by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Goldman Sachs has made more than a quarter of a billion pounds in 2012 by speculating on food staples, reigniting the controversy over banks profiting from the global food crisis. The problem is that food is now traded as a commodity and also in “futures”.
The investment bank made about $400m (￡251m) in 2012 from investing its clients' money in a range of “soft commodities”, from wheat and maize to coffee and sugar, according to an analysis for The Independent by the World Development Movement (WDM).
This contributed to the 68 per cent jump in profits for 2012 Goldman Sachs announced in the middle of January 2013, allowing it to push up the average pay and bonus package of its bankers to ￡250,000.
We can, however, be sure that it is not just Goldman Sachs who have profited in this way from trading in foods, to the detriment of the people, especially the millions that are starving.
This boils down to what we have said time and again that we do not need a new government, wherever we are, but a new system, political as much as economic.
© 2013
