At times, you can tell a country by the company it keeps.  Indonesia just announced it plans to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the infamous cartel that tries to push our oil prices through the roof.

Amidst all the furore regarding the Labour administration’s embarrassingly mis-managed tax shortcomings, the cries of those in the UK warning of a growing humanitarian crisis in the developing world have been lost.

Whether his travels take our commodities guru, Kevin Kerr, to the Middle East or the Midwest of the U.S., the stories are very similar. Most people are concerned about the rising costs of agricultural commodities. And they should be. The commodity boom is real.

Dubai, Saudi Arabia and China are among the nations that have employed the use of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to turn their massive cash surpluses into major league investments.

Singapore is running full throttle. The country has become Asia’s boomtown. Not only is it situated right at the nexus of centuries-old trading routes; the government has done a very effective job promoting free trade.