Greetings From: London, UK

Maybe a river of chocolate is possible...

via The New York Times:

To some, he is a real-life Willy Wonka. To others, he is a Bond-style villain bent on taking over the world’s supply of chocolate. In a stroke, a hedge fund manager here named Anthony Ward has all but cornered the market in cocoa. By one estimate, he has bought enough to make more than five billion chocolate bars. Chocolate lovers here are crying into their Cadbury wrappers — and rival traders are crying foul, saying Mr. Ward is stockpiling cocoa in a bid to drive up already high prices so he can sell later at a big profit. His activities have helped drive cocoa prices on the London market to a 30-year high.

Mr. Ward, 50, is not some rabid chocoholic, former employees say. He simply has a head for cocoa. And, through his private investment firm, Armajaro, he now controls a cache equal to 7 percent of annual cocoa production worldwide, a big enough chunk to sway prices.

“Globally, he is unmatched in his knowledge of cocoa,” said Tim Spencer, a former Armajaro executive.

Armajaro maintains offices in West Africa, helping Mr. Ward keep tabs on major cocoa crops. “We even have our own weather stations — our very own that no one else has in some parts of the world,” Mr. Ward, soft-spoken and tan, said in a video interview this year with a financial news service. Now, traders here are buzzing that Mr. Ward has placed an audacious $1 billion bet in the London market for cocoa futures. This month, he bought 241,100 metric tons of beans, they say. His play has some people up in arms. While some see it as a simple bet that cocoa prices will rise on falling supply, others say Mr. Ward has created a shortage of cocoa simply to drive up the price himself.

Greetings from London, England, where a local entrepreneur has apparently rediscovered his love for the children's story, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. Anthony Ward has bought over $1 billion worth of cocoa beans from Africa, virtually turning the chocolate industry into his industry. On the London market, his purchase has raised the price of chocolates to a 30-year high. My question is, how much chocolate is he going to buy before he realizes one of two things?:

A) People like chocolate, but not enough to pay ridiculous prices for it. As people's wallets shrink, so do their appetites for luxury products and non-essential food items like (you guessed it) chocolate. He's probably not going to be able to sell it for another 10 years.

or

B) Candy producers have entire regions dedicated to cocoa production. In fact, England doesn't have so much as a foothold in the chocolate industry, as say Italy or France. His acquisition is meaningless unless he has a producer handcuffed already. Looks like he's just going to be sitting on chocolate...

Is this what the recession has brought people to? Making binge investments and trying to buy up the market in the hopes that one day they can sell it off? Obviously, we've yet to see what the investments will hold for the future, but there have got to be more lucrative industries out there. I suppose that's what happens when your country's infrastructure is failing and your government is fighting itself: you buy chocolate and hope for the best. On that note, I'm going to get back to my Everlasting Gobstopper. Word to Gene Wilder...