Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
Wheat prices up 25% in a day - but CPI still around 2% - honest
FT.com: Wheat prices in biggest one-day rise
Prices of top-quality wheat jumped 25 per cent to a record high on Monday in their largest one-day increase as Kazakhstan, one of the largest grain exporters,
said it would impose export tariffs to curb sales. The move, which follows similar export restrictions in Russia and Argentina, is likely to put further pressure on
already tight global wheat supplies, analysts said.
Posted by uncle chris @ 07:27 AM (473 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. hpwatcher said...
I expect it will take a little time for the inflation to feed into the CPI figures. Though, the CPI is pretty widely discredited as a true reflection of inflation.
2. happyrenterz said...
What interests me is the effect of investors piling into wheat and grain ETFs on the grain prices. I know this activity has effected the platinum price. All these grains need to be stockpiled to match investors money. That pushes up prices of commodities further because it leads to shortages. In the past gold would play this role as tangible asset. But all this manipulation of gold by authorities has undermined its value. The effect now is that food and oil are becoming the tangible investments of choice pushing up inflation. At least gold is something useless that has no negative consequences if it is stockpiled by investors.
3. Davidg said...
> The effect now is that food and oil are becoming the tangible investments of choice pushing up inflation
maybe because you can eat wheat and do useful things with oil :-)
Rationing is being introduced in some parts of the world - for example Pakistan. The UK is said to only have a few weeks reserve of grain, gone are the days of mountains of food stockpiled in warehouses.
4. harold said...
happyrenterz, that's right. The artificial suppression of gold simply means that inflation is rearing its ugly head elsewhere, with potentially more damaging consequences (i.e., food). Ultimately, governments cannot hide inflation, and given the money supply at present the situation will get a lot worse. Of course one advantage of gold price suppression is that it gives small-timers more time to acquire it at a relatively cheap price.
5. sold 2 rent 1 said...
Things are getting very serious about peak food theory
See wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_security
Food security is a situation in which people live in hunger or fear of starvation. World-wide around 852 million men, women and children are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty; while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty. (source: FAO, 2003).
A lot of the TV news last night was about aid organisations struggling to pay for the food for the hungry masses.
The policies of western governments to introduce biofuel targets at a time when grain stocks were hitting record lows seems very short sighted indeed.
Either the governments::
1. Have made another poor judgement on energy/food policy
2. Were greedy for energy and didn't care about the side affects on the third world.
6. happyrenterz said...
Agreed sold 2 rent, I can imagine generations in future thinking what on earth were they thinking, using food to make fuel for their vechiles
7. denzil said...
hpwatcher said:
"I expect it will take a little time for the inflation to feed into the CPI figures."
Around 400 years or so I would think.
I think the computer the calculates inflation is most probably broke.