commodities // Current

added
5 months ago

Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction

Its an old news article but Warren Buffett has it right. Derivatives are legalized gambling to call a spade a spade. The... more

resolute
added this

1 response

added
9 months ago

Behind the Bailout...what we SHOULD have known in JUNE and need to know NOW.

Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity at the problem will only make it worse. To make matters worse, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been speculating in commodities, driving the prices up.

Please read the whole article!

Excerpts from the article by Mike Whitney dated 6/17/2008:

The Fed is currently in panic-mode because it doesn't have the tools or resources to fix the problems its facing. Its already eaten through more than half of its $900 billion balance sheet and has traded away hundreds of billions in US Treasuries for worthless MBS and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) which are steadily losing value every month. The Fed is trying to revive the moribund banking system which has lost its main sources of revenue (structured financial investments) and is teetering on the brink of insolvency from its steadily wilting assets, a collapse in commercial and residential real estate, and a rise in corporate defaults...

...Now the underlying collateral (housing) is quickly deteriorating causing a system-wide deleveraging and a flight to safety (US Treasuries, foreign bonds). The dollar is in free fall, credit is tightening, and the banks are only able to stay open due to the generosity of the Federal Reserve...

...The larger question is whether the investment banks---faced with a frozen bond market and ravaged balance sheets---are diverting the money they're getting from the Fed into commodities (via the hedge funds) driving the prices upward and triggering political turmoil around the world?...

...According to economist and author Henry Liu, the same thing happened just prior to the Great Depression:

"The problem in 1929 was, as it is in 2008, that asset prices buoyant by speculation had outstripped the purchasing power of stagnant income of consumers. Assets and commodities in the economy were valued at price levels that aggregate wage income could not sustain. The solution was not to inject more useless liquidity to sustain inoperative price levels, which will only make the problem worse, but to INTRODUCE DEMAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH FULL EMPLOYMENT AND LET WAGES QUICKLY RISE BACK UP TO THE LEVEL OF WAGE-PRICE EQUILIBRIUM. This was the policy objective of Roosevelt's New Deal Program, an objective not yet recognized by policymakers in 2008 even amid a revival of populist rhetoric....

...There is no way to escape the day of reckoning now facing the financial system; the hundreds of bank failures, the corporate defaults, the meltdown in real estate, the massive loss of jobs, the dreary contraction of credit, the tumbling stock market, and the blow to our national confidence. But there is a way to rebuild, to reassert control over our own currency; to "even the playing field" and recommit to a strong middle class; to smash the system that diverts the greatest portion of the nation's wealth to a handful of unelected oligarchs whose main objectives are to expand their own personal power and subvert the democratic process. The existing system cannot meet the challenges of the new century. It's gotta go.Almost 4 months ago, the handwriting was on the wall. And throwing useless liquidity at the problem will only make it worse. To... more

JamieGray
added this

1 response

added
9 months ago

Fed Orders Emergency Rate Cut to 1.5 Percent

The Federal Reserve and a consortium of European central banks today announced a half a point cut in a key interest rate, a... more

starr111
added this

1 response

added
9 months ago

Recession looms in 2009

The American banking crisis went global on Monday. In trading around the world, investors bailed out of stocks, economists... more

urlspotter
added this

0 responses

added
9 months ago

Learn About Futures Trading

How to Become a Successful Commodity Futures Trader? LearnAboutFutures.com will offer you all the knowledge and tools necessary to... more

edwardgates
added this

0 responses

added
9 months ago

Commodity Calendar 2009: Options Calendar & Futures Expiration Calendar:

Commodity Wall Trade Calendar for the Futures Markets including Commodity Reports, Futures and Options First Notice and expiration... more

edwardgates
added this

0 responses

added
10 months ago

Economist recounts talk with Fed chairman

NAPLES, Fla. — Several months ago, economist David Hale had a private meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,... more

starr111
added this

0 responses

added
11 months ago

Scarce water in Argentina threatened by Barrick gold mine

Tearing mountains apart, destroying indigenous lands, polluting scarce water sources, for what? A few pieces of shiny metal excavated in a greedy material world where the metal means more than the lives and environment ruined by it.

