A new UN Food and Agriculture Organization report predicts that rising food prices will soon begin to slow. However the BBC decidedly reports that cheap food is a thing of the past:

[Food] prices will level off at a far higher average level than seen before the crisis erupted. The long era of cheap food is over.

The sharp rise in food prices over the past year have been felt all over the world but are particularly painful for the poor in developing countries. The World Bank recently estimated that higher food prices and food scarcity could force 100 million people to become impoverished. In response, The World Bank is allocating $1.2 billion for increased food aid. At least $200 million is designated for grants targeting "high risk" countries including Liberia, Haiti and Djibouti.

The World Bank has just published a statistical report on worldwide computer access and ownership, wondering, among other things, just how well developing countries are utilizing technological innovations. It found that

With [technology], labour and capital can be used and combined far more effectively. So it is good news that the bank finds that the use of modern technology in emerging economies is coming on in leaps and bounds.

A brief perusal of any of America's political talk shows and you would think that China economic success was going to propel it into a position of global hegemony at any moment.

A new study by the World Bank written about in the International Herald Tribune reminds us that despite remarkable strides, China's got a long way to go in improving the quality of life for its 3 million poor.

New calculations regarding Chinese consumer's purchasing power triples the previously cited number for those living under a dollar a day in China. The article calls into question the effectiveness of many state sponsored programs directed towards alleviating the poverty of rural peasants.

According to the New York Times: "Ordinary people don't get any real benefits from poverty alleviation programs," said Li Guangyi, 35, a farmer who lives in the village of Zhangyoufang. "How could relief money get into our hands? It goes first toward relieving the local officials, who get rich on the tragedies of the nation."