Before I get accused of being obsessed with rice, let me explain that this is all anyone wants to talk about here. A week ago I could get them talking about Wall Street, Bear Stearns, the Fed and losses, losses everywhere, another bank on the brink. But now it’s all rice, all the time.
Indonesia’s put in export limits. Hong Kong demand is still expected to be high. Fertilizer, which is already getting pricey, is said to be setting up for another price explosion. But the real action, as always, is in the blame game. Whose fault are rising rice prices?
Some have sensibly pointed to the growth of biofuels as pushing prices higher. Others blame the high price of oil, which they say creates the demand for biofuels. But beware of the folks who blame oil. It sounds like a deeper level of analysis but it’s largely a myth. Market forces are not creating the demand for biofuels. Government policies are. But its far more psychologically satisfying to blame those conniving Arabs.
The Greens–some of whom are genuine ideologues and others are biofuel profiteers–are blaming the ever present demons: speculators. It’s those damned commodities traders, they say. This excuse works even better than the Arabs because commodities traders lack political clout and haven’t quite figured out how to organize as part of the ethnic grievance industry. (It doesn’t help that there isn’t an ethnicity called “commodities traders.” Yet.)
–John Carney, DealBreaker’s editor, is trying to figure out how to convert biofuel into food while on vacation in Thailand.
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- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
Because there’s no oil involved in the growing, processing, or transportation of rice.
As fun as it’d be to blame rice prices on one factor, that’s not reality. You’ve got the impact of biofuel crop production, rising standards of living in rice eating countries, higher oil costs, higher natural gas costs, and even some speculation going on.
I don’t care how big of deal it is, what kind of shitty vacation spot is Carney at where, “it’s all rice, all the time”? What kind of tip do you leave a bar tender for having to listen to him go on about rice?
On the plus side, maybe he can pay for the hookers using agricultural products.
Yes dear readers, every fucking problem in the world ultimately comes from “traders”. We are all greedy MF’s who would gladly slit your mothers throat for a precious tick.
But I am totally sympatico with you rice eaters, so next time I eat Mexican I will hold the rice thereby keeping the price down. I will suffer so you may eat.
What ever happened to the good old days when every time the price of anything went up we could just say Japanese are buying *sigh*
Blame it on the Arabs this time…
-mrp
I really dont eat rice that often so it doesn’t affect me. For the people that do I feel bad for them. But it’s not our problem. Here in New Jersey we have our own problems. So if you goin to donate to other countries you might as well start here and send me some gas!!!!
I really dont eat rice that often so it doesn’t affect me. For the people that do I feel bad for them. But it’s not our problem. Here in New Jersey we have our own problems. So if you goin to donate to other countries you might as well start here and send me some gas!!!!
Blame it on Iraq war…