Gambling On Hunger: Is Wall Street Fueling Global Unrest? - HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/gambling-on-hunger-food-crisis-regulators_n_823725.html

WASHINGTON -- Since July, the price of corn has jumped 62 percent. Wheat has climbed by two-thirds, and soybeans are 38 percent more expensive. For many of the world's poorest citizens, the costs of both basic necessities and things that make life bearable are climbing out of reach: sugar has jumped by 81 percent, tea by 42 percent and arabica coffee by more than a quarter. Soybean oil has risen by half and fuel, overall, is a quarter more expensive than it was this summer.

In Tunisia, protesters' demands for lower food prices helped spark a revolution. In Egypt, the government's most significant concession to the uprising -- before President Hosni Mubarak stepped down -- was to offer major increases in food subsidies. On Feb. 3, the Bahrain government responded to protests with generous food subsidies, before adopting a violent strategy against demonstrators. Demonstrators have gathered in Algeria, Morocco and Yemen to protest food prices, as well.

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In an era when vast pools of capital shift in and out of markets for basics like food and oil with the a few computer keystrokes, trading can cause prices to see-saw in ways that are sometimes harrowing and hard to control.

And this wouldn't be the first time. Less than three years ago, another food crisis was marked by rampant financial speculation that helped cause prices to skyrocket and prompted regulators to examine whether traders were also gaming oil prices. At the time, governments were also flush with enough cash to boost food subsidies and calm protesters. This time around, governments ravaged by the crisis lack the financial wherewithal to tamp down prices with subsidies
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Commodities prices have been driven up across the board by hedge funds and brokerages because bubbles are easier to create there than in the massive stock market. They did the same damned thing in 2007-2008 (remember the stories about riots and hoarding?) and only dumped commodities when the CDO bubble burst.

Thank Phil Gramm for this one. He changed the rules so the thieves could starve people worldwide. And yes, the mess in the Middle East right now is happening because people are hungry.