Banks to allow local groups to buy foreclosures
CIGA Eric
Straight out of the New Deal playbook, public sector funds, better known as ‘free money’, will receive priority over private funds to provide liquidity and help stabilize troubled neighborhoods. Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) of 1933 was also intended to provide liquidity and prevent foreclosures in troubled neighborhoods during the Great Depression. The HOLC ran out of money by 1935 and had little affect on the secular trends in place since 1929.
Major banks are agreeing to give local governments and nonprofit groups the ability to buy foreclosed homes before they are sold to private investors.
The Obama administration said Wednesday local officials could benefit from acquiring these properties and renovating them or using the land for redevelopment projects. Congress has provided $7 billion to buy the homes, but these groups are struggling to spend the federal money because they are often outbid by speculators who are snapping up foreclosures.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
UN: Global food prices highest in 2 years
CIGA Eric
International food prices have risen to their highest level in two years, fueled in part by a drought in Russia that lifted the cost of wheat, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
Rising global food prices are byproduct of currency devaluation across the globe. Yet, the headline discussion remains fixed on the message of deflation.
Spot Commodity Prices: CRB Spot Index (1947 – Present);
16-Raw Industrial Spot Price (1935-1947);
Great Britain Wholesale Price of All Commodities (1885-1935) 
Foodstuffs, which have underperformed the spot index since 2009, has begun to outperform again. That last time this happened gold accelerated from 2007 to 2008.
Gold and CRBFood to CRBSpot Ratio: 
The talk of deflation is nothing more than misdirection away from the message conveyed by the secular trends.
Source: hosted.ap.org
Dear Eric,
China has a plan that goes out a century.
The West has no national economic plan even for tomorrow.
Regards,
Jim
China may probe BHP’s bid for Potash: report
CIGA Eric
The consequence of an economic battlefield, battle for resources and control, that not only knows no boundaries but also allegiances.
China may launch an antimonopoly probe into BHP Billiton’s $39 billion bid for Canada’s Potash Corp, the China Business News said on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the matter.
China will also review the merger of two Russian potash firms — Uralkali and Silvinit — given the major impact the two deals would have on China, the paper cited the unnamed source as saying.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
