At the Unity convention in Chicago this past weekend, Obama said of Haitian immigrants:

"The fact that it is much harder for Haitians to immigrate than it is from persons from other countries, in some cases, despite relative similarities in need, that's something that we should examine."

It seemed to me at the time a brave thing to say in today's climate.    

And then I read this story in today's Guardian:  

The global food and fuel crisis has hit Haiti harder than perhaps any other country, pushing a population mired in extreme poverty towards starvation and revolt. Hunger burns are called "swallowing Clorox", a brand of bleach.

The IMF has released its most recent global financial stability report and the findings aren't all that pretty. Despite the desire and predictions of so many analysts and talking media heads to have reached some sort of bottom to the current crisis (and their likewise willful disbelief in favor of such a rosy outlook), the credit crisis has yet to reach its peak. According to the BBC:

The global credit crunch shows no signs of abating, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In its latest global financial stability report, the IMF says that falling house prices and slowing economic growth are hitting credit.

It warns that banks are under renewed stress, and further cutbacks in bank lending could deepen the slowdown.

The IMF also says that emerging markets like China may also suffer more pain in the future from the credit crunch....

More after the jump, and cross-posted, as always, at The Thorn Papers

You'd think I'd have boggle fatigue by now. But this report is still mind boggling.

There's an explosive article appearing in Der Spiegel online.

It starts off by criticizing Bernanke and Company for applying their 20th Century mindset to the current economic crisis. The Fed is still operating under a set of principles developed when the US was the sole, undisputed economic Superpower

The textbook conclusion is that [developments in the US economy] will stabilize the value of money, because no one will dare demand higher wages or higher prices. But the macroeconomics textbooks are no longer worth much in the age of globalization.

That's a mild rebuke, compared to the rest of the article. The rest of the article is jaw dropping.

The food crisis is not soundbite friendly, therefore it's not easy to gain a larger understanding of the issue without exploring multiple sources. Craig Mackintosh at Celsias, (which is the site that is homecourt for "The Celsias Show" which I host), did the legwork and in the process has written what I consider to be one of the most comprehensive discussions of this rapidly expanding calamity that I've encountered.

Craig has given me permission to publish his piece in full, which was originally posted at Celsias on May 5, 2008.

I just read an article at The Automatic Earth that has me so mad I've got to write my first diary just to calm down.

The World Has Not Always Been this Way exposes the venality of corporations like Cargill, ADM, Nestle, and Monsanto in destroying peasant farms and third world countries.

I have some quotes over the fold but please read it all and pass it on.

Before you are misled into believing this has anything to do with the 2008 Democratic Nomination, you should stop reading right now.  There is no Obama, nor Clinton, nor even McCain in this diary.  There is, however, imho, bad news which I consider good.  So with this disclaimer, if you wish to read about the IMF, and globalization, etc. etc. etc., please keep reading!

In my evening reading tonight, I ran across some bad news, which made me cheer in reading!  Nothing pleases me more than reading that the IMF (the International Money Fund) is "going down".  It is not that I am a radical, but I am a great sympathizer of the anti-globalization efforts that we have seen throughout the world.  The more I see efforts at quashing the protest, the more I wish to see the protesters succeed, at least in the majority of their efforts.

For me, my great interest in this topic was stirred in the late 90s, specifically, 1999, and the Seattle "riots" that occurred during the WTO meeting.  

The debate over foreign aid's ability to improve conditions in the developing world continues unabated as even commentators like Nicholas Kristof can't find data to support either side. What few argue, however, is the impact aid dollars have had on health care in the third world.  Literally millions of lives have been saved as a direct result of foreign aid programs of that type.

[Promoted by DHinMI: When the candidates aren't fending off questions of vital importance to the survival of the planet like why they don't wear a flag pin on their lapel, they've occasionally discussed huge issues such as energy and global warming.  What hasn't been discussed much is a related and often neglected question: agriculture policy.  In fact, because of the importance of Iowa, candidates have to pledge their fealty to our policy of subsidizing the production of ethanol produced with corn.  Our ethanol policies are having unintended consequences, contributing to the kinds of problems that led to the "tortilla riots" in Mexico, and the worldwide move toward biofuels is contributing to the worldwide spike in food prices.  Let's hope that when the media is done with flag pins, they try to pin down the candidates on their plans for agriculture, in the US and around the world.]

It took more than 400 scientists and three years of haggling, wrangling and heated arguments to come up with the report by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) as dire warnings from the World Bank, the IMF and the UN's World Food Programme splashed the front pages of the world press in the last few weeks (the Executive summary, the Global summary and all its regional summaries are here in both pdf & HTML forms, a great trove of information for those who are interested). I have read all summaries and will endeavor to read the regional pieces as well in the next few weeks.

The 2,500 pages report concluded that while advances over the last fifty years had resulted in the world's food production increasing at a much faster rate than its population, the present system of production and trade meant the benefits were spread unevenly, and as we know, at intolerable price paid by the small farmers, workers and rural communities and of course, the environment.

Right now - this very moment - the Hang Seng is down over 1000 points. Dow futures are down 225 points (having bounced up from 246 down) and gold neared 1030 dollars per one oz. coin (size of an old silver dollar) before pulling back to around $1025/oz. The United States Dollar (USD) has hit lows never seen - this very evening.

