Kipling was probably right when he said that "the first casualty of war is truth". Whatever the front, all belligerents want to impose "their" truth.
On the commodities markets, too, everyone is trying to explain away a situation that eludes us:
- - Inflation is stabilizing, if not receding, but the feeling of a rising cost of living has taken hold.
- - Sugar cane production is high in Brazil, but sugar prices are soaring. As a result, the end-of-year festivities will see the most expensive chocolates in a long time, as cocoa, against the backdrop of a poor season in West Africa, has become unaffordable.
- - The LME has been cleared by the courts for its handling of last year's Nickel crisis, wiping the slate clean of billions that evaporated when the market was closed to avoid industrial bankruptcy.
- - India's decision not to export a number of commodities, including cotton, rice and sugar, (to protect its domestic prices) is weighing on prices. But it's a safe bet that, once the elections are over, the liberalization of prices will lead to a spectacular fall in all these markets.
- - The dollar has benefited greatly from the euphoria of the US economy and the downturn in the European economies, and is now on the rise again.
The USDA has received a $300 million fund to try and find new export markets for its production, as if to prepare for a more difficult future.
To sum up the specific situation of our market, "all it takes is for people to stop buying for it to stop selling". Coluche's aphorism sums up the situation. Textiles are struggling to sell, stores are having trouble keeping up with their inventories, so cotton is no longer selling. In France, the principle of degrowth is flourishing. The government has launched a new advertising campaign to explain that we should no longer consume or buy, but rather patch, repair, mend and "stop selling".
Meanwhile, spinners are sinking into crisis. After investing massively in state-of-the-art equipment, they are now forced to work only part-time or at a loss.
In West Africa, crops are still poorly sold, while the market situation is deteriorating.
Today, military instability is preoccupying all headquarters. The recapture of Kidal in Mali has de facto buried the agreements of the same name, and left massacres to be perpetrated in Djibo in Burkina Faso. How can we stop the fire that is still smoldering?
The situation in this part of the world should lead France to stop supporting the CFA franc, to give the ECOWAS countries back their autonomy, and to create a new sub-regional currency, which many are calling for.
Finally, it didn't take long for Putin's "case law" to take hold. Venezuela has just held a referendum for or against the annexation of their neighbor Guyana, incidentally an oil sponge. The answer was in the question. "Land has, war has" goes the adage.
Source: Mambo