(e) Price volatility

One apparent consequence is extreme price volatility.

Global economic instability correlates strongly with energy price volatility.

Security problems and disruptions in production also increased price volatility.

Weather related events are a major cause of price volatility on agricultural markets.

The more energy efficient one is, the lower one s vulnerability to price volatility.

While this is keeping price volatility in check, it is also hindering employment growth.

Economists generally consider commodity futures to be the solution to higher price volatility, not its cause.

Since these responses are overdue, they are severe and lead to energy price spikes and volatility.

While not a cause of price volatility, speculation on derivatives of essential food commodities significantly worsens it.

But their presence has also raised concerns that speculation in commodity futures could result in higher price volatility.

Given these findings, trading in futures markets seems to have amplified price volatility in the short term only.

But chronic hunger remains pervasive, particularly in developing countries, which are affected most by crop shortages and food price volatility.

The growth slowdown is a much greater concern than the recent asset price volatility, even if the latter grabs more headlines.

The eurozone s sovereign risk problems could worsen, leading to another round of asset price corrections, global risk aversion, volatility, and financial contagion.

Recent global economic trends called for major policy initiatives, for example for export diversification, investment in infrastructure and control of price volatility.

Oil is not a reliable deterrent to democracy in the long term, owing to price volatility and the development of alternative energy sources.

UNCTAD is also actively working on issues related to the impact of oil price volatility on African oil importing and oil exporting countries.

A lack of investment in agriculture that feeds local communities makes these countries vulnerable to international price shocks, as well as to exchange rate volatility.

It supports the purchase of equities by central banks to reduce asset price volatility, restore the value of wealth, and prevent a future market crash.

Looking forward, in the short run, speculators will continue to fuel oil price volatility as bullish and bearish factors steer them one way or the other.

The era of floating exchange rates that followed the end of the gold standard required the development of products that could protect international trade from price volatility.

Indeed, one of the big puzzles of the US stock market recently has been low price volatility since around 2004, amid the most volatile earnings growth ever seen.

Also common to rentier states are short investment horizons, vulnerability to commodity price volatility euphoria when they surge, crisis when they collapse and an underdeveloped and uncompetitive manufacturing sector.

While speculators can affect prices in the short run and increase price volatility, market fundamentals and government actions explain the spectacular rise in oil prices between 2003 and mid 2008.

Price volatility has also been high for commodities that are not traded in futures markets (copper, iron, and ore), or for which these markets are not important (steel and rice)

They have embarked on the normalization path by hiking official interest rates in order to nip inflation in the bud, thereby preventing price volatility from choking off future economic growth.

Because energy and food security are matters of economic as well as social and political stability, policies that reduce commodity price volatility should be in the interest of producers and consumers.

Where Did Market Volatility Go?

This does not mean that protectionism is the way forward, only that taking account of specific issues that affect international farm trade weather, price volatility, or health risks may be necessary from time to time.

It was important for the international community to take action to improve their access to trade financing, protect them against the adverse effects of trade liberalization and commodity price volatility, and reduce their transport costs.

In addition, low volatility of inflation relative to the volatility of RER depreciation may be needed to lead to de dollarization.

Surely, today s low volatility is partly cyclical.

Lowering volatility and sopping up excess liquidity can be beneficial, but there are risks here as well regulators can easily overshoot the mark, leaving financial markets with weakened capacity for price discovery and too little liquidity.

If managed in ways that are transparent and participatory, and if countries combine their efforts regionally, food reserves can be an effective way to boost sellers market power and counteract speculation by traders, thereby limiting price volatility.

Of the nearly one billion motor vehicles worldwide enough to circle the planet 100 times if parked end to end some 95 depend on oil for energy, making car travel subject to resource geopolitics and price volatility.

Indeed, there is volatility just beneath the surface.

All of this implies that the crucial problem is not the fiscal cost of rescue, but the macroeconomic volatility induced by precarious credit supply first provided too easily and at too low a price, and then severely restricted.

Such volatility does not fit a fundamentals driven market.

That prospect has already sparked renewed financial market volatility.

A volatility feedback loop begins the more volatility, the more people feel they must pay attention to the market, and hence the more erratic their trades.

Fredrick the Great of Prussia was very, very keen for the Germans to adopt the potato and to eat it, because he realized that if you had two sources of carbohydrate, wheat and potatoes, you get less price volatility in bread.

Fortunately, there is little reason to believe such dire predictions, or that the market gyrations that have been driving recent headlines represent anything more than short term volatility. After all, equity price movements are a poor predictor of the real economy s performance.

They are expensive and a source of political and supply volatility.

Whatever your reason for wanting to do this, whether you're concerned about national security or price volatility or jobs, or the planet, or your grand kids, it seems to me that this is an oil endgame that we should all be playing to win.