Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad  The most
vexing problem currently facing the world is finding affordable
commodities.  When push comes to shove, if oil still traded in a
cyclical fashion at around $20 per barrel and copper averaged
about a buck a pound, today's debt problems would be much more
tractable, and growth would be much easier to accommodate.
Indeed, a strong argument can be made that the 2007-08 bubble
occurred due to consumer borrowing to keep even with falling
living standards. And living standards continue to fall as
corporations resist higher wages in favor of cost controls -
especially costs related to commodities.  Historically one of
the strongest correlates of corporate profits has been core
commodity prices. The reason: commodities are the first assets
to respond to greater demand. But in today's world, demand from
the developed nations has been flat, while commodity prices
continue to rise given their scarcity and demand from emerging
economies in the developing world.