Wednesday, May 28, 2008

How the World's Richest Governments Starve the World's Poorest People (Bogdan C. Enache)

Bogdan C. Enache on the tragic unintended consequences of government meddling in the market for biofuels:

World food prices have increased dramatically, by almost 60 percent on average since March of last year, according to the index compiled by the World Food and Agricultural Organization, and there's no sign yet that they're going to substantially fall back in the near future. With record prices on the Chicago Board of Trade for futures contracts on agricultural commodities, it seems very likely that the high food prices are here to stay for the next few years.

Naturally, governments all over the world now feel compelled to rectify the situation and are busy enacting or preparing to enact various measures that they believe will help ease the rise of food prices. In general, however, they only succeed in making things worse.

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