There’s news this morning that four European countries are protecting their banks from market speculators by slapping a ban on a trading technique known as short-selling. The move was a rapid response to negative market sentiment of recent days.
It’s now over four years since anti-poverty campaigners have pleaded for a ban on speculative trading in world food commodity markets which they believe contributes to the disruption of global food security. Yesterday’s warning that the US corn harvest will be hit by record temperatures will trigger yet more supporting evidence of price volatility.
Within the space of 24 hours we have a glaring illustration of the distorted priorities of recent years – faceless western banks enjoy priority protection over the humanitarian right to food.
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this post was first published by OneWorld UK