Price of progress

The price of food in Beijing is soaring as the Chinese - and a few hungry expats - demand more and more breads and dairy products, not to mention luxury products.
Inflation in October was 6.5%, which is significantly ahead of wage increases.
You can see it in the local supermarket. A loaf of bread which cost 3 kuai (30 Euro cent) last August, went up to 4 kuai in October.
Then the size of the loaf got smaller! That made it about 25% smaller but 33% more expensive.
This month, it went up again to 5 kuai. It doesn't leave me on the proverbial breadline but you can imagine the impact on ordinary Chinese people.
As if that wasn't bad enough, I notice my morning yogurt was runnier than usual today. Are they now watering down the yogurt?!
For those beyond the borders of the world's most populous nation, the surging demand in China has knock-on effects for the rest of the world. The more bread they consume, the higher prices you'll see on supermarket shelves from Dublin to Durban.
So dramatic is the increase in prices in Beijing that it's hard to imagine it won't spark unrest sooner or later.
In August, the Government did a deal with meat producers after pork prices rose 43%. A similar intervention may be in the offing if Beijing's bureaucrats want to preserve the harmony they speak of so fondly.
When bread and meat (and yogurt!) become too expensive for ordinary people it usually spells social problems.
Then again, you can always let them eat cake.