A Measure of Wheat for a Day’s Wages!
February 27, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The trend we reported early this month on the rising price of wheat, and its effect on the economy, has continued to accelerate, as reported by the ReportOnBusiness.com in this Blog.
Rather than type in a new heading for a follow up report on the Blog we issued on February 8, 2008, especially since I feel lazy right bow, I will simply take the heading off the old Blog and plug it in here.
Begin February 8 Blog Heading
A DAYS WORK FOR A LOAF OF BREAD!
As Platinum and Gold Prices Rise the Dollar Purchasing Power Falls!
February 8, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Following WW-2 the agricultural technology was able to accelerate and keep up with the world’s rapidly increasing population, but technology does have limits. During the 34 year period from 1950 to 1984, a Green Technological Revolution, modifying agricultural progress, swept across earth’s surface. Whole grain production, the bread of life, climbed a whopping 250%, and it seemed mankind was in charge of its own fate through its great scientific expertise. But, from 1984 to the present, agricultural output percentages have been declining in many regions of the planet.
David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), place in their study Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy the maximum U.S. population for a sustainable economy at 200 million. To achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster, the United States must reduce its population by at least one-third, and world population will have to be reduced by two-thirds, says the study.
As the buying power of the dollar declines, if one con sider
s an ancient weighing device with two scales, in order to get the grain weight equal to the weight of the dollars, more dollars have to be added, as the third seal in Revelation 6:6 portrays.
Revelation 6:5,6 – And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.
And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. [6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and
the wine.
When a laborer went into the field to labor, during the time of Jesus’ walk on the earth, the standard wage for a day’s labor was a penny a day. Of course this is not a “penny” of our day, but a coin of that day. The value of it must be measured it what it represented – Payment for a day’s labor. The rich ate wheat bread.
The poor ate barley bread. A “measure” was approximately what a man with large hands could hold in his two hands cupped together. A measure would make a small loaf of bread. So the picture presented here is one of great inflation – A man working all day, and only being able to make enough to provide his family with one small loaf of white bread, or three small loaves of barley bread. The expression “hurt not the oil and the wine” means to be very sparing in your use of them, because their price will be very expensive.
The world is heading for that condition in what was known as “the whole world” at the time John wrote Revelation.
End Heading from February 8 Blog
THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE TELL THE WHOLE STORY:
“[Consumers, meanwhile, will still be digging deeper for food in all aisles of the grocery store.
‘Prices keep going up and that reflects the underlying rise in commodity and crops, all these markets have had substantial rallies,’ Mr. Newsom said. ‘That is not going to go away any time soon.’]”
Begin ReportOnBusiness.com
Wheat prices rally to record
ROMA LUCIW
Globe and Mail Update
February 26, 2008 at 1:25 PM EST
Wheat prices rallied to record highs, rising above $12 (U.S.) a bushel for the first time on record in Chicago as investors piled into the agricultural commodity on signs demand is outpacing supply.
Wheat for May delivery climbed 90 cents to $12.145 a bushel in after-hours Monday night trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, the grain’s biggest one-day jump in five years.
By the middle of Tuesday’s trading session, prices had retreated to around $11.94 a bushel. (The front-running March contract was worth $11.99 a bushel.)
Wheat’s runup has been “nothing short of astonishing,” said Dennis Gartman, an influential U.S. stock newsletter writer. “These are prices never, ever dreamt of in the ag-econ classes” at schools like Kansas State or North Dakota State, he said.
Darin Newsom, a senior analyst with Omaha, Neb.-based agriculture consultants DTN, said that in his 20 years in the business, he has never witnessed this kind of activity. He noted that wheat was trading at $4.75 a bushel last February and at $3.70 a bushel just two years ago.
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“This is a whole new time and we are seeing new realities,” Mr. Newsom said in an interview.
The steep whe at price g
ains are being driven, in part, by a classic supply shortfall. Last year’s U.S. harvest was hurt by excessive rainfall, at the same time as global crops yields in places like Australia, Canada, and the Black Sea region have suffered, Mr. Newsom said.
“So many countries had shorter crops last year that world stocks have decreased to 30-plus-year lows,” he said. “The type of vertical rally we have seen is a clear characteristic of a supply-driven market.”
Wheat’s gains are also being driven by a wave of speculators, investors seeking alternative investments at a time when the U.S. economy is slowing, the greenback is falling and financial markets are grappling with credit woes.
Commodity futures markets are being increasingly whipsawed by speculative investors – commodity and hedge funds, as well as index funds that are buying wheat as a hedge against inflation.
“Investors are looking for a hedge against inflation and commodities provide that,” Mr. Newsom said. “We have the perfect combination of unchecked investment buying along with a supply-driven scare in the fundamental side. The market has simply exploded.”
A Statistics Canada report released Monday said that Canadian farmers received an unprecedented $36.1-billion (Canadian) from the sale of crops and livestock in 2007, due primarily to a 25-per-cent increase in crop receipts.
Revenues from wheat jumped 43.4 per cent to a record $3.2-billion and some farmers say their sales could triple if wheat prices stay this high.
Mr. Newsom, however, says a pullback could be in the cards.
Prices could ease in the next thirty days, if evidence of improved crop yield this year puts the brakes on the supply-driven rally and lower prices on summer futures, he said. Farmers will still likely benefit from the price gains by locking in their new crops at the current elevated levels.
Consumers, meanwhile, will still be digging deeper for food in all aisles of the grocery store.
“Prices keep going up and that reflects the underlying rise in commodity and crops, all these markets have had substantial rallies,” Mr. Newsom said. “That is not going to go away any time soon.”
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