2/16/2011 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…
Oh, fellow taxpayers, it as if some sort of dam has been breached and all sorts of mayhem and shenanigans are barreling down upon us. What has happened? What is the cause? Why, out of nowhere, have governments fallen in the Middle East with the promise of more ousters to follow? Why is the Italian Prime Minister still in office? Why have the oppressed of the world begun to speak out, almost in unison, against perceived injustices?
Is it Social Networking, Facebook, Twitter? Despite what we think, many of those who are rioting may scarcely be able to read or write, let alone operate a computer. While this may help to facilitate, we doubt these tools in themselves have the power to agitate.
The one thing that tends to affect everyone all at once are rising food prices! Even the World Bank seems to be getting it. In a recent report, they state that global food prices have jumped a whopping 29% in one year. The report goes on to blame export bans and weather disruptions as part of the problem. What it doesn't state, but what is obvious now to Mint followers, is that dramatic increases in the global money supply, spewed into the banking system by every Central Bank on the planet, are now finding their way into basic commodity prices.
You see, the Central Banks of the world, through their actions, may have given the current insane monetary system a few more years to survive, but they have essentially stolen the wages of the masses. This is why they are rioting. People will tolerate shenanigans at all levels of government as long as they are fed and see better things on the horizon.
Now that the Central Banks have virtually assured that neither of those things will happen for at least 3 years and counting, the floodgates have opened for any sort of grievance to be publicly aired. It is as if a season of Festivus for the rest of us has been declared!
The Egyptians tolerated Mubarak for 30 years until he could no longer feed them. He fell in 18 days.
