⛏ One Water. Half the World’s Food Supply

One Water. Half the World’s Food Supply
Almost half of the world’s nitrogen fertilizer exports pass through ONE narrow waterway. That sentence should concern you more than oil at $100. In 1909, Fritz Haber figured out how to pull nitrogen from the air and turn it into ammonia. Carl Bosch scaled it. Together, they built the process that now feeds roughly half the planet. Today, roughly half the food on Earth depends on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Without it, the planet could support about 4 billion people. We have 8 billion. And right now, the machinery that makes all this possible runs through one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Read on »

China pulls silver from global markets to meet surging demand
The world’s biggest buyer pulled in over 790 tons in the first two months, including nearly 470 tons in February, the highest ever for that month, according to Chinese customs data on Friday. Strong demand has pushed local prices well above international benchmarks, whittling down already-low exchange stockpiles and hoovering up metal from abroad. Read on »

Gold, the Federal Reserve, and a Catch-22
If you know inflation is going to increase, would you sell your inflation hedge? Me neither. That would be dumb, right? However, that’s what a lot of people did (Wednesday, March 18), and they're still doing it this morning. This hints at the Catch-22 still haunting the Federal Reserve and the market's inability to make sense out of it. Read on »