Free Republic

A combination of shocks is rippling through emerging market economies and has sparked soaring food and energy inflation, power blackouts, and social unrest. Countries with the weakest balance sheets and high debt loads appear to be sliding first into turmoil. This could be the beginning innings of an emerging market crisis last seen in the 1990s when socio-economic distress toppled governments, according to Bloomberg. Already, skyrocketing food and energy prices have caused turmoil in Sri Lanka, Peru, Egypt, and Tunisia. The chaos could broaden as some emerging market countries, heavily saturated with debt, could be shocked by higher debt-servicing costs...

At this moment, food prices all over America are at incredibly low levels. I know what many of you must be thinking. You must be thinking that I have lost my mind, because food prices have been rising at a very rapid rate all over the country. But when I say that food prices are at “incredibly low levels”, I am not comparing them to where they were in the past. Rather, I am comparing current prices to where they will be in the future. Yes, things are bad now, but food prices will be much higher a year or...

Expert: The CCP Fears Sanctions A senior Chinese business finance columnist, Chen Siyu, told The Epoch Times that Western sanctions against Russia struck fear into the CCP. And that Beijing will incur massive technological and economic losses if its overseas assets are confiscated by the United States and other western countries. Thus, it is rapidly selling overseas assets and returning CNOOC to domestic IPOs. Chen said the CCP has been stealing Western technologies through its “Thousand Talents Program (TTP)” and “Made in China 2025 Initiative (MIC 2025)” to cut corners in its R&D and overtake Western technological advancements. TTP is...

What are the odds? Just after Joe Biden warned the nation of “very real” food shortages, multiple food processing plants and food companies were destroyed or damaged. Multiple fires and explosions have been reported at these plants across the nation. But here’s the thing: fires and explosions are rare at food companies. Trending: Secret Audio Recording Catches MSM In A New Huge Lie About Trump! Sure, it happens occasionally. That’s what you call an emergency. But what are the odds of multiple “emergencies” happening just as Biden warns of food shortages? In fact, over 20 food processing plants were shut...

Meanwhile, food prices in the U.S. are rising at historic rates, while prices for commodities like wheat and corn are at their highest levels in a decade. What’s more, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that food-at-home prices will see an increase of up to 4% by the end of 2022. “It’s particularly severe because we are just coming out of a recovery from a two-and-a-half-year pandemic that had severe implications on the prices of goods and services as well as the price of commodities,” according to Johanna Mendelson-Forman, adjunct professor at the American University in the School of International...

A combination of factors has sent corn futures in Chicago to the highest level in a decade as investors fret over dwindling supplies. Corn futures haven’t exceeded $8 a bushel since September 2012, following a devastating drought that damaged crops across the U.S. Midwest. Now supply risks return but for different reasons. The global outlook for corn supplies has plunged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in late February. The war-torn country supplies a fifth of the world’s corn and could experience a 50% decline in output this year.Soaring fertilizer costs have forced some farmers in the U.S. to increase...

A fertilizer supply shock is imminent for US farmers as CF Industries Holdings, Inc. warned Thursday that rail shipments of crop nutrients would be reduced to top agricultural states, which couldn’t come at the worst time as the Northern Hemisphere spring planting season is underway. The world’s largest fertilizer company said Union Pacific had hit it with railroad-mandated shipping reductions that would impact nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate shipments to Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and California. Union Pacific told CF Industries without advance notice to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad immediately....

What happens in France happens in Belgium and vice versa. Our two countries are very close, in good and bad ideas. Here it is not a question of value judgment on the rationing which would be good or bad. In reality it is inevitable because we are entering the era of structural scarcity. War in Ukraine. In Belgium, the time has already come for the first rationing of foodstuffs “In Belgium, several large retailers – including Lidl, Aldi and Carrefour – have decided to ration certain food products, in order to avoid a shortage. For the moment, no store has...

The overall citrus crop for the current year is on pace to fill 42.6 million boxes.Florida's struggling citrus industry continues to see a decline in the crop for the current growing season, with the harvest on track for the lowest yield since before World War II. With the latest sign of trouble for the industry attributed to a recent cold snap, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday dropped its Florida orange forecast by more than 7 percent from the March update, pushing the decline since the first forecast was issued in October to nearly 19 percent. Meanwhile, grapefruit production...

Editor’s Commentary: There was a time not so long ago when I would lambast “Chicken Littles” for claiming we’re on the verge of an economic collapse. I’ve been hearing it for decades and I’ve made a habit of pushing back. Even as recently as 2020, I railed against those who were buying up all the face masks, flour, and hand sanitizer because I thought the unhinged reaction to the pandemic was destructive, not to mention my annoyance of having to go to the grocery store several days in a row to find out they still had no toilet paper. This...