From the article:

For nearly a year and a half, local residents in the northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja have been blocking the road that climbs up to the Nevados de Famatina mountain to protest a gold mining project that they say will pollute the water in the country’s driest district.

"The mountain is our only source of water, and it regulates the region’s climate," said Marcela Crabbé, a shopkeeper in Chilecito, a city of 45,000 located 30 km from Nevados de Famatina. "One hundred years ago this was a mining zone, but that left the area neither gold nor progress, just a huge environmental debt," she told IPS.

Chilecito and Famatina -- a town of less than 8,000 people located 20 km from the mountain it takes its name from -- are in the northern part of La Rioja, in the foothills of the Andes mountains, some 1,200 km northwest of Buenos Aires.

More than 2,000 people took part in the latest protest against the mine, earlier this month.

Criss-crossed by dry river beds, and with virtually no surface water, La Rioja is Argentina’s most arid province. It obtains its water from wells more than 200 metres deep, and from mountains like the 6,250-metre Nevados de Famatina, which provide water during the thaw period. If this melt water is polluted, the very survival of the two nearby towns would be in danger.

La Rioja Governor Luis Beder Herrera himself acknowledged this month that the province’s biggest problem is the lack of water: "We are the only province which practically has no rivers; water means everything for us." Nevertheless, his administration has promoted mining activity.

"I don't understand people who say we are going to pollute," said the governor. "I don't know of a single case of people who have died of this famous pollution. They are trying to scare people, but we aren't going to bring this to a halt."

*************
Their only source of water.Tearing mountains apart, destroying indigenous lands, polluting scarce water sources, for what? A few pieces of shiny metal... more

JanforGore
added this

5 responses

added
11 months ago

Crisis Looms as Corporations Seize Control of Commodities

The global food crisis won't go away any time soon. Capitalism has the average consumer by the belly. Amid growing signs of famine and outrage, the entire chain of commodities and resources of the world are now being cornered by giant corporations. Farmland, water, fertilizer, seed, energy, and most of the basic necessities of life are falling under corporate control, providing increased wealth and power to the ruling elite while the rest of humanity struggles.

Commodity scarcity in India was recently reflected in the need to distribute fertilizer from the police station in Hingoli. Now police have to control the lines that form outside of dealer outlets, because the dealers won't open for business otherwise. Without this intervention there would be no fertilizer for the planting that must take place before the rain comes. In Akola and Nanded, police involvement is also needed. Agriculture officers have fled their work places to escape angry farmers. In Karnataka, a farmer was shot dead during protests, while farmers stormed meetings and set up road blocks in other districts.

Despite the success of the genetically engineered Bt cotton crops, the trend in India is now back to soybeans because they cost less to grow and need less fertilizer than cotton.

And it's not just fertilizer that is scarce. Seeds are also in short supply which is being blamed on agitation that has interfered with freight train traffic. However, the shortfall in seeds is 60 percent, a level more indicative of corporate intervention to drive up prices than the actions of powerless farmers.

As farmers fume, the Wall Street Journal heralds the whopping 42 percent jump in the fiscal third quarter profits of huge agriculture giant Archer-Daniels Midland. This increase includes a sevenfold rise in new income in units that store, transport and grade grains such as wheat, corn and soybeans.

The soaring profits of fertilizer maker Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan are reflected in the parabolic movement of its stock price from a yearly low of $70.35 to its current price of $238.22 per share. Shares of fertilizer and animal feed producer Mosaic Corp. have risen from a yearly low of $32.50 to a current price of $159.38.

Similar windfall profits are reported by GMO seed and herbicide king Monsanto whose last quarterly earnings surged by 45%.

* * * * *

Click on the link for the full article and to access the in-text links.The global food crisis won't go away any time soon. Capitalism has the average consumer by the belly. Amid growing signs of... more