THE COMING GREAT HUNGER: =91Global Famine? Blame The U.S. Federal
Reserve And Ben Bernanke=92
=91Global Famine? Blame the Fed=92
By Mike Whitney.
via Information Clearing House,
25 April, 2008.
The stakes couldn't be higher for Ben Bernanke. If the Fed chief
decides to lower rates at the end of April, he could be condemning
millions of people to an agonizing death by starvation. The situation
is that serious; there's no room for error. Food riots have broken out
across the globe destabilizing large parts of the developing world.
China is experiencing double-digit inflation. Indonesia, Vietnam and
India have imposed controls over rice ex****ts. Wheat, corn and soya
are at record highs and threatening to go higher still. Commodities
are up across the board. The World Food Program is warning of
widespread famine if the West doesn't provide emergency humanitarian
relief. The situation is dire. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez summed
it up like this, "It is a massacre of the world's poor. The problem is
not the production of food. It is the economic, social and political
model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis."
Right on, Hugo. There is no shortage of food; it's just the prices
that are making food unaffordable. Bernanke's "weak dollar" policy has
ignited a wave of speculation in commodities which is pu****ng prices
into the stratosphere. The UN is calling the global food crisis it a
"silent tsunami", but its more like a flood; the world is awash in
increasingly worthless dollars that are making food and raw materials
more expensive. Foreign central banks and investors presently hold $6
trillion in dollars and dollar-backed assets, so when the dollar
starts to slide, the pain radiates through entire economies. This is
especially true in countries where the currency is pegged to the
dollar. That's why most of the Gulf States are experiencing runaway
inflation. This doesn't mean that oil depletion, biofuel production,
over-population, and giant agribusinesses don't add to the problem.
They do. But the catalyst is the Fed's monetary policies; that's the
domino that puts the others in motion. Here's Otto Spengler's summary
in his recent article in Asia Times, "Rice, Death and the Dollar":
"The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended
consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market
failure. There are long-term reasons for food prices to rise, but the
unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from
the weakness of the American dollar. Wa****ngton's economic misery now
threatens to become a geopolitical catastrophe....The link between the
declining parity of the US unit and the rising price of commodities,
including oil as well as rice and other wares, is indisputable.
Never before in history has hunger become a global threat in a period
of plentiful harvests. Global rice production will hit a record of 423
million tons in the 2007-2008 crop year, enough to satisfy global
demand. The trouble is that only 7% of the world's rice supply is
ex****ted, because local demand is met by local production. Any
significant increase in rice stockpiles cuts deeply into available
supply for ex****t, leading to a spike in prices. Because such a small
pro****tion of the global rice supply trades, the monetary shock from
the weak dollar was sufficient to more than double its price." ("Rice,
death and the dollar", By Otto Spengler, Asia Times)
The US is ex****ting its inflation by cheapening its currency. Now a
field worker in Haiti who earns $2 a day, and spends all of that to
feed his family, has to earn twice that amount or eat half as much.
That's not a choice a parent wants to make. Its no wonder that six
people were killed ****t au Prince in the recent food riots. People go
crazy when they can't feed their kids.
Food and energy prices are sucking the life out of the global
economy. Foreign banks and pension funds are trying to protect their
investments by diverting dollars into things that will retain their
value. That's why oil is ****ging $120 per barrel when it should be in
the $70 to $80 range.
According to Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup in New York,
=93There=92s no supply-demand deficit". None. In fact suppliers are
expecting an oil surplus by the end of this year.
"The case for lower oil prices is straightforward: The prospect of
a deep U.S. recession or even a marked period of slower economic
growth in the world=92s top energy consumer making a dent in energy
consumption. Year to date, oil demand in the U.S. is down 1.9%
compared with the same period in 2007, and high prices and a weak
economy should knock down U.S. oil consumption by 90,000 barrels a day
this year, according to the federal Energy Information
Administration." ("Bears Baffled by Oil Highs" gregory Meyer, Wall
Street Journal)
There's no oil shortage; that's another ruse. Speculators are simply
driving up the price of oil to hedge their bets on the falling dollar.
What else can they do; put them in the frozen bond market, or the
sinking stock market, or the collapsing housing market? The Fed has
gummed up the entire financial system with its low-interest credit
scam; now it's on to commodities where the real pain is just beginning
to be felt. What a mess!
This is what happens when there's too many dollars slo****ng around
the system; they all need a place to rest, and when they do, they
create equity bubbles. Sound familiar? Indeed. This is Greenspan's
legacy in a nutshell; the dark specter of Maestro will continue to
haunt the world until all the hyper-inflated asset-classes (real
estate, bonds, stocks, commodities) return to earth and all the red
ink is mopped up. That'll take time, but Bernanke could make things a
lot easier if he accepted some responsibility for the current turmoil
and raised rates by 25 basis points. That would show speculators that
the Fed was serious about defending the currency which would send the
commodities bubble cra****ng to earth. Prices would go down overnight;
guaranteed.
