In the News (from Rabobank): “Skyrocketing agricultural commodity prices are causing the world to re-enter a period of “agflation”, with food prices forecast to reach record highs in 2013 and to continue to rise well into Q3 2013. Unlike the staple grain shortage of 2008, this year’s scarcity will affect feed intensive crops with serious repercussions for the animal protein and dairy industries. …

“Rabobank estimates that the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index will rise by 15% by the end of June 2013. In order for demand rationing to take place, in turn encouraging a supply response, prices will need to stay high. As such Rabobank expects prices – particularly for grains and oilseeds – to remain at elevated levels for at least the next 12 months.”

“While the impact of higher food prices should be reduced by favorable macroeconomic fundamentals (low growth, lower oil prices, weak consumer confidence, and a depreciated U.S. dollar), interventionist government policies could exacerbate the issue. Stockpiling and export bans are a distinct possibility in 2012/13, as governments seek to protect domestic consumers from increasing food prices. Increased government intervention will likely encourage further increases in world commodity and food prices.

“Rabobank expects that localized efforts to increase stockpiles will prove counterproductive at the global level, with those countries least able to pay higher prices likely to see greater moves in domestic food price inflation. This is a vicious circle, with governments committing to domestic stockpiling and other interventionist measures earlier than usual—recognizing the risk of being left out as exportable stocks decline further.

“On top of that, Rabobank warns that global food stocks have not been replenished since 2008, leaving the market without any buffer to adverse growing conditions. Efforts by governments to rebuild stocks are likely to add to food prices and take supplies off the market at a time when they are most needed.”

My Comment: If we distribute food equally among all the population, it will be enough for everybody. The problem is not in the quantity of food, but in its distribution, that is, in human relations. So, we are not facing a food crisis, but a crisis of distribution.

Incidentally, the word “crisis” means “opportunity” in Chinese; if we use it properly, we all have enough.
[91131]

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In the News (from Euronews): “Doctors, lawyers and journalists were among those who went on strike in Greece, on the eve of a national day of action against the latest bout of belt-tightening and reforms.

“They protested in front of the finance ministry over tougher tax and social security measures they claim are crippling their professions.”

My Comment: This results from the improper organization of the population, or rather its absence. They should organize all in integral education courses with free food for all the students until the economy reaches the level of reasonable consumption.
[90809]

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In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “German corporate and consumer bankruptcies jumped in July from a year ago, according to official data released Friday, a lagging indicator that growth in the euro zone’s largest economy is slowing amid a financial crisis in the region.

“The number of companies that declared themselves insolvent, and therefore unable to discharge liabilities, increased 1.9% in July to 2,580, not including the German state of Saarland. Consumer bankruptcies rose by 2.8% to 8,960 cases, according to Destatis, the German Federal Statistics Office. Together with the insolvencies of other debtors and private estates, total insolvencies in July reached 13,783, an increase of 2.5% on last year.”

My Comment: The most powerful states fall last because they exist at the expense of the weak, but they fall more forcefully and more painfully than the weak, which can lead, as in the past, to war.
[90744]

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In the News (from Euronews): “European leaders come together today in what is being billed as a summit to strengthen economic and monetary union.

“But at this, the fourth meeting this year, the debt crisis is as usual set to colour discussions as the 27 EU leaders look for a way to restore confidence in the euro.

“But the EU Commission is resting many of its hopes of securing the euro’s future on the setting up of a single banking supervisor under the ECB. It’s part of the banking union plan aimed at binding the 17 eurozone countries more closely together. But while the EU commission wants it in place by next year, agreement still has to be reached.”

My Comment: Integration will lead to conflicts at all levels without the implementation of integral education!
[90677]

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In the News (from Euronews): “Germany has cut its economic growth forecast in as the country finally starts to feel the effects of the eurozone credit crisis.

“The slowdown prediction comes as companies postpone investment, and the economy minister warned that turmoil in Germany’s main trading partners could hit exports in the second half of the year.

“Philipp Rösler said despite the stormy economic waters Germany is standing its ground and remains on track for growth.

“But he added: ‘The environment for the German economy has become more difficult overall, due to the eurozone debt crisis. The growth forecast for next year is therefore one percent. That is less than the 1.6 percent forecast in the spring.”

My Comment: This is the immediate future of the world. Everyone needs to prepare himself for the landing, so that it does not become an uncontrolled fall. Through the implementation of integral education for the population it is possible to make the descent with the benefit for everyone, and although in the end, consumption and the economy will shrink to a reasonable level, the population will feel more comfortable than it ever has.
[90613]

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In the News (from Euronews): “As the race for the White House enters its final stretch, another drama is also concerning US policy makers: a flood of tax rises and spending cuts all due to come into effect at the same time, known as the ‘Fiscal Cliff’.

