EconTech

“To put it mildly, [converting food crops to biofuels] is foolish; to put it strongly, it is a crime against humanity.”
India considers ban on trading in food futures
By Raphael Minder in Madrid
India is considering a blanket ban on trading in food futures, highlighting growing concerns in Asia over the role of hedge funds and financial [...]

Beating a not-so-dead horse on food prices
A “loyal reader” writes
Martin Wolf of the FT has written a whole article arguing that: ‘… higher food prices have powerful distributional effects: they hurt the poorest the most’ without even a mention of the basic economics in your September post on food prices: ‘The real answer of course [...]

I chided Becker and Posner for not giving sources for their posts. Here is some data that backs them up in a more serious manner (HT: Gabriel)(Not sure how I found this), a comment below:
Food prices
How should a well-fed American react when some of the world’s poorest citizens in Haiti and Bangladesh riot over the [...]

I’ve got to say, while I enjoy reading their posts (usually), the lack of documentation in the form of either hyperlinks or footnotes is most annoying. There is much too much reliance on their authority as respected academics on their own blog. Unfortunately, that is not even the UofChicago way, where everyone has to back [...]

Anyone who has kept their eyes open on the biofuel issue knows that the biofuels as they are currently being produced are an enormous waste of energy and money. This FT article hardly mentions that. Not only that, but I have to assume that “agricultural scientists” are getting some kind of funding from agricultural agencies, [...]