US Intelligence: Poverty Will Be Eliminated By 2030

US Intelligence Predicts Poverty Plummet By 2030 -- CBS News

ASPEN, Colo. — Poverty across the planet will be virtually eliminated by 2030, with a rising middle class of some two billion people pushing for more rights and demanding more resources, the chief of the top U.S. intelligence analysis shop said Saturday.

If current trends continue, the 1 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day now will drop to half that number in roughly two decades, Christoper Kojm said.

"We see the rise of the global middle class going from one to two billion," Kojm said, in a preview of the National Intelligence Council's global forecast offered at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

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My Comment: I am skeptical .... but it is also true that wealth creation is spreading in many parts of the world. The National Intelligence Council's website is here.

World Food Inflation Pushing Millions More Into Poverty

The new arms race is food and energy, says Superfund Financial, in a report that predicts coffee, sugar and cocoa prices will rise up to tenfold by 2014 because of shortages. Reuters

Soaring Food Costs Pushing Millions Into Poverty -- NPR/AP

Soaring food and energy prices, still-fragile financial systems and continued tensions between the United States and China over trade and currency issues will all be on the agenda at meetings over the next three days of global finance officials.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Thursday that food prices are 36 percent higher than they were a year ago and already have pushed 44 million people into poverty. He called on major countries to do more to help poor countries meet the challenge of feeding their populations at a time of surging prices.

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My Comment: With wars and revolutions becoming the norm in regions like Africa and the Middle East .... having the necessary social stability to grow food crops is going to become harder and harder in these regions as this unrest continues. But the biggest impact will probably come from Japan's hungry consumers, who will now favor eating foodstuffs grown from outside of Japan in order to allay their fears of radiation poisoning .... hence driving the demand and price of basic foods.

'More Poor' In India Than Africa

From The BBC:

Eight Indian states account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African countries combined, a new measure of global poverty has found.

The Indian states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have 421 million "poor" people, the study found.

This is more than the 410 million poor in the poorest African countries, it said.

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My Comment: This is not a war/military/intelligence posting, but this story has been running through my mind since yesterday. It makes me realize two things .... (1) I am incredibly lucky and (2) the world is truly a messed up place for a good chunk of its population.

World Poverty Will Not Be Cut In Half By 2015

Halving World Poverty By 2015 Unlikely: UN -- AFP

ADDIS ABABA — The chances of reducing world poverty by half by 2015 are increasingly less likely owing to inadequate plans by states and the global economic crisis, a UN report released in Ethiopia said.

Halving global poverty by 2015 is one of United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at improving livelihoods across the world.

"Even before the onset of the current global financial and economic crisis, the world had not been on track to meet MDG 1 by 2015," said the report referring to the first MDG.

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My Comment: Poverty, lack of freedom in speech, lack of free markets, social/religious/cultural intolerance, government corruption and a lack of accountability .... the list is long on why the goal on cutting poverty has not been reached. But it is still a worthy goal, and we must always strive to do better .... we at least owe that to our children.