For most of the day, MSNBC televised pictures from a part of the crime scene, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, as Molotov cocktails from a bridge rained down upon anti-Mubarak protesters.I say part of the crime scene, because the full crime scene extends far beyond the Square, and Egypt, to embrace most of the world, including the United States.
The most perfect crime is one where no suspicion is raised, and the perpetrator escapes the long-arm of the law (now shorter, by design), and is never brought to justice.
We saw evidence of the crime months ago, August of last year to be exact, but little was done then to prevent further crimes from taking place, or to soften the blow to potential victims:
Wheat prices continue to rise as Russia has set a ban on the exports of the crop. Wheat hit a 23-month high of $8.25 and the price could go higher. It is not clear if yields from farms, particularly in Canada and the US, can make up the shortfall. The perception is that demand will outstrip supply this year. Wheat futures are up nearly 25% this week based on that assumption.
The question arises over how much the shortage is to blame for the run-up and how much comes from simple speculation. In mid-2008, crude futures rose from $80 to $140, and that was not solely the result in an imbalance between supply and demand. Oil prices may have been artificially inflated, but that did not keep gasoline prices from spiking and that undercut profits in fuel-dependent sectors like airlines. It also took gasoline prices to over $4 a gallon, which made life for average Americans even worse than the recession alone.
Crude prices moved back down as speculators took profits.
The price of wheat will cause at least temporary inflation in food prices including bread and cereals. Inflation in the US is low now, but so is the rate at which real wages are growing. Any cost burden put on consumers due to higher food prices is likely to cut purchases of other goods and services.
If you're the sleuth I think you are, you have already identified both the crime, and the perpetrators--Wall Street speculators. Wall Street not only created the economic meltdown we're experiencing here at home, but it contributed to the world-wide woes gripping other parts of the world.
If you take another step back, you'll see that capitalism--as it is currently run by unscrupulous corporatist practitioners, recently freed from the bars of restraint that once held them in check--is the overarching criminal:
As Nouriel Roubini who was among the first to predict the financial crisis while others were pooh-poohing him as “Dr Doom” says don’t just look at the crowds in Cairo but what is motivating them now, after years of silence and repression.
He says that the dramatic rise in energy and food prices has become a major global threat and a leading factor that has gone largely unreported in the coverage of events in Egypt.
"What has happened in Tunisia, is happening right now in Egypt, but also riots in Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan, are related not only to high unemployment rates and to income and wealth inequality, but also to this very sharp rise in food and commodity prices," Roubini said.
Prices in Egypt are up 17% because of a worldwide surge in commodity prices that has many factors but speculation on Wall Street and big banks is a key one.
Here's the big question: How long will it be before the excesses of our economic system, and this rapacious Wall Street criminal--the one we have locked up from time to time, and walled, where appropriate, with various laws and regulations--plunge us all into a Third World War?
9 comments:
BD,
I had a post going up on this and you beat me to the punch. This whole thing has been authored by the Fed's QE 2 program along with the Wall Street speculators in the commodities markets. That's why food and gas prices are up here as well. You know everything has a dual purpose and there's no way that this unrest was not anticipated, what we don't know is what nefarious purpose is behind it other than making money. The IMF recently put out a report predicting civil wars arising from this stuff:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/globalbusiness/8296987/IMF-raises-spectre-of-civil-wars-as-global-inequalities-worsen.html
Here's my issue. Bernanke and others here knew full well what might occur here by opening this salvo in an attempt to save Wall Street once again on the worldwide backs of the people. It's BS of the highest order. That's the main reason why we see all of the nonsense in DC and why the tea party emerged IMO. It's a huge diversion and one not likely to work much longer.
Forgot to check the box for e-mail of followup posts (yet again for the umpteenth time!)
I'm learning that the Fed's actions to hide the banks' theft, by resorting to Quantitative Easing and by printing more money, leading to inflation, is what has caused Wall Street investors to turn to commodity trading with a vengeance, driving up prices.
Couple that with the relaxation on "position limits," where prices are driven by fundamentals, and where paper currency equals the value of commodities worldwide, then we have a recipe for disaster.
The CFTC relaxed this rule (position limits).
It recently reaffirmed it, by "restricting the number of swaps and futures contracts that speculators can hold in energy, metals and agricultural derivative markets," preventing speculators from betting on commodity futures, fully knowing that those commodities, such as grain, didn't exist.
Speculators, then, were speculating on more grain than existed on the planet, thereby, driving up prices.
This kind of speculation was damaging, but little was being done to rein it in.
So it comes with no surprise that the price of wheat and other grains have spiked, that families in Egypt are paying more than 80% of their income on food, and that speculators are making a killing on Wall Street, while millions go hungry, and bodies lay dead in Tahrir Square.
The question is: How long will it be before the people of these affected countries realize that the beginning of their woe, in part, started here in our country, and call for our eradication?
40% of Egypt population who's income is $2.00 a day or less have taken it's gripes to the streets,while it may not know what Merrill Lynch is up to they do understand something is teribly wrong.
I don't know what to do to rein in these crooks who squat on Wall Street waiting for my weekly 401k deposit.
But I do know I must do something!
>>>Speculators, then, were speculating on more grain than existed on the planet, thereby, driving up prices.
This kind of speculation was damaging, but little was being done to rein it in.
So it comes with no surprise that the price of wheat and other grains have spiked, that families in Egypt are paying more than 80% of their income on food, and that speculators are making a killing on Wall Street, while millions go hungry, and bodies lay dead in Tahrir Square.