We are being slapped down by so many forces it is truly hard to keep track of them all.

A small selection of articles are posted below...

Yes, that IMF, the International Monetary Fund, is telling states to "think the unthinkable" and "prepare for the worst".

If you have money in stocks, or dollars, it's time to get out, nail some metaphorical plywood over the windows, and hunker down in the basement.

If your conservative friends and relatives won't read the books you recommend because they're "shrill" or "angry" or off-putting in some other way, try giving them Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang. Chang is a Korean economics professor from the prestigious University of Cambridge.  He has written a very readable, understandable book explaining why everything you know about economics -- particularly the economics of developing countries -- is wrong. But he doesn't pound the table about it because, well, he doesn't have to -- the facts are sufficient.

Chang speaks both from scholarship and from deep experience: He was born in South Korea when it was one of the world's poorest countries, and he lived through its transition into a relatively advanced, wealthy nation. So he knows first-hand that Korea's story, told accurately, has a lot to do with trade -- but not free trade. He recalls, for example, import controls so severe that a tin of Spam smuggled from an American military base was something to daydream about.

The Purple Evolution includes the concept of Purple Dialogue where the blending of the colors red and blue become purple and inclusive of ALL points of perspective such that true solutions can be facilitated.  Life is not a this or that choice but rather an on-going dialogue that produces ever greater levels of awareness and understanding.  The year 2012 represents a time when people will reach a critical level of realistic awareness about and understanding of the world around them.  The veil of stupidity and/or naivete is being lifted at an exponential rate, faster than the powers-that-be can plan for it if they even realize that it is even happening.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the powers-that-be wish to do something that is REALLY BIG.  What that something could be boggles the minds of even the most imaginatively creative people.

The Catholic Church, the Masons, and the Jews are examples of very powerful organizations that are generally benevolent in nature who are all participating in REALLY BIG projects.  It would behoove people to attempt to communicate effectively or "Purpley" with representatives of these organizations.

Tremors indicate change in the political landscape; securing long-term sources of energy will be far more important to most voters November 2008 than any discussion of leaving Iraq.

The S&P 500 lost 7.75, or 0.6 percent, to 1,373.2 and is down 6.5 percent in 2008, marking its worst-ever 11-day start to a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34.95, or 0.3 percent, to 12,466.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 23, or 1 percent, to 2,394.59. Asia's benchmark dropped to its lowest level since August and Europe's fell for the fifth time in six days, deepening a global sell-off that's wiped out $2.58 trillion in value this year.

Which benchmark you might ask? I think you'll remember the much discussed benchmark, the so-called "Oil Revenue Sharing Law". President Bush has said that passage of the oil law will result in the sharing of oil revenue among all Iraqis and that its passage will help unify the country. The oil law has broad support in Congress among both democrats and republicans. The Iraq Study Group supports its passage as does the IMF.

The legislation of the new Iraqi Oil & Gas Law by the Iraqi parliament has become the most important benchmark of the US Administration, its oil lobbies, the IOCs, the IMF, and the occupying forces. The Bush administration wants this law to be passed as soon as possible, whatever the cost to the Iraqi people.

Source

A year has passed since the landmark deadline of December 2006, for the Iraqi government to deliver the long awaited Iraqi oil law. The Iraqi Parliament has not passed it. Let's take a look at what has happened.

The news are not good. We're heading into higher food prices fast, with little relief in sight. In fact I don't see any in the distant and the not too distant future. There are a number of reasons. One is increasing wealth in China and India which fuels a huge demand for meat and in turn boosts the demand for cereals to feed the animals.

The other is less obvious, some call it a knee-jerk reaction by the politicians to our ever rising oil prices: it is driven mainly by surging prices of corn, wheat and soybean as some of the crops are being used in developing biofuels, most notably ethanol.

The poor, as usual, will be hurt more by rises in prices of basic foods.

I hate to be the skunk at the ball. I also am happy that the junior Senator from Illinois and his young-at-heart acolytes bested the junior Senator from New York and her Rasputin Mark Penn.

But now that Mr. Obama has a victory under his belt, surely it's appropriate to give his positions on issues some closer scrutiny.

Should he get a free pass just because he's tall and dances with Ellen?

Africa Action doesn't think so. They gave Obama a B for his commitment to providing universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS.

That's "B" as in, "Better study harder for the next exam."

Edwards, Richardson, and Clinton got an A. Their report cards are here.

The US is backing another attempt to overthrow democratically elected gov't of Venezuela. While our ally Saudi Arabia is giving a gang rape victim 200 lashes. There is no election of Saudi royal family, recall, or referendum on their power, but the CIA isn't trying to remove them because big oil thinks they've already got best deal they can get there.

Given all the excitement in teh world markets these days, I thought it would be a good time to focus in on the unraveling of the dominant economic model using Peak Oil as the center piece.

The resistance to the idea of peak oil is profound and comes from two, not necessarily opposed, places: Vested oil interests, a relatively small but exceptionally powerful group, and the intellectual business and economic elite who have created an economic model based on infinite growth, a larger and even more influential group than the vested oil interest. At stake is the founding myth of the modern global economy: That infinite growth of the world’s GDP is not only possible, but THE method for curing all the world’s social ills.

if you're interested in economics keep going . . .