A Challenge of Economic Statecraft

"....As financial markets have tumbled, food prices have soared. Since 2005, the prices of staples have jumped 80 percent. Last month, the real price of rice hit a 19-year high; the real price of wheat rose to a 28-year high and almost twice the average price of the last 25 years. The good news for some farmers adds a crushing load to the most vulnerable â€" children, as young as four or five, forced to flee the safety of their rural communities to fight for food in teeming cities; food riots thr