India to US: Go On a Diet!

India smacks down the notion (set forth by President Bush and Secretary Rice) that food prices are increasing because of the rising middle class in India!?! Whoever fed this information to them did a great disservice because it makes them both look like idiots. From the article:

"George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics," Jairam Ramesh, the minister of state for commerce, told The Press Trust of India after Bush's remarks, which he said proved again how "comprehensively wrong" Bush is.

"To say that demand for food in India is causing increase in global food prices is completely wrong," Ramesh said.

Subsidies to Western farmers have undercut agricultural production in fertile areas of Africa for decades, Kamal Nath, India's minister for commerce and industry, said by telephone. Meanwhile, he added, Americans waste more food than people in many other countries, in part because they buy in such large quantities.

Smoot-Hawley...Rising

Who figured that protectionism would develop in food? Yet that is what we are facing as countries that export grain and rice move to keep it in the country so that the price will remain stable. This is not good, but it is a result of prices that are skyrocketing for basic commodities, thanks in part to the Fed (I am not making this up) tossing the dollar overboard in a desperate attempt to salvage the economy. Once again, the law of unintended consequences.