Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Prices jump

Remember this post? Here? The title in question was: Countries most at risk in case of a Food Shortage

It seems someone could see the future. Did you see country #6 on the list? Egypt. Or #18? Tunisia. Both have overthrown their governments in the last little while. There have also been rumblings in #3. In part, these have been due to rising food prices.

So, what causes food prices to rise? There are a few things which tend to do that - 1.increased demand, 2.reduced supply, and 3.the decreased worth of money. While there hasn't been much of an increased demand, the other two are certainly factors.

Why is food so much? Because there are additional uses for it - government-subsidized uses (think Ethanol). With the competition of demand (vehicles here act as additional mouths to feed), the price goes up - or the reverse, that Ethanol siphons some of the food supply away so there is reduced supply. Either way, it puts upward pressure on food prices.

The other factor in this is the debasement of money. Do you remember when a candy bar cost 25 cents? or less? What about a gallon of gasoline? When we put more money into our closed system, we lessen the value of each dollar. The flip side of that is that the price goes up. If each dollar can buy less, it takes more dollars to buy the same thing. Once again upward pressure on the food prices. Think Quantitative Easing (QE). Think billions and billions of dollars added to the system of the last 2 years. This factor is going to be true for pretty much every commodity. Guess what has happened to the price of cotton? Guess what will happen to the price of clothes?

So, for the people who cannot afford the new food prices, maybe they will be saved by the price in clothing - if they happen to have lots of clothes to sell.

News

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Slow Down - Chuck Girard

A wonderful song from my past. This song was occasionally played during the TEC weekends that I was a part of in my youth. It is not really a youth-friendly kind of song, yet it had its place.



And it is, in fact, quite slow.

Another that is similar, is this one:



I remember them both fondly, and am excited to hear them again. It is really hard to find these old songs, so . . . here they are for you.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Sad commentary














After watching the video, I became sad. We are all in a hurry to protect this "untouched people" from ourselves. On the one hand, I'm relieved that we've discovered that we as a people and culture are rotten and wouldn't it be nice if we could keep from infecting others. Yet, at the same time, these are people as well. Are they not rotten to the core as much as ourselves? Don't we all spring from the same tree? Don't we all curse the same hot sun (snow, in the case of those living in Minnesota)? Don't we all feel the weight of life and death and how we fail one another?

Tis a pity that after all this, our leaders feel that we have nothing - no net good - to offer these poor people.

Yet, these leaders seem to know nothing of God's love - love that Christians know and are commanded to share to the ends of the earth, even to protected people.