Ping.
There are a lot of hedge funds that are going to go broke betting on crops two years in advance. With the wild weather the past couple of years, even farmers are not crazy enough to do that. You better hope your fund isn’t betting against the weather.
The main sponsors of the so-called news media started the propaganda scare that fired the food scare “speculators” up. Before that, they paid to have lots of propaganda spewed about a recession to come then put a lock against hiring the first of December.
They want to slow certain communist Asian economies down a little in order to bring oil down and the dollar back up. They are the “free traders.” But they won’t get what they want before getting enough courage to stop trying to hinder defense (Iran) and letting oil go temporarily high, until that’s done.
Oil will go much higher and the dollar much lower, after Iran has nuclear weapons. It’s time to find the will to fight that our previous generations had.
A smart feller with a bit of capital could make a buck or two.
Central bankers love to play this misdirection game - getting the media and the public to blame “speculators” for inflation that results from them printing too much money.
Have there been dramatic declines in rice production? Is rice used in the manufacture of biofuels?
Why do the leaders of Somalia refuse to give grains from the largess of the US? They have dumped untold tons of grain from piers into the ocean.
Didn’t Kenya steal all the farms from whites and give them to locals who couldn’t grow anything?
This is BS, pure and simple.
Globull food shortage = globull warming. Same story, different issue.
Welcome to one of the major components to high oil prices. Only with oil, there are VERY few companies that can actually take deliveries. So the rich keep on getting richer there.
At least with food futures, it’s open to more speculators.
Mid 2000s: Real estate bubble.
Later 2000s: Commodities bubble.
The statist solution is simple. Outlaw speculative bubbles.
“Vast amounts of money are flooding the world’s commodities markets, driving up price.”
No they aren’t somebody needs to learn about futures before he opens his mouth. why doesnt he go to the Chicago Board of Trade and get some information.
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"Rice yields globally expanded more than 40% from 1980 to 2000, according to data compiled by the USDA. They've increased only about 5% since then, the data show. Stockpiles will fall to 75.2 million tons, about half of where they were at the start of the decade, the USDA said."
Now there are some people who love to say production is still increasing, while at the same time, ignoring real numbers that show inventories dwindling.
http://www.financialpost.com/small_business/story.html?id=428566
http://www.setamericafree.org/wordpress/?p=390
Here’s a link to an interesting article by Bob Zubin, author of “Energy Victory”. To my surprise, there’s been a substantial increase in corn, wheat and soybean planting above the increase devoted to biofuel production. Food and fuel do not seem to be in competition.
I’m not sure that we’re having a classical inflation (The Wall Street Journal editorial board certainly disagrees with me on that). All real asset prices would be rising, including housing. It seems that capital has fled real estate and is now going into commodities, since commodities have risen dramatically while housing and real estate have fallen dramatically.