Global Crisis

The food shortage is getting on the radar screen. I guess when there are runs on rice bags at Wal-Mart and Costco, the notion that it's a global crisis becomes more finely realized.

"This steeply rising price of food — it has developed into a real global crisis," Ban said, adding that the World Food Program has made an urgent appeal for additional $755 million.

"The United Nations is very much concerned, as (are) all other members of the international community," Ban said. "We must take immediate action in a concerted way."

The world economy is built on so many bad deals for poor people and enrichment for multinationals that this was bound to happen. During the Depression political elites had to wrench power away from entrenched corporate interests to avert mass starvation. What will we see on the global level?