Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
“Food inflation will become America’s top crisis,� in 2011 reads one of the top 10 forecasts issued by the National Inflation Association (NIA) this morning.
“Americans can cut back on energy use,� the NIA surmises, “by moving into a smaller home and carpooling to work. They can cut back on entertainment, travel and other discretionary spending.
[Read more...]Every month, JP Morgan Chase dispatches a researcher to several supermarkets in Virginia. The task – to comparison shop for 31 items.
In July, the firm’s personal shopper came back with a stunning report: Wal-Mart had raised its prices 5.8% during the previous month. More significantly, its prices were approaching the levels of competing stores run by Kroger and Safeway. The “low-price leader� still holds its title, but by a noticeably slimmer margin.
[Read more...]Food is the ultimate regressive tax, which is why it might offer some of the most compelling investment opportunities of the next ten years.
The prince dispenses the same number of tuppence for his crumpet as the pauper. But as a percentage of their respective incomes, the crumpet is much more costly for the pauper. This contrast is obvious, but the implications of this contrast for global food prices may be less obvious.
[Read more...]I was surprised when Mike Burk of Alpha Investment Management wrote that “Some of the NYSE breadth indicators look pretty good, but that is from strength in fixed income which makes up about half of the issues traded on the NYSE. Fixed income looks like a bubble.�
Well, being an admittedly stupid guy who just wants effortless and instantaneous satisfaction of every desire, I am, as such, not really into the “nuts and bolts� of things.
[Read more...]Today’s report begins with an abominable horror: The world’s most valuable commodity has soared to its highest price in a generation.
India’s inflation in food prices has been soaring lately — holding for weeks above 17 percent — due to a combination of factors including the weakest monsoon rains in nearly 40 years, new taxes on gasoline and diesel, and increased excise taxes on a wide variety of products.
From BusinessWeek:
[Read more...]
How Central Bankers Will Save Us from Rising Food Prices
En garde, Fellow Reckoner! We’re under attack!
Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, has sounded the alarm.
“All central banks, in periods like this where you have inflationary threats that are coming from commodities, have to…be very careful that there are no second-round effectsâ€� on domestic prices, Mr. Trichet told The Wall Street Journal from his office overlooking Frankfurt’s financial district.
[Read more...]Click for detailed story