Posts tagged markets

I think we are in for a very serious situation worldwide.

Robert Thompson, a food security expert at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs from the Guardian on the ‘corn crisis’ and respective drought effects on US agriculture.

  1. I predicted this; for agricultural political scientists, this was as plain as day. High market percentage + unstable weather patterns/repetitive history (Dust Bowl) = global vulnerability.
  2. Say what you will about USAG(riculture) - and SAY PLENTY - but this will be devastating for world (wide) hunger.
  3. This experience will (hopefully) inform our knowledge of artificially deflated agricultural markets (corn, US subsidies) and ‘comparative advantage’ … and HOPEFULLY NAFTA.
  4. If you have questions about this situation, global agricultural markets, technicalities (subsidies, comparative advantage, etc), or agricultural trade, ask.

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Speculative investment in agricultural commodities in 2011 was 20 times the amount spent by all countries on agricultural aid. Goldman Sachs, the largest player in the agricultural commodities market, earned £600m from food speculation in 2009, and Barclays Capital, the world’s third-largest player and largest British bank in this market, earned up to £340m in 2010, according to the report. Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital declined to comment.

Before it was deregulated in the year 2000, the agricultural commodities futures market was used mainly by farmers and food buyers seeking to insure themselves against changes in the prices of products such as wheat, maize and sugar. When George W Bush passed the Commodities Futures Modernization Act 12 years ago, there was an influx, led by Goldman Sachs, of purely financial players who had no interest in ever buying food, but who sought solely to profit from changes in food prices, says Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food.

Grace Livingstone from the Independent (hat tip to somerandomhash).

What fuzzy concepts in agricutlural political economy do readers want/need clarified?

Now accepting questions on global food production, supply chains, agricultural political economy, food security, global governance of food, and history of agricultural trade (anons feel free).

if you’re at all interested in markets, capitalism (anti/pro), finance, financial security, economics, politics, the Eurozone, recessions, downturns, or REVOLUTION … really anything at all in life, WATCH THIS.

this guy… he’s just so completely candid, and its startling.

Goldmann Sachs rules the world…

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