U.S. consumers’ loyalty to brand names at supermarkets is quickly evolving as they try new grocery products amid snarled supply chains and high inflation. Top food companies like Kraft Heinz Co. and Kellogg Co. are at dire risk of losing market share as supermarket operators grapple with shortages and fill empty store shelves with lower-cost brands, industry insiders told WSJ. American households are money-conscious more than ever as inflation hits four-decade highs and takes a bite out of their monthly spending budgets. Some consumers have broken ranks of years and years of brand loyalty only to buy whatever is on...

The White House’s chief economist told reporters at a daily press briefing on Monday that American farmers will respond to “price signals” to increase crop production to mitigate food shortages worldwide following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A reporter asked Cecilia Rouse, the chair of President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, about the White House’s plan to deal with food shortages when it comes to wheat. Rouse said, “well, first we are a net exporter of many food commodities, and farmers respond to price signals, and so with the price of food rising, they will be responding by making additional...

Sen. Roger Marshall (KS), who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Maria Bartiromo this morning, that he expects a worldwide famine beginning in the next year and worsening the following year. Sen. Marshall recently returned from Poland and said that the military aid we're sending to Ukraine is being slow walked for some reason and isn't getting into Ukraine fast enough. He said he heard from people on the ground that our allies have been whispered to, to not expedite aide and weapons. He has no explanation for why this is happening. In a following interview with Brett Velicovich,...

“We’re billions short," he said. "Failure to provide this year a few extra billion dollars means you’re going to have famine, destabilization and mass migration.” Beasley's intervention will sharpen minds as EU governments draw up plans to address the food crisis resulting from the war, with a proposal expected as early as Wednesday. Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest producers and exporters of grain. The disruption caused by the war has a direct impact on countries that rely on these supplies in the Middle East and Africa. Half of Africa's wheat imports come from Ukraine and Russia, which...

Tens of thousands of police officers were deployed to China’s Xi’an where public anger has exploded among the city’s 13 million residents who were left bargaining and bartering for essential foodstuffs amid ongoing food shortages, as the city entered its 13th day of lockdown amid a wave of COVID-19 cases. As some people took to social media to appeal for assistance as their food supplies ran low, or they were unable to access medical care, others started local trading networks in residential compounds to try to meet each other’s needs through bartering. “Everything is getting bartered in Xi’an,” a resident...

NYC's bagel cafes are making pleas for cream cheese amidst a growing supply chain shortage, with many just days away from running out of the classic spread From Zabar's to Pick-a-Bagel, bagel makers citywide say they barely have a few days' supply left, threatening to take a NYC delicacy off the menu indefinitely Absolute Bagels on the Upper West Side currently has enough cream cheese to last them until Thursday Nick Patta of Absolute Bagels said that his Queens-based cream cheese supplier had run out of cream cheese for the first time that in over a decade New York bagel...

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Joe Biden made sure to remind Americans that Big Government is meeting the “needs” of the public, and that his administration is in full control over the food supply. Pretending that the economy is in a state of recovery, the Biden administration ignores the growing problems of rapid inflation and food rationing. Reading from his weekly propaganda script, Joe Biden touted that grocery stores were “well-stocked with turkey” and “everything else” that Americans “need.” He made the announcement at the same time Publix announced a long list of food item shortages across 1,280 stores. “For all...

President Joe Biden tweeted Wednesday that supermarket shelves are well stocked across the country while grocers ration food. “For all those concerns a few weeks ago that there would not be ample food available for Thanksgiving, families can rest easy today,” Biden claimed. “Grocery stores are well-stocked with turkey and everything else you need,” the president added. Meanwhile, Publix Supermarkets, a Florida-based grocer, warned customers this week to expect food shortages in all 1,280 stores across the southeast.

Social media platforms are getting flooded with testimonies from farmers, friends of farmers and people who work with farmers explaining how the Biden regime is now paying the people who grow America’s food supply to destroy it. At a time when inflation is soaring, Washington, D.C., is ordering farmers to plow under the crops they worked so hard to grow. In exchange, these farmers are reportedly being paid high dollar for their obedience (watch below): VIDEO (language warning) “This year, farmers are being offered 1.5 times the value of their crops to destroy them,” one man in the above video...

Michael Yon is traveling along the Mexican border with Josh Phillips of Epoch Times. He asked Josh why Xi of China has warned Chinese citizens to start storing food. Josh’s response is fascinating. I’d post the video but I’m not sure how.