101 East -World rice prices at a record high-31 July08 Part2

The recent global food shortage has led many analysts to declare that the era of cheap food is over. The emergence of affluent consumers in India and China has resulted in food demand outstripping supply, while the rise in fuel prices has meant an increase in the cost of food production.

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• rice
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[lookingforthemeaning]

why doesnt the school grow its own food from heir loom seeds.

as a school project?

[lastnymleft]

* OPEC report says for every 1% decline in the USD, oil rises $4: v=wLnAgiXOLug

* Monetary policy 80-90% of problem: v=iwAHnpIR8is

* Monetary policy adjustments (ie a weak dollar policy) show up in various parts of the economy at different times. Wall Street and international traders (ie oil, food) see new money first. Inflation takes around 18 months to flow through to consumer. A LOT more inflation to come!

* Inflation IS going up all over the place. They are fudging the CPI number to hide it.

[jammoexii]

You fail at economics. Are you just pulling these numbers out of your ass? Where do you get your numbers from? If it was 80-90% based on the dollar, you'd see the price of EVERYTHING go up at a rate sort of within 10-20% of each other (but not quite because the math is a little more complicated and "the problem" isn't really a mathematically precise term). The point is this isn't what you see.

[lastnymleft]

In futures there is a party and a counter-party. People putting money into the area are INVESTORS because they know the USD is going to continue to be driven down by the Fed. This money will incite greater supply, leading to a food glut, since there is no actual shortage now.

Monetary policy is 80-90% of the problem, AT LEAST. Giving airtime to the negligible "supply and demand" and "speculation" aspects gives the Fed a free pass. Bush et al just don't want to be blamed for "world hunger"...too

[jammoexii]

My whole point, which you seem to have missed entirely (miraculously, as it was simply put and pretty clear, and obvious anyway), was that when you have situations like this there are a number of factors that create and influence it. Supply and demand is some of it, speculation is another, the US dollar and economic situation more broadly is another, and so on.

[lastnymleft]

Pretty much everyone who makes broad statements about those proffering explanations and answers to problems has their head up their butt.

Supply and demand (use of foods by biofuels, decreasing land under croppage, increased urbanization, growth in China and India, etc.) are no more than 10-20% of the problem. You can focus on that if you want, facilitating world hunger by avoiding the elephant in the room, if you like. I'll focus on what actually matters.

[jammoexii]

Pretty much everyone who says very broad problems have one narrow cause and solution is wrong.

[lastnymleft]

She's right on a couple of points, but her main one - that food prices need to be regulated - is wrong. It is government interference in the market that has *caused* this food crisis. Just as it has created the oil crisis. Specifically, it is the US government and Federal Reserve flooding the world with USD, to try to prop up the US economy. Every USD created out of thin air devalues every USD already in existence, meaning everything traded in USD becomes more expensive: oil, rice, wheat, etc.

[lastnymleft]

HIV aids, tuberculosis, and pregnant and lactating women are all higher priority than children? Not how I would have put it. These children need to become educated, so that they can get themselves out of the situation where *their* children are clearing fields for $1 per day.

But it's not a choice that should be made. Let's be clear here: George W Bush, Ben Bernanke, and the US' Federal Reserve banking system is to blame for this round of world hunger. It's the falling USD that is to blame here

[GodSaveThePres]

wow ...