02.25.08 U.S. Comptroller General of GAO Resigns

David Walker, Comptroller General of our government's General Accountability Office (GAO) has resigned with five years left on his term to head up a new organization intended to force discussion of the many issues confronting our nation. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, founded by Mr. Peterson, himself the head of the Blackstone Group and former Commerce Secretary in the Nixon administration, should hopefully have enough funding and clout to make a difference.
"I have been around a long time and I have never seen so many simultaneous challenges that I would describe as undeniable, unsustainable and virtually untouchable politically," Mr. Peterson said.
...All this and much more in a noteworthy article by Bill Donoghue in today's MarketWatch.
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FOOD
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We are going to see much more about food inflation, at best, and possibly shortages in the days to come. Food and energy prices are typically not included in the government's official inflation figures, but if you buy groceries or fill up the car's tank, you are well aware that prices are relentlessly moving higher.
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FOOD INDUSTRY SAYS PRICES HEADED UP AGAIN IN '08. (Reuters).
WORLD GRAIN DEMAND STRAINING U.S. SUPPLY. ..."We'll have discussions about food security in 2008. We'll have discussions about whether we should allow the foreign sector to buy our food. Is food a strategic item that we need to keep in our country?", said Chris Hurt, a Purdue University agricultural economist.
FAMINES MAY OCCUR WITHOUT RECORD CROPS THIS YEAR. (Bloomberg). Global grain stockpiles fell to about 53 days last year, the lowest since records started being kept on such things in 1960. William Doyle, CEO of Potash Corp, a leading fertilizer supplier, said in an interview with Bloomberg that grain farmers will need to harvest record crops every year to meet increasing global food demand and avoid famine.
FORGET OIL, THE NEW GLOBAL CRISIS IS FOOD. (NationalPost.com). A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen, according to Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group.
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...It would be prudent to start laying in some extra supplies on weekly grocery trips. Many people are unaware that most supermarkets in our country also have less than a week's worth of food on hand at any one time. Should something happen to disrupt the transportation distribution system, there would be food shortages almost immediately.
...Laying in extra supplies is also a good investment. Prices will only be higher in the future. Buying an extra few cans of goods that your family will actually eat every week, and keeping them rotated on your pantry shelves, is a money saving idea.
...Gardening will also become increasingly important in the future, as it has in the past at various times. Gardens can take on all shapes and sizes. I even read recently about an inner city program where folks use children's wading pools as container gardens.
...On our homestead, I'm planning on starting my first hydroponic experiment this year. I have also been looking into permaculture, a system that tries to use more natural plant groupings. More on that later.
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