This is the largest drought in 50 years with 64% of the U.S. now in drought. Extreme heat for several weeks in the nations midsection all the way into the south is making things much worse. Here is an example of some midwest temperatures today in Fahrenheit: 104 in North Platte, 102 in Dodge city, 102 in Kansas city, 106 in St. Louis, 98 in Oklahoma city, 98 in Louisville, 95 in Memphis. Traffic is Slowing or stopping on the Mississippi River because of not enough water to move barges. In Vicksburg, Mississippi the water level is 21 feet lower than normal for this time of year and in Memphis it is 17 feet lower than normal. If the river completely closes it has a negative economic affect of a loss of $290 million dollars a day as long as the Mississippi River is closed. Much of the corn and wheat crop is lost because of no rain at the right times also in the midwest and mid south of the U.S. It reminds me a lot of the Australian Drought of 2006:
The drought both in the U.S. now and in Australia in 2006 were and are very bad news for the world economy. Many people look to the stock market and see it as a bell weather. But if I look back at the most elementary causes of the big problems that hit in 2007 and 2008 until now I see the real culprit as all the droughts worldwide, the worse so far for growing all grains and grain prices was the 2006 drought in Australia. This one drought is partly responsible for reducing global grain and food supplies from 120% to 130% of world needs down to below 100% of world needs at that time. When this happened then the panic in the poor of the world not being able to afford enough food to eat reverberated up into the middle class and wealthy around the world at that time. This also is one of the primary causes of the Arab Spring movement that brought down the governments of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and now Syria and others. When the panic reached up into the Upper class people around the world, they started to make bad choices and decisions and I think this more than anything resulted in the "The Great Recession" worldwide. However, as this drought hits the U.S. this could have an even more serious food effect worldwide than what happened in Australia. It won't affect the U.S. that much because we are a rich country. But, what will happen when the U.S. population(in order to survive our lost grain crops nationwide) buys food other countries need to live to survive and drives up prices for food in poor countries where people can't afford even to eat? This then creates crime for people to be able to survive in those countries unless there is donated food that keeps them alive from some source. This in turn will destabilize more governments around the world just like the Arab Spring has done. And if you look at Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria and others imagine now this happening in 10 or 20 more countries at random around the globe. What we may be seeing is the desertification of many countries which is one of the signs of Global Warming. So, likely Canada, Alaska, and eventually the North Pole might look good to many more people worldwide. And in Asia, Siberia might look pretty good soon if this kind of thing continues.
