Corn prices surge to record high

Image via WikipediaCorn prices surged to a record high for the year Friday as traders questioned whether crop yields will fall short of expectations.

Corn for December delivery rose 17 cents, or 3.8%, to settle at $4.6450 a bushel. The price was just shy of the June 2009 record of $4.70 per bushel for the December contract, Telvent DTN analyst John Sanow said.

As the nation's harvest gets underway, there have been some signs that the number of bushels per acre will be less than the government's forecast of a record 165 bushels per acre, analysts said.

East of the Mississippi, the weather has been hotter and drier, which could have affected the crop, Frontier Ag analyst Larry Glenn said.

The situation could change as more farmers begin to pull crops from the field. Meanwhile, supplies remain tight and global demand continues to grow, Sanow said. More...

USDA Reports Food Shortages: Wall Street 'Caught Off Guard' by Severity

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Eric Blair
Activist Post

Several recent headlines indicate that food prices will continue their swift climb upward. These troubling new reports show that agriculture production and stored grains are critically low and experts are now predicting food shortages on a grand scale.

Look at a few mainstream headlines: Drought threatens global rice supply in the India Times; VA farmers say heat taking toll on crops, Associated Press; Severe food shortage follows lack of rainfall in Syria; and, finally, Corn prices bolt as USDA downsizes crop estimates, which states that, "Commodity professionals were caught off guard Wednesday by a U.S. Department of Agriculture report showing 1 million fewer acres of corn planted this year than earlier projected, and almost 300 million fewer bushels of corn in storage." And these articles don't begin to address crops being damaged by the toxic rain from the Gulf oil disaster.

We are back to recession economics and rapidly heading toward a deeper, longer “Third Depression.” With all recent economic indicators setting new record lows and deficits at record highs, this ship is only going one way folks, down, down to Chinatown. This WTC-Building 7-style-controlled-demolition of the U.S. economy has long been engineered by the borderless banksters and has been set in the same way to collapse at a free-fall rate. With all of the manufactured confusion it may be difficult to know where best to invest your limited assets, but it seems to be clear that Food is on the march.

There were several trend forecasters and financial firms predicting upwards of $200/barrel of oil before the Gulf oil gusher. The “analysts” said this would occur because of the perception of scarcity and a weakening dollar. The oil disaster and the subsequent outrage at Big Oil will surely take care of selling the perception of scarcity, while the Federal Reserve and Congress will surely take care of weakening the dollar. More...