Roubini’s Next Crisis Is Scary Food for Thought

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



Roubini’s Next Crisis Is Scary Food for Thought: William Pesek
By William Pesek - Feb 13, 2011 3:00 PM ET


Forget Egypt for a moment. Skip the water crisis in China. Look past angst on the streets of Bangladesh. If you want to see how extreme the effects of surging food prices are becoming, look to wealthy Japan.

So big are the increases that economists are buzzing about them pushing deflationary Japan toward inflation. Yes, rising costs for commodities such as wheat, corn and coffee might do what trillions of dollars of central-bank liquidity couldn’t.

Yet the economic consequences of food prices pale in comparison with the social ones. Nowhere could the fallout be greater than Asia, where a critical mass of those living on less than $2 dollars a day reside. It might have major implications for Asia’s debt outlook. It may have even bigger ones for leaders hoping to keep the peace and avoid mass protests.

What a difference a few months can make. Back in, say, October, the chatter was about Asia’s invulnerability to Wall Street’s woes. Now, governments in Jakarta, Manila and New Delhi are grappling with their own subprime crisis of sorts. This one reflects a toxic mix of suboptimal food stocks, exploding demand, wacky weather and zero interest rates around the globe. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-13/roubini-s-next-crisis-makes-food-for-thought-commentary-by-william-pesek.html

[leveymg]

1. Rendition the food speculators to GITMO. That'll cool the markets.

Some things are too important to leave to the tender mercies of global commodities and currency arbitragers.

[marmar]

2. Agree completely.

A civilization that allows human necessities to be gamed by Wall Street is headed for a spectacular crash.

[leveymg]

6. We're in the midst of a controlled crash. The next stage in a current accounts crisis after

a blowout of bubble assets markets and an attack on financial intermediaries (banks) is a hedge fund raid on the currency. The rise in prices of goods that are globally marketed as Dollar-denominated commodities is a sign that we've reached that penultimate stage.

After devaluation, we'll see social crises that will further force down prices, leading to bankruptcies and forced distress sales of most remaining assets, and then the obvious colonization of the US economy or the rise of a Putin-type strong man who will nationalize what's left.

[Chimichurri]

5. totally

[OHdem10]

3. FDR had put in place laws which forbid speculation on food,

but Deregulation, you know.

Hedging was permitted but not speculation.
Senator Dorgan on the Ed Show last week.

[femrap]

4. I believe the culprit is

The Fed....printing all that money. Asset bubble after asset bubble. Now the money is flooding into commodities.

Droughts/Floods/Freezes are also responsible which lowers Supply. Demand is increasing. I've read that grain supplies in the US have never been lower.

I've also read that China is buying up farmland worldwide!! Even here in the US. So they'll grow food in other nations and ship it back to China.

Basically, there are just too many damn people on the planet. We've been warned about this for decades. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Food Shortages coming.

A drought/flood/freeze can turn a Recession into a Depression very quickly.

I guess TPTB just want to starve the world.

END WORLD HUNGER. EAT THE RICH!