Dueling Markets: Can Food Fight Oil?

It’s no secret that high oil prices have moved big money, some $3 trillion, from energy-consuming states in the West to suppliers like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Pooling up in huge state-controlled investment funds, this vast transfer wealth is tipping the global financial power, raising fears in the West of petrol-power domination.
Or maybe not. A recent Goldman Sachs commodities report notes that growing populations and wealth in the developing world, and to a lesser extent rising biofuel production, is moving some money back to farm powers like the United States. “Food exports won’t offset our oil bill, but they will help,” says Robert D. Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. Agricultural exports are a key reason the U.S. trade deficit decreased about 6 percent last year.