The question is: How long will it be before the people of these affected countries realize that the beginning of their woe, in part, started here in our country, and call for our eradication?<<<
When this round of QE started, it was known what would happen and it was intended. US banks and Wall Street are not to be bailed out by US taxpayers alone, but the entire world. The fact that they're speculating on more grain that exists is no surprise, that's par for the course as that what the stock market, derivatives, currency and etc have become. It's a paper overlay that produces nothing and it sits astride real assets or productive capacity. Ironically, all the bailout action is focused on this paper rather than addressing the real economy and productive capacity. That would take investment in education, healthcare, infrastructure and etc, but that's not on the table. The only thing on the table is a continued bailout and accommodation of this "paper economy" that produces nothing but wealth for the elite players.
The people will figure it out and in a way QE2 is a declaration of war because other countries will start to put up protective barriers to protect themselves and that's when the war will move from trade to becoming "hot" with these sick people then trying to finance that. Ultimately, that's what they want--war to divert the attention of the people while they make money.
I'm convinced this is why we have the sideshow in DC. Since the congress is at loggerheads, it's up to the Fed to "solve the problem". The Fed is a collection of private banking interests who don't give a damn about the people. Their only allegiance is to money and they could care less whether they get it in dollars, euros and renminbi. We've never been at a more dangerous and calamitous juncture in the world as we are now.
BigmacInPittsburgh said...
"40% of Egypt population who's income is $2.00 a day or less have taken it's gripes to the streets,while it may not know what Merrill Lynch is up to they do understand something is teribly wrong."
Bigmac, sometimes I feel I need degrees in finance, economics, banking, and investing just to keep up.
The people we charged with the responsibility to watch our back are watching their own, and the people's interest is falling to private interest, and, in the process, we're losing our national shirt while the rich get richer, and Congress becomes their biggest enablers.
We're so enmeshed in the system that to opt out--even if that's possible--will be our undoing as well.
Egypt has made that decision. At least for now. Perhaps we need to send a message to Washington and Wall Street in the same way that Egyptians have--that we're mad as hell and we ain't gonna take it anymore.
How bad can starting over be?
@Greg L: "When this round of QE started, it was known what would happen and it was intended. US banks and Wall Street are not to be bailed out by US taxpayers alone, but the entire world."
And that's the tragedy. I don't think the people of the world will quietly go along to get along on this one. Their futures, too, are at stake.
When did amassing wealth become this important? I know: forever! The power/monied elite (this nation's oligarchy) are willing to starve people, start wars, and salvage tyrannical governments in the name of wealth. Repubs are already decrying our government's break with Mubarak.
"Ironically, all the bailout action is focused on this paper rather than addressing the real economy and productive capacity."
You're right: the paper overlay has a stranglehold on the economy, and it's growing. The CFTC says that it will take steps to squelch this growing threat, but that's to be seen.
"We've never been at a more dangerous and calamitous juncture in the world as we are now."
I couldn't have stated it more clearly or more succinctly.
Recently the Koch brothers held their annual strategizing meeting with other billionaires and millionaires. It was met with protests, and with some arrests of protesters, but it wasn't given as much media attention as the threat warranted.
The coming war will certainly be the haves against the have nots. With their small number, the haves have an edge--they can organize and mobilize with an alacrity that we can only envy. However, social networking sites, as long as they're up and running, will give us a fighting chance to offset whatever advantage they seem to have, just as it has helped Egyptians in their fight for liberation.
>>The coming war will certainly be the haves against the have nots. With their small number, the haves have an edge--they can organize and mobilize with an alacrity that we can only envy. However, social networking sites, as long as they're up and running, will give us a fighting chance to offset whatever advantage they seem to have, just as it has helped Egyptians in their fight for liberation.<<
BD,
I've closely watched/studied all of this probably on and off during the past 10 years or so since even prior to 9/11 by reading various pundits and analyses. There were a number of people who predicted this collapse in the housing markets and the one that occurred prior to that with internet stocks. These predictions were based on knowledge of fundamental things that our economy lacked which were replaced by money printing courtesy of the Federal Reserve. The bubbles in the stock and housing markets and their subsequent collapse can be tied directly to their actions along with a complicit regulatory apparatus.
I'm convinced that the outcomes that we're currently experiencing were planned just as the next phase is now being planned and executed upon. I'm not trying to sound hokey, and it took me awhile to arrive at this, but I'm convinced there's a unseen group who is behind all of this and this goes way beyond the kleptocracy that's generally acknowledged. Their objective is more than just mere theft and war. In a word, what they seek is total dominion over the globe. This QE business is but the opening salvo in a war they plan to conduct.
This is not just about US banks either. There's a global movement being undertaken to rob the people. For the Irish, bailing out their banks meant giving up their pensions and that ultimately will occur here. We only need to witness the talk about allowing states to declare bankruptcy to break their pension obligations. Anywhere you look, when there's a choice between banks and investors losing or the people losing, the people will lose every time, hands down. That too is by design and is another salvo being fired. This is why the IMF is predicting civil wars.
There should be no mistake about this. This is deliberate.
Look, I'm not here to proselytize, but for some reason I'm being moved to post this here. This is from Ephesians 6:12 from the bible:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
I'm convinced that this is what we're up against. I just can't explain it in any other way.
Black Diaspora said...
"'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.'
"I'm convinced that this is what we're up against. I just can't explain it in any other way."
My friend, you're more perceptive than you know, or, perhaps you do.
There're things of which I know, I cannot speak of. I know this, too: It took courage for you to say what you did, and I acknowledge that courage.
I'll say this much and no more, for reasons I cannot explain lest I give myself way: There are those who know of this threat. They're working night and day to thwart it, and to defeat it.
Be of good cheer. All is not lost.
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