Lee Hudson Teslik
Council on Foreign Relations
Tuesday, April 22, 2008; 6:00 PM
For consumers and businesses in the United States and Europe, bubbling inflation and rising oil prices bring varying degrees of hardship, producing a nuisance for some and raising solvency issues for others. Elsewhere in the world, these factors threaten more existential consequences. World Bank data show rising commodity prices have prompted a dramatic spike in global food prices, with the cost of staples like wheat and rice showing the greatest increases. Unrest has risen along with prices. Riots over food prices have broken out in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia -- an interactive chart from the Financial Times shows the global reach and magnitude of the crisis. Economist Jeffrey Sachs calls it the "worst crisis of its kind in more than thirty years" (NYT).
Supply problems only seem to be accelerating. Beyond the broad rise in commodity prices, which affects most global businesses, ...
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