World View: World Food Prices Up 10% in July

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• World food prices jump another 10% in July
• Putin’s spokesman criticizes Romney for toughness on Russia
• Money continues to flood out of Spain

World food prices jump another 10% in July

After a big jump in food prices in June, food prices soared by anadditional 10% in July, with maize and soybean reaching all-time peaksdue to an unprecedented summer of droughts and high temperatures inboth the United States and Eastern Europe. From June to July, maizeand wheat rose by 25 percent each, soybeans by 17 percent, and onlyrice went down, by 4 percent. Overall, world food prices rose 6%since July of last year. 

Food price increases were not uniform around the world.  Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, experienced the highest priceincreases in maize, including 113 percent in some markets inMozambique. Meanwhile, the Sahel and eastern Africa regionsexperienced steep price increases of sorghum: 220 percent in SouthSudan, and 180 percent in Sudan, for instance. World Bank

Putin’s spokesman criticizes Romney for toughness on Russia

Last week, China condemned Mitt Romney’s ‘Cold War mentality.’ Now it’s Russia, criticizing thissentence in Romney’s speech: “Under my administration our friends willsee more loyalty and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility andmore backbone.” Romney’s statement reflects the increased nationalismamong the people of the United States, just as nationalism is alsoincreasing in China, Russia and other countries in a generationalCrisis era. The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putinresponded as follows: 

During official meetings, both Moscow and Washingtonhave on different levels expressed their understanding that it isinadmissible for the bilateral ties to fall victim to pre-electiondebates. 

As the Russian president has said many times, Russia is interestedand will continue to be interested in developing U.S.-Russianrelations.

Russia’s response was far less harsh than China’s. This reflects thedifferences in relationships between the three parties. To state itas starkly as possible for clarity, the Russians and the Chinese hateeach other, the Americans and the Chinese hate each other, butAmericans and Russians LIKE each other. Please excuse thisexaggeration, but this statement reflects the reason why Russia andAmerica will be allies in the coming Clash of Civilizations world war.Ria Novosti (Moscow)

Money continues to flood out of Spain

Capital outflows from Spain (WSJ)

Spain’s bond yields (interest rates) had fallen from a panic-level7.5% down close to 6%, as a result of statements by the ECB recentlythat gave investors hope that the ECB would flood the markets withSpain as people transfer their money to foreign banks and saferhavens, including U.S. Treasuries, and so bond yields are risingagain, reaching 6.89% on Friday. Anything above 6% is consideredunsustainable, and anything about 7% is considered full scale panic.And “panic” may be the right word, as net capital outflows reached56.6 billion euros in June, and 219.8 euros in the first half of theyear. 

Of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, three of them — Catalonia, Valenciaand Murcia — this week requested bailout money to keep them fromgoing bankrupt. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had set aside 18 billioneuros as bailout funds for all 17 regions, but these three need morethan half of the fund, indicating that the fund is too small.

If you listen to CNBC these days, you’ll notice that all they talkabout quantitative easing or other forms of injecting “printed money”liquidity into the banking system. It used to be that they wouldtalk about this money going to stimulate economic growth, but there’sbeen a change in tone, and they don’t talk about economic growth anymore, except to say that it’s a few years off. There’s no longer anypretense. They want move liquidity injection because that money willflow into the stock market, and their bankster friends will continueto justify their 7-digit salaries and bonuses. I don’t even hear muchabout hyperinflation any more, as more analysts are resigned to thedeflationary spiral that Generational Dynamics predicted almost tenyears ago. Bloomberg and WSJ

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