Live from the Nuke Free Zone

Now here’s something odd. You have to have been poking around multiple news stories to see it, but…

In India:

The [leading] party has been dogged by inflation, particularly in the prices of food…

In China:

Steeply rising food prices pushed inflation in China to 5.6 percent last month, the fastest pace in a decade… consumer prices for food were up 15.4 percent from a year ago… inflation is largely confined to food. Excluding food, consumer prices were up 0.9 percent last month from a year earlier…

And in America:

Food costs have been rising at a rate of 5.7 percent this year, compared with an increase of 2.1 percent for all of last year…. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, is up 2.3 percent so far this year…

So… that’s weird. Three of the biggest countries in the world, working under vastly different economic conditions, are seeing inflation in food prices that’s significantly outpacing inflation in other markets. Occasional coincidence, or is there a common factor? Food prices can be quite volatile, but are we maybe looking at an underlying pressure which is going to be sustained?