“It leaves US politicians with a conundrum, as Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Centre explained to euronews: ‘The argument is over the top two percent. Do we let the tax cuts expire for them or not? President Obama says, yes let them expire for the richest two percent because they can afford the taxes and we need the revenue. The Republicans are saying no, we can’t let taxes go up for anyone, particularly these rich folks are the job creators. We need them to keep the economy going.’”

My Comment: It’s nearing the end because no one has a solution, which is in the middle line, in the implementation of integral education and the transition to the economy of reasonable consumption.
[90747]

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In the News (from ScienceDaily): “Crises are said to bring people closer together. But a new study from UC Berkeley suggests that while the have-nots reach out to one another in times of trouble, the wealthy are more apt to find comfort in material possessions.

“’In times of uncertainty, we see a dramatic polarization, with the rich more focused on holding onto and attaining wealth and the poor spending more time with friends and loved ones,” said Paul Piff, a post-doctoral scholar in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. …
“’Given the very different forms of coping that we observe among the upper and lower classes, our research suggests that in times of economic uncertainty and social instability, disparities between the haves and the have-nots could grow ever wider,’ Piff said.”

My Comment: The crisis will continue with breaks until it equalize everyone. People will understand, as during disasters, that only kind relationships can save them. And, in addition, the connection between unity and good luck will be manifested more clearly.
[88954]

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Opinion (Li Shenming, Vice President, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): “In the coming years, America will become weaker and rely more on Europe, Japan and other countries. The world economy has entered a long period of recession. There are more poor and fewer wealthy people in the world.

“Along with the deepening of the global financial crisis, competition and conflict between the major powers will only increase in such areas as energy, food, finance, internet, and even disputes over land and water areas. The best choice for the Western world, led by the USA, is to find a partner to start a proxy war. We need to vigorously defend our own sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“The USA blind confidence aimed their attack at the two countries – Russia and China. Destroying China and splitting Russia, the West would have achieved his goal – world domination.

“With the deepening of the global financial crisis, there will be an eruption and escalation of conflicts on the ethnic, religious grounds, conflicts over sovereignty and economic interests. The world is on the verge of great upheaval, restructuring and change.”

My Comment: All that is true, except in the plan of Nature in the development of the world, the world is not run by people, though it does seem so to them. Humanity is just trying to avoid all sorts of unforeseen unpleasant events. But with the deepening of integral dependence, humanity will have no means to evade the attacks of nature, its forces directed at the correction of humankind.

There is a future for the one who will understand what is happening according to the plan of nature and will be able to actively participate in it. This will lead to the creation of the supreme governing body of the world whose members will know the laws of the upper management.
[88957]

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In the News (from The Guardian): “The UN has warned of increasing meat and dairy prices in the wake of extreme weather in the United States and across large parts of Europe and other centres of global food production.

“According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, global wheat production is expected to fall 5.2% in 2012 and yields from many other crops grown to feed animals could be 10% down on last year.

“’Populations are growing but production is not keeping up with consumption. Prices for wheat have already risen 25% in 2012, maize 13% and dairy prices rose 7% just last month. Food reserves, [held to provide a buffer against rising prices] are at a critical low level.’

“The NFU president, Peter Kendall, said: ‘There are many farmers who are down 25% to 30% on the wheat crop. In some cases you looked from the outside and you thought, this crop will do over four tonnes to the acre – and it’s been struggling to do three and some cases two tonnes to the acre.’”

My Comment: We are opposite to nature in everything, and nature does not forgive that. A human being imagines himself above nature, outside of it, and now he will discover its tragic mistake in a very hard way; he is the worst of all the creatures because he wants to use everything for his own sake, not taking into account anything and anyone.

Nature will have to teach him to become a human being, then he will understand that there is a supreme intelligence that rules the world and leaves him, a human, the freedom to become reasonable, and if he does not want to, the time has come to force him to study and correct himself.
[90439]

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In the News (from Reuters): “The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting peace, democracy and human rights over six decades, a morale boost for the bloc as it struggles to resolve its economic crisis.

“The award served as a reminder that the EU had largely brought peace to a continent that tore itself apart in two world wars in which tens of millions died.

“The EU has transformed most of Europe ‘from a continent of wars to a continent of peace,’ Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in announcing the award in Oslo.”

My Comment: The discrepancy between what was said in the statement and reality inspires concerns that reality might turn into another world war… The crisis is spreading to the whole world, and the whole world must solve it. But the EU can lead by example, to become a pioneer in the introduction of integral education for the entire EU population. One law can solve the entire problem!
[90222]

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