Crisis On The Horizon

Gas in the United States is averaging over $4.00 a Gallon.
Truckers in their big eighteen wheel rigs are paying between $800-1000 to fill up in Diesel.
The items that they transport are going up in price, adding the cost of fuel to their deliveries.
A full truck load coming from Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida used to cost between $2000-4000 depending on the product. Now it’s getting closer to $6000 a load on the low side.
Guess who’s going to pay the difference.
Farmers in America’s heartland are trying to live within this new reality of fuel cost. They are locking in their products cost while it’s still in the ground, even as they spiral up by speculators. The price of corn has gone up, mostly because the politicians in the heartland see dollar signs when it comes to Ethanol. Ethanol cost more to make than it’s worth, at the same time the corn product that goes to making Ethanol doesn’t go to feed the animals that we consume.
Ethanol is competing with our food and it’s winning which means we are losing because food prices are going up.
We are seeing food riots in some countries.
We hear about food prices such as Rice going up.
Rice is one of the main staple foods in our world.
Are these isolated incidents or are they a peak into a new reality in the world.
We are producing more food today than at any other time in History. Countries that only a few years ago couldn’t afford to feed their own populations are now running surplus productions.
Food staples are a commodity and like all commodities they are affected by weather, economics, war and consumption.
One other item that is also being affected is the water that is needed to grow our food items. There has been a major drought throughout most of the World. We have seen the almost continual result in Africa, but unknown to most Americans there has been a major drought here as well.
There is the continual water problem in the Western part of the United States. We are not getting the usual amount of mountain snow and because of the heating of our atmosphere, what snow is there is melting earlier creating early spring runoffs.
In some third world countries, that are moving creating consumerism economies, the land that was once used to grow food is being used by local realtors and developer to create jobs and build better homes for their citizens. There’s nothing wrong with this, but you have to ask the question, “Is it going to hurt the food production of the country?”
There are the famous BRIC countries that we have heard people mention. They are Brazil, Russia, India and China. These four countries are going to be the main economic drivers of this century. Brazil is all ready becoming an agriculture powerhouse. It is growing Sugar Cane and not only exporting a majority of it, but also turning most of it into Ethanol fuel and cutting back on Oil as a fuel for its transportation systems. India is introducing credit to its population.
Many Indians are moving up in the Economic Scale. There are over Three hundred Million Indians that are making over $24,000 dollars a year. So, what? That’s the population of the United States. It means that India has a higher buying power than we do.
Russia as we know is a split personality. Its people and businesses are embracing the Global Market and its place in the world business stage. While its government is longing for the old days of it being a political and military superpower trying to force the country back but the Genie is out of the bottle and it will only lead to unrest in Russia. Russia has to re-invent itself politically or rather its leaders need to re-think where they are, where they are going and what is it that they really want the New Russia to be, Missiles or Global Business leadership. Russia has the potential but it needs the political leadership.
China is selling over a million cars a month to first time drivers. Twenty million Chinese a month are leaving inland China for the Coast where the new factories are. Once China has built enough highways and its infrastructure has caught up with its potential, then it will truly become the Chinese Century.
Not enough water to grow our food, prices of fuel to produce product is going up, farmland being turned into consumer needed real estate.
If Oil as predicted by some, reaches $150 a Barrel by December, what will happen to the world economy?
Our present leadership here is failing us.
Their answer for the oil crisis, and it is a crises, is to look for more oil in our own country. What we need is to break away from the need of oil and support the growth of other energy sources. This isn’t going to happen overnight, it will take at least ten years of hard suffering to change our economic basis.
We need to get Detroit to make one third of all new cars as Hybrids.
We need to cut back on our own waste and look for alternatives.
Congress needs to bring back and make even bigger, the tax cuts on Electronic Power Cells for the home and any other steps that the consumer takes to cut them off the grid. For every one that cuts out of the electric grid, the better it will be for the grid itself and for other consumers. The Electric Grid in this country is straining at the seams and beyond.
We are headed for a different world than the one that we have known for the past sixty years. We have to look at the past sixty years as the Post War Years.
We created new economies, new countries, and new cultures. We are in the position now of change once again.
Our rapid devour of energy and product is unheard of in History.
Our demand for more is out raking needed commodities. We are headed toward dangerous grounds and we have to stop and start thinking of what we can do to change.
The food riots we are witnessing today may be common tomorrow.
Are we ready to send troops to fight for food to feed out population?
Are we ready to tell our sons and daughters that they will have to put their lives on the line in order for us to turn on our lights?
We are all ready at War and we need to take drastic steps to alleviate the situation at home.
The Strain and stress of the Global Markets is starting to show.
Consumerism is rampant throughout the world and there are no constraints.
Where will we be within five years if we don’t take a stance now and begin to make some drastic changes?