A fascinating discussion a few weeks ago in welling@weeden with Albert Edwards and James Montier of Société Générale is republished below with the necessary permission.

“In the cacophony that is global investment strategy research, Albert Edwards (below left) and James Montier (right) stand out as clearly distinctive voices. And not merely because of their British accents or because they’ve tended to the decidedly bearish side of the scale over the last decade or so.

“Despite long tenure in the rarified top echelons of the investment banking world, for many years with Dresdner Kleinwort and more recently at Société Générale (where they are co-heads of global cross asset strategy) both have managed to retain a natural plain-spoken bluntness.

“Also

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By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor For more than a decade, European policymakers have spurned genetically modified crops, but these so-called Frankenfoods are beginning to look more and more appetizing in the wake of food shortages and soaring prices. Only 21% of Europeans are willing to eat genetically engineered food, according to a survey by the European Commission. Some nations, such as France, have banned the planting of genetically modified crops, while others like Germany have enacted laws that allowed foods to be labeled as “GM free.” Critics insist that such foods could pose risks to health and the environment, and further assert that genetically modified crops produce better yields. “Most testing is carried out by the very biotech companies that have the most to gain from results that say GM food is safe,” the activist group Friends of the Earth says on its Web ...