8-17-06 What About Afghanistan? - part 4
The commodities markets do not yet, as far as I know, deal with futures on opium prices. But opium is a commodity, and it is bought and sold all around the world. It's a very lucrative business, so the price of opium at any particular point will be of intense interest for all those drug lords out there. And any slightest bit of news that will affect the future of supply versus demand will be of tremendous importance to them. Of course, the basis of much of the way the futures market bids prices up or down on agricultural commodities is in projected crop yields. News that comes out about crop yields, one way or another, will result in commodities futures going up or down. It's very valuable information.
We're talking about annual flows of billions of dollars here, when we focus on opium. And Afghanistan is the world's number one producer of that particular commodity. Here's an August 16 article from Associated Press that will give the world's drug barons a good yardstick for their pricing strategies over the coming months...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHAN_OPIUM_BOOM?SITE=FLMYR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I'm not particularly concerned with the morals or ethics involved in this, when I bring up the nature of this commodity being marketable. It's very marketable, and it's extremely profitable, therefore people will continue to grow poppies, harvest them, make opium, and sell it to the existing market. And as long as there is the danger of any law enforcement action against any of this activity, that price will continue to be high enough to bear the burden of that danger. Indeed, the "danger" to the future of any profit in opium is the prospect of making it "legal". If that were to happen, all those currently peddling influence in the world using their drug profits would be completely PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!
It's all just basically demonstrative of how markets actually work. Throw aside the moral issues of illegal drug usage, and focus on the market that exists, and will always exist, as long as the product continues to have its allure of "danger" and "underground". The end user is a created slave. The end user commits crimes to get the money to purchase the product. It makes neighborhoods unsafe. The money goes up the distribution ladder, thus there are people out there who make so much goddam money from this, money that is virtually untraceable, that they are vested with inordinate levels of power in the world.
...power enough to buy influence that can keep the drugs illegal, thereby perpetuating their power.
Now let's focus upon the loudest government champions of big business and free markets, the Bush administration.
Before the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan, opium production had been curtailed to such a low level by the Taliban that it was no longer a factor of any significance in the world market for opium. But after Afghanistan was taken over, the country sprang back onto the world market the very next year. And every year since then, the opium yield out of Afghanistan has gotten higher and higher. The net effect (on the world's opium market) of the invasion of Afghanistan has been, basically, to return that country back to its former position as the number one producer of opium IN THE WORLD! This is the most significant change that has happened, since this commodity is Afghanistan's BIGGEST export! More than HALF of Afghanistan's gross domestic product is the poppy crop, and the opium that's made from it!
So, first we have to assume that opium production in Afghanistan is hardly a difficult thing to, essentially, erase. I mean, the prospect of making that country no longer of any slightest significance in the world as a producer of opium has already been DEMONSTRATED by the Taliban.
Next, we have to assume that there's absolutely no question that the US government is overwhelmingly more powerful than the crew they chased out of that country. It was no contest! Yet, are we to believe that this same overwhelmingly powerful force in the world is COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE in achieving something that the people they DEFEATED found very easy to do???
The inconsistency here is beyond comprehension. The ease with which Afghanistan was rendered completely insignificant on the world opium market, compared to the skyrocketing production that has taken place after "our guys" went in there says one thing, and one thing only:
This IS the intended result.
We're talking about annual flows of billions of dollars here, when we focus on opium. And Afghanistan is the world's number one producer of that particular commodity. Here's an August 16 article from Associated Press that will give the world's drug barons a good yardstick for their pricing strategies over the coming months...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHAN_OPIUM_BOOM?SITE=FLMYR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I'm not particularly concerned with the morals or ethics involved in this, when I bring up the nature of this commodity being marketable. It's very marketable, and it's extremely profitable, therefore people will continue to grow poppies, harvest them, make opium, and sell it to the existing market. And as long as there is the danger of any law enforcement action against any of this activity, that price will continue to be high enough to bear the burden of that danger. Indeed, the "danger" to the future of any profit in opium is the prospect of making it "legal". If that were to happen, all those currently peddling influence in the world using their drug profits would be completely PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!
It's all just basically demonstrative of how markets actually work. Throw aside the moral issues of illegal drug usage, and focus on the market that exists, and will always exist, as long as the product continues to have its allure of "danger" and "underground". The end user is a created slave. The end user commits crimes to get the money to purchase the product. It makes neighborhoods unsafe. The money goes up the distribution ladder, thus there are people out there who make so much goddam money from this, money that is virtually untraceable, that they are vested with inordinate levels of power in the world.
...power enough to buy influence that can keep the drugs illegal, thereby perpetuating their power.
Now let's focus upon the loudest government champions of big business and free markets, the Bush administration.
Before the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan, opium production had been curtailed to such a low level by the Taliban that it was no longer a factor of any significance in the world market for opium. But after Afghanistan was taken over, the country sprang back onto the world market the very next year. And every year since then, the opium yield out of Afghanistan has gotten higher and higher. The net effect (on the world's opium market) of the invasion of Afghanistan has been, basically, to return that country back to its former position as the number one producer of opium IN THE WORLD! This is the most significant change that has happened, since this commodity is Afghanistan's BIGGEST export! More than HALF of Afghanistan's gross domestic product is the poppy crop, and the opium that's made from it!
So, first we have to assume that opium production in Afghanistan is hardly a difficult thing to, essentially, erase. I mean, the prospect of making that country no longer of any slightest significance in the world as a producer of opium has already been DEMONSTRATED by the Taliban.
Next, we have to assume that there's absolutely no question that the US government is overwhelmingly more powerful than the crew they chased out of that country. It was no contest! Yet, are we to believe that this same overwhelmingly powerful force in the world is COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE in achieving something that the people they DEFEATED found very easy to do???
The inconsistency here is beyond comprehension. The ease with which Afghanistan was rendered completely insignificant on the world opium market, compared to the skyrocketing production that has taken place after "our guys" went in there says one thing, and one thing only:
This IS the intended result.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:00 PM
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