We used to feel the same way about the housing prices. Until the home foreclosures began. And until the value of our own property diminished faster than the worth of our retirement accounts. Then all of a sudden we were collectively stunned. How could this happen? Why didn't anyone see it coming? Surely, someone should have stopped it from happening?
Anya Schiffrin, in a new book, tells us that American journalists missed the true cause of the economic collapse, or the so-called "housing bubble" that caused the middle class to use their homes to finance a life they could no longer otherwise afford while the government voted again and again for tax relief for the wealthy. They missed it because they didn't cultivate a wide enough circle of informants who questioned the authority and the logic of so-called "experts," and because they focused instead on the glitzy surfaces and commercial appeal of stories about superstars, celebrities, successful entrepreneurs, and the triumph of the markets to fuel "a better quality of life."
It may well be the case that journalists are also missing the "food bubble" that currently dominates futures markets. If a recent United Nations report is accurate, we can expect an unprecedented rise in the cost of food in the near future--as much as 40%. Coupled with the stagnant unemployment picture and the burgeoning national debt, we have more to fear from food prices than fear itself, or from the Muslim Brotherhood.
If food prices increase as predicted, there aren't more jobs and the rich still live far better than you or I, Americans, too, may take to the streets. But we won't be crying out for freedom or democracy. Instead, we will be crying out, like Egyptians today, for relief from the high cost of food, a continuing lack of jobs, and an ever-wider inequality. Call it a cry for democracy if you want to. But that's the real story at home and abroad.
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