Food for Thought
February 3, 2011
Did the economy cause unrest in the Arab world?
Hedge fund manager Bill Fleckenstein explains how decisions made in Washington, D.C., Wall Street and Beijing may have sparked the protests in Egypt.
Dylan Ratigan Mad as Hell His Epic Network Moment We've got a real problem...this is a mathematical fact. Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America.
Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is After 780 hours of political cable news, 6000 hours of live financial television, 45 cities, 2 national jobs tours, 277,963 signatures to amend The Constitution, 245 pages of book and a promotion tour for Greedy Bastards, I was exhausted.
Im Mad As Hell How About You Yesterday, on TV, I exploded. I spent two minutes giving a primal yell at our political system, demanding the extraction of our money and dignity end. It was my most heartfelt and emotional moment on television, ever.
Ron Paul Exclusive Whos Regulating Washington "I want the government to live up to their promises." Listen to Dylan's exclusive interview with Rep. Ron Paul.
Deepak Chopra Leads Meditation at Occupy Wall Street Deepak Chopra joined us at Occupy Wall Street in New York's Zuccotti Park on Monday night, and led a two minute meditation with the General Assembly.
Does this mean that the flooding in Pakistan (20 million displaced) and the flooding in Austrailia had no impact on the food prices? I just read a story about 300 Farmers committing suicide in India because of crop failures. Other regions like in Russia have experienced great drought and wildfires that have decimated the wheat production. How can you discount the effects on food production all over the world by the extreme climate and just blame it on the dollar? Seems to me we are just beginning to see the results of … Dare I say it…. Climate Change.
The premise of this is correct, but I question the actual cause and effect. The commodity price spike that culminated in 2008 where not caused mainly by shortage, but rather largely by the dropping greenback, the dollar actually went down. The commodity food price spike we are experiencing now is not caused mainly by the green back, (it is, despite assertions otherwise; basically flat to up for most of this commodity price spike). PLEASE look at charts not rhetoric.
This time the commodity price spikes are actual shortages caused by supply destruction during the 2008 price deflation phase. Cut jobs and slash production.
In 2008, I know that wheat price soared even with record wheat production.
The biggest danger of this false analysis is that the cure is wrong, raising interest rates or cutting the supply of money will not create one kernel of corn or extra cheese burger; it will actually decrease supply even more as it destroys more production.
Instead what it will do is starve more people. During the depression they used to say "{I would rather have bread be $20 per loaf and have the $20, than have bread be a nickel and want for a nickel". Raising rates and cutting money supply is not the cure. It will steal nickels from the poor.
The cure is elimination of ethanol subsides, (more corn goes to ethanol than feed use and human consumption combined), then corn steal acres from soybeans, and soybeans steal acres from cotton and wheat etc. that’s a verifiable fact not rhetoric. Also you mention commodity speculation and that is correct, but it is not the futures market, it is the ETF market. Commodity futures have speculative position limits to prevent futures speculators from distorting the market. Banks use the SWAPS market, and Wall street uses the ETF markets to bypass that safety net, and as a matter of fact those tools have hampered the country elevator from being a tool for farmers, because ETFs, SWAPS, and Futures prices do NOT reflect reality, the basis has skewed, and banks and Wall street make all the additional profits and farmers are for the most part left in the cold. DON"T advocate starving the poor to make an even bigger injustice. Go after the problem.
I have concluded that our federal govt thinks the average american is ignorant. Congress is so far into corruption they cannot self-correct. They will all have to be replaced and hopefully prosecuted along with the federal reserve and the rackettering bankers.
Hi Dylan, How do we get Congress to explore the very interesting Hemp Oil subject for use in our cars,
They think it has to do with dope. It would be a great discussion about new energy and jobs. It is the industrial type of Hemp that could create thousands of jobs. It is very sustainable, and is cheaper than
Ethenol It will get us off of oil very quickly. We need Congress to seriously begin discussion on this very' wonderful plant. We need to get off Petroleum now, as you have said many times on your show. I have not heard any discussion on this subject.
Like your show a lot, watch it daily at 3:00.
when will you be back on tv
I think business does play a great role prices. I looked into the cotton price rise not so long ago and found it very interesting. Current estimates say the world will need 16 million bails of cotton this year. Current production sits at 15 million bails. But, when you dig further one realizes many countries around the world are cutting production. Not just by a little but hundreds of thousands of bails. Did the world figure it out that if you produce less you can sell it for more? Please research this and correct my numbers if you will. I am no expert it's just what I am starting to believe. Also, would this not be setting us up for a massive surplus of material down the rode? When money can be made will not people jump on the wagon? As for climate change, I am not smart enough to answer that. The smartest scientist say it is changing but from what, we don't know. NOT YET AT LEAST!!!!!!!!!