rising prices

Increasing numbers of women and elderly people are taking advantage of a scheme in one of America's wealthiest cities that enables the homeless to sleep safely in their cars at night.

Prices for cornmeal and rice have doubled in Somalia since January, and on Monday food riots wracked the Somalian city of Mogadishu. Thousands of people protested the insane prices for staple foods, and eventually police shot and killed two protesters. Earlier this year, food riots broke out in the African nation of Senegal as well. What's causing these conditions, which sound like the precursors to the apocalyptic food-shortage flick Soylent Green?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its Sam's Club wholesale club chain is limiting the sale of some rice to four bags per member visit because of what it described as "supply and demand trends." Jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rices will be subject to those purchase restrictions, as long as they are allowed by law, in the 594 clubs across the U.S., said Sam's Club spokeswoman Kristy Reed. New Mexico and Idaho are the only two states that forbid such practice, she said.

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

A third day of riots in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, had by Friday paralyzed the city with looting and violence. The toll includes a U.N. soldier who has been shot and killed in the capital while delivering food to his unit.

Financial markets are tumbling. The world economy is starting to sputter. Food prices have shot up so far, so fast, that there are riots in the streets of many poor nations. It's a hard time to be one of the masters of the global economy. Those leaders -- finance ministers from all over the world -- are gathering in Washington this weekend to sort out their reactions to the most profound global economic crises in at least a decade. The situation could reveal the limitations that international economic institutions face in dealing with the risks inherent to global capitalism. "There's got to be something coming out of the weekend, a way to visibly assume public responsibility for trying to limit the damage that financial markets can do to our society," said Colin Bradford, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The pressure is on politicians this weekend to come up with an answer. . . . What is the power structure going to do about this?"

The New York Times had a good, concise editorial yesterday on the global surge in food prices: Last week, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that 33 nations are at risk of social unrest because of the rising prices of food. "For countries where food comprises from half to three-quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival," he said.

Mary Ornales' food stamps don't last long these days. Six months ago, the monthly allotment from the federal food program fed the South Austin mother and her four young children for the whole month. Now, it barely stretches three weeks. "I feel like it's going faster, and I have to buy more things myself," said Ornales, 25.

The director of the UN's World Food Programme has said it is considering plans to ration food aid because of rising prices and a shortage of funds.