Re: The Political Economy of Famine

2 things here I question:

> >To keep the prices up, governments create massive stocks of
> foodstuffs, >which are then taken off the market. World grain stocks
> exceed 200 million >tonnes, while the shortfall of grain in the Horn
> of Africa will not exceed >10 million tonnes. The cost of storing food
> in Europe alone runs in tens of >billions of dollars, but the massive
> cost of storing vast quantities of food >leads governments to the
> "logical" conclusion >that they must either process it into something
> else or simply dump it. 


This makes no sense to me at all.  I thought all the neoclassical
economists' equations were based on supply and demand.  If there is a
surplus, prices should come down, not go up.  If something else is really
going on, this should be made clear so the implications for the NCE
equations is obvious to one and all.



Radical critics of the existing world order
> should bear this in mind when relying upon dubious Marxist notions
> like the law of value or the diminishing rate of profit when making
> their case.


I don't consider the law of value to be dubious in the least.  It was a
commonplace among the political economists of Marx's time.  It is only
with the rise of neoclassical economists (a bizarre theological construct
if there ever was one) that the idea is jettisoned.


RH