Wheat prices have hit a 29-month high of $8.60 a bushel, amid the following reports of stockpiling.
~Algeria bought 800,000 tons yesterday from an undisclosed seller
~Jordan bought 15,000 tons last week from the United States
~Saudi Arabia plans to double its reserves, to cover a year’s worth of demand.
Given the WikiLeaks revolution in Tunisia last week, you think autocrats across the region are getting nervous?
It was one thing for an American-backed strongman of 30 years standing to be chased out of a tiny holdout like Tunisia.But now they’re rioting in Yemen… where an American-backed strongman of 30 years standing is helping the CIA pursue terrorism suspects.
It was one thing for an American-backed strongman of 30 years standing to be chased out of a tiny holdout like Tunisia.But now they’re rioting in Yemen… where an American-backed strongman of 30 years standing is helping the CIA pursue terrorism suspects.
And in Egypt… where an American-backed strongman of 30 years standing rules over one-third of all Arabs. The Egyptian stock market fell 10% today.Everywhere the story’s the same… years of corruption and repression finally boiling over because of rising food prices. Thus, “panic buying” of grains, says the Financial Times. “Governments are reacting to growing social unrest about rising domestic prices.”
“Across the Middle East, we are waiting to see the downfall of America's friends,” writes veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk of the London Independent. “Could it be that we are going to see a new Arab world which is not controlled by the West?”And what would that do to oil prices? So far, the revolts are confined to Arab states that don’t have much oil. This morning, crude clings to $87 a barrel. Tomorrow? Who knows?
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