The Fed is saving the Market, not the economics

As foreclosures surge, we also learn today vacant U.S. houses have reached a record high. According to the Census Bureau, over 18.6 million houses are empty -- up 1 million properties from a year ago.

That’s the biggest glut of vacant homes since the Census Bureau started keeping track in 1956. Most likely, this many homes haven’t sat empty since the Great Depression.

Our friend Kurt Richebacher rolled over in his grave so hard this morning he likely pulled a muscle.


But the crumbling housing market is old news, right? Gasoline prices are now the No. 1 economic concern among U.S. consumers.

What we can do for rice crisis?

Rice prices all over the world set record highs yesterday and overnight… again. Futures in Chicago punched through the $25 level in yesterday’s session. Now up 26% in April alone, Chicago rice is climbing at its fastest monthly pace since 1993.

Then, as we slept, Thai rice (the world’s most traded rice) shot up to $1,000 a ton. We got our hands on a chart of this stuff… unbelievable:

Your eyes do not deceive you… prices have tripled since the New Year. A month ago, when we were shocked at the $720 sticker price. Now $1,000? Oy…

People of the world’s poorer nations are thrilled. Here’s a Bangladeshi man expressing his excitement to a policeman. About 20,000 of his friends joined him in the latest food riot there.

A U.N. “peacekeeper” was dragged out of his car and shot in Haiti, where riots over the price of food occur almost daily. In the Ivory Coast, a mob of 1,500 overturned cars and burnt tires while chanting, “We are hungry.”

Senegal, Kenya, Egypt, Cameroon, Jordan, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Mexico, Mozambique, Zimbabwe….

Several stocks related to rice include MOS or you can just play with commodity.