Hunger Set to Stalk the World
Food Prices Racing Higher! Gold and Silver More Critical Than Ever!
Consumer prices are up 7.9 percent over the last 12 months, while wholesale prices are 10 percent higher over the same period as reflected in the following chart:
Many believe that these numbers substantially understate the real price shock Americans are encountering every day.
Now there is evidence that food prices are racing higher much faster.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s Food Price Index reached an all-time high in February 2022. As the next chart illustrates, it is up a breathtaking 20.7 percent from a year earlier.
Even that only seems to tell part of the story. According to a Washington Post account, food prices and shortages are spreading panic in the Middle East:
Prices of bread and other foodstuffs in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon have been increasing as concern over their availability mounts.
Egyptians have started complaining about the rising cost of food, some posting videos on TikTok to air their grievances. “The government … says merchants can’t raise prices; [that] there is no reason for merchants to raise prices. But the bread has gone up 50 percent, and to’miyah has [doubled] in price,” said one user, Mahmoud Mosa, referring to the cheap, Egyptian falafel-like disc made of fava beans.
Both the prior chart and the following one make clear that the rapid rise in food prices has been underway for years. It coincides with the unprecedented spree of central bank money printing of recent years and is not merely a consequence of the Ukraine war of the last few weeks.
However, soaring fertilizer prices, due to the war in Ukraine, are expected to exacerbate future food shortages to crisis levels.
Federal Reserve measures to attempt to reign in double-digit inflation all fall under the category of too little, too late.
We don’t wish to sound apocalyptic, but economic conditions are deteriorating very fast. We urge our friends and clients to remember that in a crisis, scarce goods, including food, go to those who can pay in something other than a collapsing currency.
Make sure that you have adjusted your portfolio to the times with a new emphasis on precious metals. Speak with a Republic Monetary Exchange gold and silver professional today.