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[1eyedkunt]

I had a scary dream last night that the value of the dollar plunged suddenly (even more than it as already), and we started experiencing hyper-inflation in the US. Everyone was freaking out, and we all felt completely powerless to stop the rapid devaluing of our money. I just remember feeling panicky as I was told that a single lime would cost me

Comments

[1eyedkunt]

eh, i'm not overly concerned about that. it seems to me people are unduly panicked about food prices and shortages. (Well, *Americans* are unduly panicked - those in the developing world for whom these things may mean dire consequences in the next year should indeed be panicking.) I'm not sure the article is right about just-in-time supply chains sometimes making inventories unable to handle sudden spikes in purchasing because of hording. Theoretically JIT supply chains *should* be designed to be flexible and nimble enough to handle sudden changes in demand... however the theory is often miles apart from actual practice.

But more importantly, it doesn't seem that the high prices and shortages are coming as a result of the world's inability to provide enough food for its populace, but a market imbalance of sorts. I don't know if it's the push to grow crops for biofuels or what, but it seems that collectively farmers haven't been planting the right crops to meet demand. Luckily the fix is easy and will happen naturally. These high prices should result in an increase in supply next year of wheat, rice, and whatever else is scarce, and the crisis will be over.

In theory anyway... maybe I have too much faith in market forces, we'll see...