Thank you Casey Serin.
Thank you mortgage brokers.
Thank you realtors.
Thank you investment bankers.
Thank you Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.
Thank you ethanol farmers.
Thank you George Bush.
Thank you General Motors.
Thank you Chinese communist party leaders.
And thank you American consumers and Wal-Mart shoppers.
You are now about to starve millions to death.
Hope it was worth it.
Donate to the World Hunger and Relief fund here. And stop using ethanol, stop buying Chinese crap at Wal-Mart and start connecting the dots.
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Further gains in food prices would be ``terrible'' for the world's poor and throw hundreds of thousands of them into starvation, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
Governments throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East are seeking to combat food inflation and avoid social unrest by curbing exports or lifting import duties on basic food staples such as rice. Global food prices surged 57 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the United Nations, and the World Bank warns civil disturbances may be triggered in 33 countries.
If food inflation keeps accelerating at its current rate ``the consequences will be terrible,'' Strauss-Kahn told reporters at the IMF's semi-annual meeting in Washington today. ``Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving, leading to a disruption in the economic environment.''
April 13, 2008
IMF: "Food-Price Inflation May Trigger Starvation"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
53 comments:
.
.
.
Governments throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East
Are these the same governments charging $112 a barrel for their oil...if they want us to freeze so maybe their citizens starving is fair play...
Arm them, bring them to Wall Street and let them have their revenge.
Food prices are just catching up to oil prices, steel prices, non-ferrous industrial metal prices, and precious metal prices. . . they all come down to one thing: the dabasement of dollar. If you use gold, silver, nickel, copper or oil as currency/unit-of-count, there hasn't been any real food price increase in the last 7 years.
FED is obviusly the main culprit for debasing the dollar; the REIC and wasteful administration are part and parcel of the money printing unholy trinity. Not sure why GM, Walmart or China were lumped into this tirade. These last three actually do their best trying to hold the price levels down. Ultimately, they all are/will be victims of the run-away inflation as higher commodity prices will make their costs higher. GM, Walmart and China perhaps should have their own currency so they don't have to deal with the rapidly vanishing dollar . . . perhaps a "Walt," equal to 4 gallons of gas, 12lbs of rice or wheat flour. There is already a coin for the "Walt": pre-1965 US coin with 90% silver. Would you believe it: a pre-1965 quarter-dollar (25 cents face value) is still worth about a gallon of gas at the pump today! after over four decades!
Umm ... back in the 1970s we were told we'd all die of starvation before 1990 due to the "population bomb." Or if that didn't kill us the next ice age was supposed to due to "global cooling."
More hype and bullsh*t from discredited fearmongers and profiteers.
GM - because they fought fuel-efficiency and pumped out gas-hog trucks, leading to an oil shortage and thus leading to ethanol production over food production
China - for manipulating their currency and loading up on US t-bills thus keeping US mortgage rates unnaturally low, causing the housing bubble, leading to the global imbalances which now caused RicePANIC. Oh, and for letting their economy grow to fast causing demand for resources to outpace capacity
Wal-Mart - See above
Keith,
There is no real shortage of oil or food . . . only higher prices in terms of the dollar. GM, Walmart and China brought all the goods to the US market because the consumers wanted to spend all the newly minted Federal Reserve Notes over the past couple decades, minted to bail out one Wall Street gambler after another. China's net purchase of T-Bill has been negative for the last 12 months, yet the treasury rates keep dropping! It's quite obvious that blaming China is merely a smokescreen: if the FED wants to lower the rate and debase the dollar, foreign help is quite unnecessary. GM, Walmart and China just delivered what American consumers wanted when Americans were stuff chock full of fiat money.
FORGIVE ME, FOR I JUST HAD A BIG RENTER STEAK (BURP) GRILLED BY A FORMER MORTGAGE BROKER AND SERVED UP BY A FORMER PHOENIX REALTOR.
DOPES!!!
You just don't factor in peakoil.
