Another week, another popular uprising.  While last week it was Libyans literally storming their parliament and burning offices there — all while chanting “we want the lights to work — this week it has been Sri Lankans storming their presidential palace after months of food shortages, fuel shortages, and rolling blackouts.  The people have ransacked the palace, enjoyed swimming in its palatial pool, and their prime minister has announced he will be stepping down. 

The Northern Hemisphere summer is not yet three weeks old and already one nation’s parliament has been torched and another nation’s presidential palace has been taken over by its people.  Going forward, we continue to anticipate that all of us will end up living through a wild Northern Hemisphere summer that we might never forget. 

A week ago, we discussed how sentiment and prices in the energy markets at the time had cooled, and that we were of the view that sentiment and prices would very soon heat up again.  Energy prices have ended up rebounding as we anticipated, and we expect more strength will be seen in the months to come.  We also expect that citizens in several other nations will end up taking similar actions as seen recently in Libya and Sri Lanka — and if having to guess, we believe that the next popular uprising could occur in Guinea, Kenya, or Ghana.  Our upcoming Weekly Dry Bulk Report will also discuss some of the latest issues arising in much more stable European nations including Germany and the Netherlands.  Overall, the global food and energy crises continue to affect both relatively poor and relatively rich nations alike.