at $1.1 trillion: Greed. Predatory lending coupled with criminal profiteering was behind the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund now estimates at $1.1 trillion. It is the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history. And greed also played a big part in the pell-mell rush to move land out of food production and into ethanol biofuels.
Corn at $6 a bushel is up 30 percent in four months. Wheat prices jumped 130 percent in a year and wheat stocks are at their lowest in 60 years. Globally, rice hit historic levels, partly driven by Australia's six years of drought.
India's finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said, "When millions of people are going hungry, it's a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels." World Bank President Robert Zoellick said surging food costs could translate into "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty. Thirty-three countries are at risk of social upheaval, he warned.
The head of one of the world's largest oil companies told us, not for attribution by name, that commodity speculators also bought gazillions in oil futures to sit on them until the profit looked right, then dribbled them out at $110 to $117 a barrel, double the price a year ago. Cynical speculators reckoned drivers would rather cut down on food for the family than gas for the car.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Gee, maybe you guys should farm some of that beef that is walking around on the streets past those people starving in the gutters.
Yeah and India just said they ain’t importing any wheat this year as they have had a bumper crop
When millions of people need fuel to remain employed so that their tax dollars can fund deadbeats eating in the third world, it's a crime against humanity that the flippin sand Arabs should be making obscene profits. Why don't you go talk to them and see if they will give you billions for free food, the way Uncle Sugar has for decades, you whiney Europeans?
That's some feat there, huh. When the first sentence is an obviouse lie there's no need reading any further.
A few years ago we were holding benefit concerts for bankrupt farmers. Now farmers are getting a little more for their crops.
I think thats a good thing. In the long run, a higher price means higher production.
The sky is falling, but it is also self-adjusting. It will all work out.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And, anyway, of course there are food riots, and the economy is the worst its ever been. Its an election year, and Republicans are up for re-election.
Its always the worst economy ever when Repubs are the incumbents.
Think back four years. Worst economy ever, until after the election. Then they re-did the calcs and announced, well, never mind.
“”When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels.” World Bank President Robert Zoellick”
We just can’t win, can we? We try to develop alternative fuels so we’re not contributing to Muslim terrorism and idiots like Chavez....but then we starve the world.
The evil U.S. at it again!
Classic Ghost Busters Scenario:
...real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!...Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...The dead rising from the grave!...Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - MASS HYSTERIA!
Arnaud de Borchgrave’s “analysis” is as emptily pompous as his preposterous name.
You can't lose what you never had and if you didn't cash in when the price was high, you never had it.
India’s wheat stocks swell, govt rules out imports
Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:30pm IST
NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - A record harvest and bulging government stocks will rule out wheat imports by India this year, while African countries are keen to buy grains from India, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday.
“There is no question of (wheat) imports this year. In fact, we might be able to keep some reserves for next year,” Pawar told reporters.
India imported 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2006 — its first purchases in six years — after a poor crop and had to go back to global markets for a smaller quantity at a higher price last year. It uses grain stocks to run welfare schemes.
Pawar said government agencies may buy 17-19 tonnes of new season wheat from local farmers this year, exceeding its target of 15 million tonnes.
“Farmers are selling about one million tonnes a day and we hope this trend to continue for at least next 10 days,” he said.
Pawar said the government had already achieved 60 percent of the procurement target and official agencies will lap up all the grain offered by farmers.
“My expectation is that my kitty position will rise substantially. Whatever wheat will come to the market, we will buy,” the minister said.
On Tuesday, India said it expected to harvest a record 76.78 million tonnes of wheat this year, about two million tonnes more than previously forecast.
Fast-rising food prices have pushed inflation to three-year peaks in recent weeks and India has moved to boost supplies of staple commodities.
Pawar said African countries were keen to buy grains from India, but did not say which staple they were seeking.
“There is tremendous pressure from some African countries for supplying foodgrains to them, but we are taking a little conservative approach,” he said.
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINDEL31325420080423
Consumer interest in ethanol, as well as rising prices for food and consumer goods, only follows skyrocketing fuel prices. To say that using grains for fuel is the only cause for food shortages is the sort of analysis that selectively picks its facts. Ethanol production is only a middle link in a chain of events that led us to this point.
It seems the WT doesn’t allow any copying and pasting from their news articles. But at the bottom of the first page of the article, we again see the rise in food prices (as we see for the rise in most all prices), attributed to rising incomes in India, China and other Asian nations and increased demand for food products. But we never see hard numbers that China or India consumed _____ tons more this year than last year of rice or wheat, or more of this or that product than last year.
All we get is the general statements. Those numbers exist and would provide more credible information than all these used to death general statements.
It might make one suspicious, and I think there does need to be some review and oversight of all commodities futures markets. I hear some analysts put more and more of the blame on futures markets, but it’s hard to get a handle of how the various elements of price are affecting the current sharp increases.
While what you say is true and my property taxes will be lower this year, getting an assessment that said my home was worth $55,000 less than it was a year ago still stung a little bit. C’est la vie.
Unfortunately, due to a combination of willful stupidity on the part of borrowers, greed on the part of mortgage brokers and lenders, and good old self-interested inattention on the part of our faithful public servants, there are 1500 existing homes in my zip code that are in some stage of the foreclosure process.
In addition, local builders are having to sell new construction homes very cheaply as well. Just had a single co-worker close on a new 3500 sqft townhouse at less than $90/sqft (about $15/sqft off of the national average). Tough competition to overcome. Fortunately, we don’t intend to sell for another two years. That’s good because it will probably take that long to clear out the backlog.
Great time to be a buyer. (If you have the down payment and can get a mortgage, that is.)
If you want to check out the situation in your zipcode, here is a link. Just plug in the desired zip code:
http://www.all-foreclosure.com/
Instead of giving brazillions of dollars to the world's poor so that they can continue to eat and reproduce, why don't we just pay them not to have kids?
Poverty and hunger solved within a generation.
Obviously the food riots in Haiti... that brought down their government, were simply staged to make Bush look bad.
How about that moon landing, too?
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