DMGFighting over Rice
3quarksdaily notes that hedge fund manager John Paulson made $3.7 billion last year. Billion. If Paulson had been alive to shake Christ's hand and had been making a million a year ever since, he'd still have another 1692 years before he'd have to get a job.
Meanwhile, six years of drought in Austrailia has caused rice production to plummet, with world-wide ripple effects. From The New York Times:
The collapse of Australia's rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months - increases that have led the world's largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
I haven't the words. I just hope Mr. Paulson is doing something good with that extra few billion he has lying around. If he's buying silk toilet roll, I'm going to be really peeved.