Peakoil allowed for so much building, so much wealth, so much stuff, to be made, sent, paid for, evaluated, and derivitized.
Let's step back and ask whose ideology is responsible.
Let's see. Greed, speculation, catering to the wealthy, indifference to the bottom 99% of the income scale.
I dunno, you think it's the liberals/socialists? Or maybe it's the greedbag conservative/capitalists?
Why don't some of you filthy American republicans take a wild guess?
This all really sucks. I am so Tired of my savings going to shit and having less purchasing power.
Thank you Ben Fucking Bernake. Thank you George Fucking Bush. Thank you Greedy Wall Fucking Street. Thank you Corrupt Fucking Politicians for turning your heads and accepting bribes (oh, I meant Consulting Fees...). Thank You God Dam Fucking Americans for Sleep Walking Through This Fucking Mess you bunch of lazy, ignorant, bithces (not HP'ers).
But I guess I am to blame also so thank fucking me.
How can any of us that are awake to what is going on make a difference?
Thank you commodities speculators.
Here is the most enlightening post you will ever read Keith and perhaps you should ponder this for a while...
Hyperinflation and economic depression are the exact same thing.
You can either be out of work, poor, with no money to buy food or...
You can be happily employed, your currency being debased(unknowingly), and no money to buy food.
They are both the same only the latter is less violent and more politically acceptable.
Humans are animals, violent animals. It is better to keep them poor and busy rather than poor with nothing else to do other than fight. Picture 300+ million animals on this continent(USA) with no food and nothing to do.
picture 4 billion starving animals in China with no food and nothing else to do.
If they work they don't fight
there was a song made during the gas crisis of the 70s. It was called "Cheaper Crude or No More Food". Someone should look it up, probably it would be very timely right now.
Michael Hudson published an article about compound interest and I think we're seeing the ramifications of that. Basically, the bottom line is that corporations and the wealthy want to live off interest and, in the process, kills off the economy since the return on the capital which backs the debt is less than the interest rate; thus, the corporations and the rich wind up owning everything and, as you guessed, the people are left with nothing.
If any country needs a starvation diet it is the U S of f-ing A, but we're exporting that too!
Something is disturbingly wrong these days. I've never seen a "recession" like this in my lifetime.
Should we be worried about food shortages or high price increases in the USA? Should I go out and buy a 40lb bag of rice? Is stocking up just unnecessary worry?
Where does this come from? Peak Oil
Where does Peak Oil come from? Overpopulation.
And our Gubermints are all squickish about any foreign aid for women which might ever mention "abortion".
When you have 8 starving children and no jobs, like everybody fucking else in your screwed up corrupt shithole of a country, the alternative to abortion and lots and lots of birth control is starvation and global poverty and breeding more and more hellholes.
Well, we need lots of abortion, sterilization, and many many fewer breeding units. Time to butch up about the reality of the world. Thermodynamics is NOT our friend and magical sky friends aren't going to save us from our idiocracy.
China's 1 child policy: the most important environmental policy anybody's ever done.
Of course China's leaders are total dicks about everything else environmental.
If they want to start impaling people I have a list already made up.
Very unlikely.
Improving existing satire-
THE TWELVE STEPS OF WALL STREET ANONYMOUS
1. We admitted we were powerless over the ability to make HUGE returns via leverage and risk that we don't understand (or care about) - that our lives had become unmanageable (and rather risky).
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (Federal Reserve) could restore us to sanity (it better or we are screwed).
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Federal Reserve as we understood Ben (our lawyers advised us to do that).
4. Made a searching and fearless moral financial inventory of ourselves (who wants to open pandoras box, anyone?).
5. Admitted to Federal Reserve, to ourselves and to another human being (investors) the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have Federal Reserve remove all these defects of character (there is no other way).
7. Humbly asked Ben to remove our shortcomings (we hope he can pull that of, can’t he?).
8. Made a list of all persons (even those that are not corporations) we have harmed pushed “financial engineering” on, and became willing to make amends to them all (if they do not lynch us first).
