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Articles on Speculation

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A worker rakes wheat in a granary on a farm near Kyiv in August 2023, a month after Russia pulled out of a deal aimed at protecting ships carrying Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Grain as a weapon: Russia-Ukraine war reveals how capitalism fuels global hunger

The Ukraine war’s impact on food insecurity is critical, but there is more to the picture. The main problem is that capitalism allows food and other basic needs to become precarious commodities.
A worker from Hope House, an organization that sponsors the use of cryptocurrencies on El Zonte beach, makes a purchase at a small shop that accepts bitcoins, in Tamanique, El Salvador, June 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Cryptocurrencies are in crisis, but they are not going to disappear

An expert in the field of cryptocurrencies answers the question: Is crypto really here to stay or is it just a fad?
NFTs can be used to prove who created and who owns digital items like these images by the artist Beeple shown at an exhibition in Beijing. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

How nonfungible tokens work and where they get their value – a cryptocurrency expert explains NFTs

NFTs are made the same way as crypto coins, but where every crypto coin is like every other, each NFT is a unique digital item – from images to sound files to text.
Rosewood, the name for several endangered tree species that make beautiful furniture, being loaded in Madagascar. Pierre-Yves Babelon/Shutterstock

Restricting trade in endangered species can backfire, triggering market booms

For decades nations have worked to curb international sales of endangered plants and animals. But in countries like China, with high demand and speculative investors, that strategy fuels bidding wars.
Trading floors like this one – at the old American Stock Exchange in the 1980s – are at the heart of capitalism and financial speculation. David Foster/Flickr via CC BY-ND

Financial speculation: the good, the bad and the parasitic

The word “speculation” carries a connotation of negativity. And it’s probably fair to say that pretty much every financial crisis since the tulip mania of the 1630s can be attributed to some sort of mass…

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