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Agflation
Agflation (or agrarian inflation) is an economic phenomenon of an advanced increase in the price for food and for industrial agricultural crops when compared with the general rise in prices or with the rise in prices in the non-agricultural sector. The term was increasingly used in the analytical reports, for example, by the investment banks Merrill Lynch in early 2007 and Goldman Sachs in early 2008. They used the term to denote a sharp rise in prices for agricultural products, or, more precisely, a rapid increase in food prices against the background of a decrease in its reserves, a relatively low general inflation rate, and insignificant growth in the level of wages. Agflation has become an increasingly important issue for many governments. From time to time agflation may become so severe that the World Food Programme has described the phenomenon as a "silent tsunami". Agflation endangers food security, particularly for developing countries, and can cause social unrest. Key featu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food Speculation
Food speculation refers to the buying and selling of futures contracts or other commodity derivatives by traders with the aim of profiting from changes in food prices. Food speculation can be both positive and negative for food producers and buyers. It is betting on food prices in financial markets. Food speculation by global players like banks, hedge funds or pension funds is alleged to cause price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy – even though too large price swings in an idealized economy are theoretically ruled out: Adam Smith in 1776 reasoned that the only way to make money from commodities trading is by buying low and selling high, which has the effect of smoothing out price swings and mitigating shortages. For the actors, the apparently random swings are predictable, which means potential huge profits. For the global poor, food speculation and resulting price peaks may result in increased poverty or even famine. In contrast to food hoarding, specula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduction in the purchasing power of money. The opposite of CPI inflation is deflation, a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. The common measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index. Changes in inflation are widely attributed to fluctuations in Real versus nominal value (economics), real demand for goods and services (also known as demand shocks, including changes in fiscal policy, fiscal or monetary policy), changes in available supplies such as during energy crisis, energy crises (also known as supply shocks), or changes in inflation expectations, which may be self-fulfilling. Moderat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Issues Relating To Biofuels
Issues relating to biofuel are social, economic, environmental and technical problems that may arise from biofuel production and use. Social and economic issues include the "food vs fuel" debate and the need to develop responsible policies and economic instruments to ensure sustainable biofuel production. Farming for biofuels feedstock can be detrimental to the environment if not done sustainably. Environmental concerns include deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil erosion as a result of land clearing for biofuels agriculture. While biofuels can contribute to reduction in global carbon emissions, Indirect land use change impacts of biofuels, indirect land use change for biofuel production can have the inverse effect. Technical issues include possible modifications necessary to run the engine on biofuel, as well as Energy returned on energy invested, energy balance and efficiency. The International Resource Panel outlined the wider and interrelated factors that need to be consi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2007–2008 World Food Price Crisis
World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the first and second quarter of 2008, creating a International crisis, global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both Poor countries, poor and developed nations. Although the media spotlight focused on the riots that ensued in the face of high prices, the ongoing crisis of food insecurity had been years in the making.How do Food Prices Affect Producers and Consumers in Developing Countries? , ICTSD, Information Note Number 10, September 2009UN Food and Agriculture Organization (2009). The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009. Rome. Systemic causes for the worldwide increases in fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Climate Change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global temperatures is Scientific consensus on climate change, driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, Deforestation and climate change, deforestation, and some Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, agricultural and Environmental impact of concrete, industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases greenhouse effect, absorb some of the heat that the Earth Thermal radiation, radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming, Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, has increased in concentratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macroeconomic Aggregates