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible (10..er 5.. er 2 cents on the dollar), except when to do so would injure them or others (or ourself).
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it (better than facing the lynch mob).
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with Federal Reserve, as we understood Ben, praying only for knowledge of Bens will for us and the power to carry that out (did we mention about the “not getting lynched” part).
12. Having had a spiritual awakening (isn’t that perjury?) as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all manner of financial alchemists, and to practice these principles in all our affairs (wait a minute, they burnt the real alchemists for heresy & witchcraft, right?).
Who cares about starving people?
They don't drive Hummers or vote for George Bush/John McShitstain...
Let them at cake.
GM - because they fought fuel-efficiency and pumped out gas-hog trucks, leading to an oil shortage
There is no oil or gas shortage. When was the last time you went to the gas pump and found it empty? The food shortage is caused by human overpopulation. The same thing happens to any species when it overpopulates. Nature causes a die-off by famine and disease in order to restore balance. Those with superior genes will survive for round 2. If people would stop breeding like cockroaches, then there would be more resources for everyone as well as less environmental damage. The stupid masses are causing their own demise.
"leading to an oil shortage and thus leading to ethanol production over food production"
I disagree with this since ethanol production, at best, is a break even technology and probably requires as much oil energy to create as it generates in output. additionally, ground water, top soil, etc... are all wasted in the process.
I think ethanol is an economic invention that helps distribute wealth between oil producers and those living in the US since for every oil dollar spent abroad, there is one spent at home on ethanol.
Off topic but wonder if HPer's have heard:
Arab nations to approve a common currency by 2010. Google it for more info.
More proof the NWO is slowly becoming a reality.
-AF
its the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine ...
-rem
Let them eat oil.
Read your bible - Yes it will get much worse and if you're not saved, starving and all of the other calamities that are coming our way will be the least of your worries.
Just doing my part to warn everyone. I know I'll get flamed - No big deal.
If you don't get right with Christ, you'll have an eternity to contemplate that you were warned but were too full of yourself to properly investigate the truth.
God Bless!
So according to you Keith, it is America's fault. As always. Blame America for the world's problem. Get over yourself Keith, America is a great nation and we didn't have anything to do with high food prices.
The black and brown folks of the world have no one to blame but themselves. If they adopted free market principles like the U.S. then they wouldn't be in this poition.
You know high food prices will help agricultural dependent developing countries, it will also help out america sense we produce alot of the world food.
Maybe if the whole world was not dependent on the US I would feel bad. But we donate money to charity, we export tons of food and no one is greatfull for it. Let them starve.
"FORGIVE ME, FOR I JUST HAD A BIG RENTER STEAK (BURP) GRILLED BY A FORMER MORTGAGE BROKER AND SERVED UP BY A FORMER PHOENIX REALTOR."
Nice ... Tuesday I'm having a very expensive steak dinner with a Texas oil millionaire who is friends with Bush. (Seriously.)
Watch Arithmetic, Population, and Energy. Starvation isn't the problem, it's the solution. The solution that has been chosen for us because we refuse to choose a different solution for ourselves.
I think everyone should be very worried about meat prices.The cost of feed has almost doubled in the past months.When these costs are passed on many people will be unable to afford meat.Thanks Uncle Ben and Wall street.
Amazing how the socialist leaders of European countries are never to blame for anything. Makes sense since nobody in France or Germany or England or Spain drives or eats. And there was absolutely no housing bubble in the UK or Spain.
Oh and you forgot Haliburton on your list. Don't you know EVERYTHING is somehow traced back to Haliburton? Come on man, try to keep up.
Bitterenter,
Both the Dems and Reps have become socialist parties over the past few decades. Both have been massively expanding the government, thereby enriching the super-wealthy bankers, who collect interest on the government borrowing; since the government doesn't produce anything, all that interest has to be paid by the real people, either through taxation or inflation.
