The Daily World Affairs Report: The Daily WAR (01-10)

Oil prices have surged to almost $115 a barrel as China builds up stocks before the Olympics and hedge funds pour money into commodity futures as a way to exploit the collapse of the dollar.

And there is some evidence that Opec has actually cut output by 350,000 bpd since the start of the year - a hostile move in the current climate.

Crude has taken on a "safe-haven" role for investors fleeing the dollar, or those betting that central banks will let rip with excess liquidity. Hot money funds are also playing a role, trading oil as a sort of "anti-dollar".

Surging oil prices are in turn stoking inflation, causing investors to bet yet more on oil futures as an inflation hedge. "This has entered a vicious spiral." BNP Paribas says central banks should intervene to stabilise the dollar. Every major country now has an interest in slowing the commodity frenzy.

The G7 group of major powers took a step in that direction over the weekend, warning that sharp currency moves had become a threat to financial stability. The markets have dismissed this as empty bluster.

(And: Oil hits $115, dollar at record low)

(Cartoon: Bush on war 'n prices)

The International Forecaster

War drum beats for oil rich nations, The Fed makes itself irrelevant, status quo needs to be hit hard, pondering metals again, corporate delusions, games to play, and more ...

Here comes the next mortgage crisis

Merrill Lynch to cut 4,000 jobs after $2bn loss

Shades of 1929: The global implications of the US banking collapse (part 2)

Speculators and soaring food prices

Analysis: Food insecurity will grow

As Australia dries, a global shortage of rice

Biofuel vs. food (cartoon)

Biofuel rules "could make millions homeless"

Pressure grows on EU to abandon biofuels

MISC

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Rules and fools

Today in Scripture

* "Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, 1 for each household. (Exo 12:3-5)

* "On the 10th day of the 1st month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho." (Jos 4:19-24)

* "The next day [5 days before Passover] the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Yahshua was on his way to Jerusalem..." (John 12:12-50 / Luke 19:29-46 / Mat 21:1-17 / Mark 11:1-11)

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* "Here I have to reveal a trade secret, which punctures the mystique of intelligence analysis. Generally speaking, 80% of the information one needs to form judgments on key intelligence targets or issues is available in open media. Truth be told, everyone with a high-school education can do it."

* "In his usual form, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told a packed crowd to stop whining about corporate media and become their own intelligence operatives. We the people have the same resources and tools that intelligence networks rely heavily on; it's called 'Google.' As our own intelligence operatives we can't allow CNN, FOX, NBC, and ABC to edit and cherry pick information, but ask questions and find the answers ourselves."

* "Many apparently separate developing daily events don't make the slightest sense, if you don't look at them in their strategic context. In the face of Orwellian control of the media, it is even more necessary, to judge contemporary developments with the eye of an historian, who has not forgotten the lessons of [history]."

Thursday

The Daily WAR (01-10)