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output/ GDP (gross domestic product) and national income, unemployment (including unemployment rates), price indices and inflation, consumption, saving, investment, energy, international trade, and international finance. Macroeconomics and microeconomics are the two most general fields in economics. The focus of macroeconomics is often on a country (or larger entities like the whole world) and how its markets interact to produce large-scale phenomena that economists refer to as aggregate variables. In microeconomics the focus of analysis is often a single market, such as whether changes in supply or demand are to blame for price increases in the oil and automotive sectors. From introductory classes in "principles of economics" through doctoral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Economics
Financial economics is the branch of economics characterized by a "concentration on monetary activities", in which "money of one type or another is likely to appear on ''both sides'' of a trade".William F. Sharpe"Financial Economics", in Its concern is thus the interrelation of financial variables, such as share prices, interest rates and exchange rates, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. It has two main areas of focus:Merton H. Miller, (1999). The History of Finance: An Eyewitness Account, ''Journal of Portfolio Management''. Summer 1999. asset pricing and corporate finance; the first being the perspective of providers of Financial capital, capital, i.e. investors, and the second of users of capital. It thus provides the theoretical underpinning for much of finance. The subject is concerned with "the allocation and deployment of economic resources, both spatially and across time, in an uncertain environment".See Fama and Miller (1972), ''The Theory of Finance'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodity Price Shocks
Commodity price shocks are times when the prices for commodities have drastically increased or decreased over a short span of time. Post-Napoleonic Irish grain price and land use shocks (1815–1816) During the international Post-Napoleonic Depression (1815–1821) following the conclusion of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), wheat and other grain prices fell by half in Ireland, and alongside continued population growth, landlords converted cropland into rangeland by securing the passage of tenant farmer eviction legislation in 1816, which led, because of the Irish workforce's historic concentration in agriculture, to a greater subdivision of remaining land plots under tillage and increasingly less efficient and less profitable subsistence farms. 1971–1973 At the time of the 1973 oil crisis, the price of corn and wheat went up by a factor of three. 2000s decade During the 2000s, the price of Brent Crude rose above $30 a barrel in 2003 befo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2010–2012 World Food Price Crisis
Following the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and a short lull in high prices during 2009, food prices around the world again started to rise in 2010. To reduce the volatility (finance), volatility of food markets and increase market transparency, several measures were considered at the G20 summit in 2010. One of the outcomes was the establishment of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) in 2011. In April 2011, the World Bank warned that the global economy was "one shock away" from an impending full-scale food price crisis. The high food prices have contributed to worldwide protests particularly in Africa. High food prices were also a major factor contributing to the Arab Spring unrest. The deflated FAO food price index reached an all time high in 2012. As a result of a very dry summer in the United States and Europe, corn and soybean prices reached all-time highs in July 2012 and prices remained high throughout 2012 One reason for the increase in food price ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2000s Commodities Boom
The 2000s commodities boom, commodities super cycle or China boom was the rise of many physical commodity prices (such as those of food, oil, metals, chemicals and fuels) during the early 21st century (2000–2014), following the Great Commodities Depression of the 1980s and 1990s. The boom was largely due to the rising demand from emerging markets such as the BRIC (economics term), BRIC countries, particularly China during the period from 1992 to 2013, as well as the result of concerns over long-term supply availability. There was a sharp down-turn in prices during 2008 and early 2009 due to the 2008 financial crisis and European debt crisis, but prices began to rise as demand recovered from late 2009 to mid-2010. Oil began to slip downwards after mid-2010, but peaked at $101.80 on 30 and 31 January 2011, as the Egyptian revolution of 2011 broke out, leading to concerns over both the safe use of the Suez Canal and overall security in Arabia itself. On 3 March, Libya's National Oi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantitative Easing
Quantitative easing (QE) is a monetary policy action where a central bank purchases predetermined amounts of government bonds or other financial assets in order to stimulate economic activity. Quantitative easing is a novel form of monetary policy that came into wide application following the 2008 financial crisis. It is used to mitigate an economic recession when inflation is very low or negative, making standard monetary policy ineffective. Quantitative tightening (QT) does the opposite, where for monetary policy reasons, a central bank sells off some portion of its holdings of government bonds or other financial assets. Similar to conventional Open market operation, open-market operations used to implement monetary policy, a central bank implements quantitative easing by buying financial assets from commercial banks and other financial institutions, thus raising the prices of those financial assets and lowering their Yield (finance), yield, while simultaneously increasing the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