Greed in and of itself is not good or bad; it's just human nature. Put it another way, greed is just the desire to seek a better life for yourself and your own family. Both the Dems and Reps have been devising schemes where only they and their friends are allowed by law to exercise greed. Al Gore is a good example of this: he advocates that you and I should have smaller foot-prints on the environment, so he can have a big one for his own family, with their big SUV's and heated pool that run up $30k a year heating bills.
During good times couples have more children, but come the bad times, family size drops.
Financial problems definitely puts a crimp in couples sex lives.
Aren't Haitians' eating mud cookies to stay alive?
Forget the cake - let everyone eat (mud) cookies!
You are now about to starve millions to death.
--
Get a clue. This is exactly what they want. There are too many damn people on this planet and we need to trim the fat. F- all of you, I'll be in Iron Mountain.
I'm planning to increase my ethanol consumption. I don't feel guilty though - mine comes from Scotland, and my car ain't getting any.
Too many people on this planet as it is. If food gets too expensive and millions die, so be it.
It was only 20 years ago that the US Goobermint paid farmers not to grow crops in order to manipulate food prices.
Mark said:
"If they want us to freeze so maybe their citizens starving is fair play..."
To this bigot I say this:
1. Among the top 10 companies in the world, there are 4 oil giants, including number 1 Exxon. This tells u that the ones raking the benefits of the $112 a barrel are just around the corner from where you live.
2. Oil-producing countries are getting a maximum of 15 real dollars as a return on each barrel they extract and sell, after you factor in production costs + shipping + what Exxon, Shell, Amoco, Mobil, and all the Seven Mothers' take in from that oil revenue + the loss from the worthless dollar with which those countries continue to sell their most important natural resource.
3. It's people like you, who have no clue on what's going on in the world, who are pushing to snatch corn and sugarcane away from the poor in order to feed their hybrid cars.
Get off of your couch and do some research to see how much corn you need for you to travel 300 miles in the comfy seat of your stupid car. Match that with the minimum daily calorie intake a toddler in Africa, Latin America, or Asia needs to subsist, and get back to me with numbers (if you can), so that we know how many children you are killing in one single 300-mile stretch in your f*cking lousy car.
Oh! And by the way, 4 of the top five sales companies in the world are automakers. Imagine if all the cars sold out there start gobbling corn and drinking beer!
The fifth largest sales company is Wal Mart! I suggest you go there and buy some cheap, warm clothes made in China, and steer away from the bad habit of running your AC 24/7. It's not good for your health.
Mark said:
"If they want us to freeze so maybe their citizens starving is fair play..."
To this bigot I say this:
1. Among the top 10 companies in the world, there are 4 oil giants, including number 1 Exxon. This tells u that the ones raking the benefits of the $112 a barrel are just around the corner from where you live.
2. Oil-producing countries are getting a maximum of 15 real dollars as a return on each barrel they extract and sell, after you factor in production costs + shipping + what Exxon, Shell, Amoco, Mobil, and all the Seven Mothers' take in from that oil revenue + the loss from the worthless dollar with which those countries continue to sell their most important natural resource.
3. It's people like you, who have no clue on what's going on in the world, who are pushing to snatch corn and sugarcane away from the poor in order to feed their hybrid cars.
Get off of your couch and do some research to see how much corn you need for you to travel 300 miles in the comfy seat of your stupid car. Match that with the minimum daily calorie intake a toddler in Africa, Latin America, or Asia needs to subsist, and get back to me with numbers (if you can), so that we know how many children you are killing in one single 300-mile stretch in your f*cking lousy car.
Oh! And by the way, 4 of the top five sales companies in the world are automakers. Imagine if all the cars sold out there start gobbling corn and drinking beer!
The fifth largest sales company is Wal Mart! I suggest you go there and buy some cheap, warm clothes made in China, and steer away from the bad habit of running your AC 24/7. It's not good for your health.
