Business Digest || Report: Food prices at ‘dangerous levels’

Report: Food prices at ‘dangerous levels’

ST. LOUIS

Global food prices have hit “dangerous levels” that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries, according to a new report from the World Bank.

The bank released a report Tuesday that said global food prices have jumped 29 percent in the past year and are just 3 percent below the all-time peak hit in 2008. Bank President Robert Zoellick said the rising prices have hit people hardest in the developing world because they spend as much as half their income on food.

The World Bank estimates higher prices for corn, wheat and oil have pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty since last June.

Copyright suits filed over TSA photo

DENVER

A law firm that targets the unauthorized use of news content on the Internet has filed 32 lawsuits in federal court in Colorado seeking to stop the use of a Denver Post photograph showing an airport pat-down.

The lawsuits are being watched closely by news companies struggling to protect content as more people rely on the Web for news, and traditional ad revenue in printed newspapers dwindles.

The lawsuits filed by Las Vegas-based Righthaven LLC claim various websites have used the photo of a Transportation Security Administration agent and passenger without authorization. The defendants live in several states and include former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Deficit biggest share of economy since ’45

WASHINGTON

Not since World War II has the federal budget deficit made up such a big chunk of the U.S. economy. And within two or three years, economists fear the result could be sharply higher interest rates that would slow economic growth.

The budget plan President Barack Obama sent Congress on Monday foresees a record deficit of $1.65 trillion this year. That would be just under 11 percent of the $14 trillion economy — the largest proportion since 1945, when wartime spending swelled the deficit to 21.5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

The danger is that a persistently large gap in the budget could threaten the economy. Investors would see lending their money to the U.S. as riskier. So they’d demand higher returns to do it. Or they’d simply put their cash elsewhere. Interest rates on mortgages and other debt would rise as a result.

Associated Press