Egypt and the Food Bomb

While incidents like the massacre of Christian Copts get all the press (or, rather, whatever press the big outlets are willing to give), David Goldman has been watching the dark cloud hovering over everything in Egypt -- the army, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Alexandria, everything -- like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup of Damocles: Egypt is running out of food and has no way to get more. From his his latest:

[A]ccording to today’s summary of the Egyptian press:

The state-owned [newspaper]  Al-Dostour reports on an “insane” increase in the prices of commodities and services that has left citizens “screaming,” presumably in despair. In its report, Al-Dostour claims that the “current state of lawlessness has left merchants and businesses with no supervision,” giving them free reign to raise prices without fear of repercussion. After a string of powerful metaphors depicting consumers as helpless prey in the grips of some fiercer yet unspecified predator, the report turns into an onslaught of numbers and percentages – food products up 80 percent since January of this year, LE7 for a kilo of sugar and LE13.75 for a liter of vegetable oil, 50 percent increase in the price of flour and LE22 for a kilo of duck meat, and on and on. LE9 for a kilo of humus, too.

Read more »