"greed is just the desire to seek a better life for yourself and your own family"
Time to get a new dictionary bro.
Greed - excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions.
Your definition is not even close.
"Cheaper crude or no more food" - mentioned above. I remember that song well when it was new. Also, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran (to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann". A real funny song... the only words I recall were "Old Uncle Sam's gettin' pretty hot - Time to turn Iran into a parking lot"
As for the "Cheaper Crude" song, it can be heard here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/05/songs_of_bygone.html - just click on the play arrow next to the title on that page. There's some other topical songs about gas there too that you may or may not remember.
"I think everyone should be very worried about meat prices.The cost of feed has almost doubled in the past months.When these costs are passed on many people will be unable to afford meat."
I guess we'll have to go and lower the heart disease rate like what happened during WWII.
I don't know what I'm doing. I've been following my gut. When I follow my gut I feel stupid, like I'm losing my mind and then my gut ends up being right.
I bought wheat at $8.00 for 50#.(I'm set up to grind it and make my own bread) Felt dumb. Now it's 30-40 bucks for 50#.
I went and bought several 50# bags of rice for $13.50.
I told the checker that there would be riots over food soon. Things I blurt out like that often end up happening. I told him to remember me, the CRAZY guy. A month later there are riots. We'll see if the riots come to the USA later.
Do you think America is immune? I'm feeling the pinch already...and I don't have the Gold investment I should have started 5 years ago when I started saving cold hard cash.
Sure I've been saving cash, but the value of the cash has been eroded by the God Damn Federal Reserve and if I had bought Gold back then I'd be in good shape.
Now I think its too late to buy Gold, so I gotta live with my ever increasing worthless dollars. Inflation of food prices is hurting American families too...and right now I'm getting close to saying "Screw everyone else, I got my own kids to worry about".
I think one of the main reasons our government has been able to get away with all the moral/ethical/legal crimes that it has to date is because of the American people.
The gov has been effective at doing one thing for many decades, and that is separating people: whites from blacks, blacks from latinos, christians from muslims, democrats from republicans, Pro-Life from Pro-Choice and so on.
A separated people is a weakened people. And a weakened people won't ever change jack sh*t that goes on in the gov because they'll always figure out a way to exploit our "differences" and we'll just continue the in-fighting.
So our quality of life will continue to diminish and we'll continue hurtling toward a NWO society.
The new slavery is here and this time we won't have to worry about any discrimination crys as race won't be a consideration.
The New American way.
Anonymous said...
Too many people on this planet as it is. If food gets too expensive and millions die, so be it.
You can only say this because you are sure that you will not be one of the millions.
Bad things always happen to other people, not me.
JaneZ
Ed said...
Amazing how the socialist leaders of European countries are never to blame for anything. Makes sense since nobody in France or Germany or England or Spain drives or eats. And there was absolutely no housing bubble in the UK or Spain.
Oh and you forgot Haliburton on your list. Don't you know EVERYTHING is somehow traced back to Haliburton? Come on man, try to keep up.
How do you take a thread topic about world starvation and turn it into a political Republican vs Socialist argument?
Is there anything at all that doesn't end up being a defense of your personal politics?
Starving People = Halliburton is good?
Starving People = European Socialists are bad?
Geez Louise, can't we get past it?
JaneZ
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/12/18492403.php
Update: That rice I could buy a week ago for $13.50 for 50# is now 20 bucks today.
Maybe there are too many people.
But that is begging the question.
Deal with the here and now - these are human beings who are starving, and I think the housing bubble in fact did have something to do with that.
You'll get your dieoff, anyway. AIDs is rampant and that has no cure. Starvation, though? Caused by McMansion mania? Man, you guys are cold.
Biofuels are the new speculative bubble people. The same Wall Street jerks went from the internet speculative bubble, to the housing speculative bubble and now the biofuel one. Keith Food Panic should be the new topic on your blog. You should research big ag, monsanto, the ethanol lobbies, and the corn lobby.
Post a Comment