Economaton

Brett Arends published an incomprehensibly crass article in today’s Wall Street Journal calling on Americans to hoard food. Not because he expects a shortage, but because “food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund.”

This is exactly the sort of unconscionable speculative greed that turns a bad but temporary situation into an all-out crisis and famine.

I’m not against making money; I’m against starving other people to make money. Arends has the privilege and the luxury to direct millions of investors from his perch at the Journal, and with such a position comes a great responsibility. His words move markets, and he does not appear to appreciate the magnitude of what he is doing. He is telling his readers from his comfortable environs that some faraway people in poor countries are starving, and they can make a few bucks by making it worse for them.

We are experiencing record high prices for all manner of foodstuffs. Riots are erupting around the world (not that one would know this by following mainstream US news sources.) And Arends’ advice is to exacerbate the situation by hoarding — and not even to ensure that his readers can provide for their families, but because food will appreciate 2% faster than a money market fund. He is brazenly and openly calling for food profiteering and price gouging.

This level of cynical greed is shocking, even by the raw capitalist standards of the Wall Street Journal.