food speculation and the chicago merc - what a wonderful country

Global Food Shortages Played Down in Latest Obama World Agri Report; Played Up in Extended Gambling Hours on Chicago Merc  


The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released its monthly "World Agriculture Supply and Demand" (WASDE) report, whose main significance is that it was issued for the first time ever, under the conditions of new, expanded grain- trading hours begun today by the "Merc" in Chicago (the CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange). Less food, more speculation. This is the hallmark of the Obama Administration's agri-policy actions on behalf of London's financial interests.

In mid-May, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission OK'd the increased gambling opportunities, connected to periodic USDA data release. As described in {Feedstuffs} magazine June 11:


"The CFTC reportedly approved the Chicago Board of Trade's plan to start open-outcry trading for grain, oilseed and ethanol futures and options early on days that major USDA reports are released... Expanding pit trade hours is the latest development in the unfolding story of 'expanded trade,' initiated in mid-May when the rival [London-based] Intercontinental Exchange began electronically trading its 'look-alike' grain and oilseed contracts 22 hours each day. CME, along with the Kansas City Board of Trade and Minneapolis Grain Exchange, responded by adopting a 21-hour electronic trading day.


"In part, because of the instantaneous opportunity to trade the report data, and in part because of the major fundamental issues surrounding corn, wheat and soybeans [that is, crop damage, scarcity, etc.], the June 12 report has significant market-moving potential." In other words, good for the casino.


It is of note that CME Board member Dan Glickman, a former Agriculture Secretary, is a major enforcer of London policy in the Obama Administration, and, internationally, heads up various Bill Gates-funded thug agriculture agencies.

Today's USDA agriculture report, in content, continues the lying and unreliable data practices to which it has sunk in recent years. However, many features of the world food shortages are glaring, and cannot be completely covered over. For example, the world soy situation.


The largest soy exporting region of the world -- Brazil and Argentina (the U.S. is a close second) -- is bringing in a drastically lowered harvest because of drought. This affects the whole world food and livestock chain, outstandingly, China, which imports over half of all world soy traded. Argentina's soy crop is down from 49 million tons last year, by 10 million metric tons (official goverment estimate; USDA estimates a 7.5-mmt drop). Brazil's harvest is estimated to be down by 10 million tons, from 75 mmt last year, to 65 mmt currently. Of some 90 mmt of soy exports yearly, the U.S. accounts for 40 mmt, and Brazil/Argentina, 45 mmt. If these regions don't produce it for export, there is no other source. 


There are things that, morally, you do not speculate on. Food, water, and housing are three of them.


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Fed Reports a Disaster for U.S. Households


The Federal Reserve's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, published on June 11, showed a disaster for U.S. households in the crash between 2007 and 2010, a period in which the assets and profits of the 20 largest U.S.-based banks returned to their 2007 levels.


Households, by stark contrast, lost a median 39% of their total wealth in those three years, as the values of their homes, savings, and retirement accounts plunged. What did not fall at all, however, was their indebtedness.

The financial crisis wiped out 18 years of gains for the median U.S. household, according to the Fed study, sending the household down to just $77,300 in total assets in 2010 -- the same level as in 1992 -- from $126,400 in 2007. The share of households with at least one retirement savings account fell from 53% to 50%. And the Fed then made it nearly impossible for the household to build any savings back up after the crash, keeping the interest rates near zero on every form of safe or reliable investment.


One thing which did NOT drop over the 2007-2010 crash was household debt. In spite of all the mortgages foreclosed and credit cards cancelled, etc., the median value of household debt did not change over the three years for the 75% of households who have debt. Debt as a share of family assets rose to 16.4% from 14.8%; and debt payments more than 60 days overdue were reported by 10.8% of families in 2010, up from 7.1% in the previous survey.