But Bernanke won't raise rates because he doesn't really give a hoot
about the people in Cameroon who have to scavenge through garbage-
dumps for a few morsels to keep their families alive. Nor does he care
about the average American working-stiff who gets cardiac-arrest every
time he pulls up to the gas pump. What matters to Bernanke is making
sure that his fat-cat buddies in the banking establishment get a
steady stream of low interest loot so they can paper-over their bad
investments and ward off bankruptcy for another day or two. Its a
joke; it was the investment banks that started this downward spiral
with their rotten mortgage-backed securities and other debt-exotica.
Still, in Bernanke's mind, they are the only ones who really count.
And don't expect Bush to step in and save the day either. The
"Decider" still believes in the unrestricted activity of the free
market; especially when his crooked friends can make a buck on the
deal
From the Wa****ngton Times:
"Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal
officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying
that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans
are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation
of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas. Costco and other
grocery stores in California re****ted a run on rice, which has forced
them to set limits on how many sacks of rice each customer can buy.
Filipinos in Canada are scooping up all the rice they can find and
****pping it to relatives in the Philippines, which is suffering a
severe shortage that is leaving many people hungry." (Patrice Hill,
Wa****ngton Times)
The Bush administration knows there's hanky-panky going on, but they
just look the other way. It's Enron redux, where Ken Lay Inc. scalped
the public with utter impunity while regulators sat on the sidelines
applauding. Great. Now its the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC) turn; they're taking a hands-off approach so Wall Street
sharpies make a fortune jacking up the price of everything from soda
crackers to toilet bowls.
"A hearing Tuesday in Wa****ngton before the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission starts a new round of scrutiny into the popularity
of agricultural futures, a once a quieter arena that for years was
dominated largely by big producers and consumers of crops and their
banks trying to manage price risks. The commission's official stance
and that of many of the exchanges, however, is likely to disappoint
many consumer groups. The CFTC's economist plans to state at the
hearing that the agency doesn't believe financial investors are
driving up grain prices. Some grain buyers say speculators' big bets
on relatively small grain exchanges, especially recently, are pu****ng
up prices for ordinary consumers. ("Call Goes Out to Rein In Grain
Speculators", Ann Davis)
"The agency doesn't believe financial investors are driving up grain
prices"?!?
Prices have doubled, people are starving, and the Bush troop is still
parroting the same worn party-mantra. Its maddening.
The US has been gaming the system for decades; sucking up two-thirds
of the world's capital to expand its cache of Cadillac Escalades and
flat-screen TVs; giving nothing back in return except mortgage-backed
junk, cluster bombs, and crummy green paper. Nothing changes; it only
gets worse. But this is different. The world is now facing the very
real prospect of "completely avoidable" famine because twelve
doddering old banksters at the Federal Reserve would rather bailout
their sketchy friends and preserve their spot at the top of the
economic food-chain then save the lives of starving women and
children. Bernanke now has an op****tunity to do more damage than Bush
with one swipe of the pen. If he cut rates; the dollar will fall,
commodities will spike, and people will starve. It's as simple as
that.
- o O o =96
UNITED STATES GET'S READY TO FIGHT ISRAEL'S NEXT WAR: 'Joint Chiefs
Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran'
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042501=
480_pf.html
See Also:
'Was April 20th The Original Date Of The Planned U.S. 'Air Strike' On
Iran?' http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/IRANPLAN.HTM
'Is A U.S./Israeli Air Strike On Iran Drawing Steadily Closer?' (News
Updates) http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/IRANWAR.HTM
- o O o =96
See also:
'Global Starvation - Coming Soon To Europe And North America, Too?'
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/FOODLOSS.HTM
'The Coming Great Food Shortages In America' by Texe Marrs
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/TEXMARRS.HTM
'Sorting Through The Rubble In Post-Bubble America'
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/MELTDWN1.HTM
The Coming U.S. Economic and Financial Meltdown'
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/MELTDOWN.HTM
'The U.S. Economic and Financial Meltdown Accelerates'
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/MELTDWN2.HTM
'No End In Sight As U.S. Financial Crisis Deepens'
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/MELTDWN3.HTM
- o O o -
Did Tsar Nicholas II Of Russia And The Romanov Royal Family Die In The
Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg - Or Did Britain And The U.S. Cooperate
In Their Secret Rescue...?
History says 'NO', but some surprising voices say 'YES!'
Read online or download for free the 1920's book, 'Rescuing The Czar:
Two Authentic Diaries', together with some equally surprising news
re****ts, at http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/histrus3.htm
You'll find a wide range of other free online classic history and
travel books (on English history, American History, Canadian History,
European History, Napoleonic History, Russian History, German History,
Greek and Roman History), plus the books of Jane Austen, at
http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/freehist.htm
(Some of these books will be uploaded over the next few days, so if
you click on a book title on that page which doesn't presently work,
pleade try it again in a day or so.)
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