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• b1ff commented on U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
  The thread is old, but I will chime in anyway. There seems to be a different just-so story for every commodity, but the big picture is that all commodities have been running up together for the last several years. The explanation of this runup in the face of a weak economy is that it's a monetary phenomenon. There is a commodity boom going on that is being driven by certain large financial interests that have been labeled index speculators. Over many years, and especially the last decade, the amount of money in our global financial system has grown dramatically. Most...
• regeya commented on U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
  Yeah...that website isn't credible at all. Forgive me for dropping some links, but I feel I must. Or at least, ONE link. "Famine Mentality in a Time of Bumper Crops": http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9403 Essentially, there really aren't shortages as severe as we've been led to believe. Sure, subsidies have led to smaller crops, corn ethanol demand has diverted farmers to feed corn (not FOOD corn, FEED corn) rather than grain, and drought and rust in other parts of the world have had their effects. However, we can also thank house flippers and irresponsible bankers for the high prices, as well as the...
• santellana commented on U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
  let them eat cake....
• zebulon commented on U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
  @ #53 b1ff: On the whole you're right about the mechanisms, but you underestimate the effect of trading deregulations permitting U.S. traders to trade in overseas unregulated markets without reporting in the "suddenness" which the global food crisis has escalated, and how long it stayed under the radar of those not on the fringe of hunger. You might also ponder the increasing tempo of these successive crises as money flees one sector to inflate the next--something of a race condition or a positive feedback loop hitting a catastrophic resonance. Also, it's easy to minimize it as just another speculative...
• PKMousie commented on U.S. Has No Remaining Grain Reserves
  @ #56 zebulon: ACTUALLY it's a Circle Jerks lyric... as played by the Circle Jerks... in their roles as a nightclub band in Repo Man. And on the soundtrack....