Tuesday, April 09, 2013

The Damaging Links Between Food, Fuel and Finance: A Growing Threat to Food Security - naked capitalism:
"As the graph shows, co-movement is nearly complete. Co-movement suggests that supply and demand fundamentals in oil and broader commodities markets, which are indeed independent of one another, no longer determine price. UNCTAD attributes this to 'herding behavior' among financial investors still flush with speculative capital in search of quick returns.

"UNCTAD’s conclusions: 'Because of these distortions, commodity prices in financialized markets do not provide correct signals about the relative scarcity of commodities. This impairs the allocation of resources and has negative effects on the real economy. To restore the proper functioning of commodity markets, swift political action is required on a global scale.'”

Fat chance of that happening.

via @theharryshearer

No comments: