Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Wheat

"For decades, wheat was a commoditity no American needed to think much about, except the farmers who grew it. The grain was usually plentiful and prices were low. All of a sudden, those assumptions have been turned upside down. With demand soaring abroad and droughts crimping supply, the world's wheat stockpiles have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years, and stocks in the [US] have dropped to levels unseen since 1948. ... Prices for common wheat are up nearly 50 percent since August. ... Though this week's prices were nominal records, the inflation-adjusted record for wheat was set in the mid-1970s, when it exceeded $20 a bushel in today's dollars after huge sales to the Soviet Union. ... Foreign buying is driving this market", http://www.nytimes.com/, 13 February 2008.

The commodities markets look like those of the early 1970s. Everything is going up. Will Bush follow Nixon and close the "wheat window" as Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 and the soybean window in 1973?

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