Hedge funds are investment vehicles that offer “inflation protected performance.” Assets in these funds have now reached a record $2.02 trillion. And hedge fund managers have been gobbling up acres and acres of American farmland.
The New York Observer reports that “Kansas and Nebraska reported farmland prices 20 percent above the previous year’s levels and are on pace to double values in four years.”
So will farmland be the next big asset bubble? The Kansas City Fed president seems to think so:
The thought of yet another bubble bursting in the fragile American economy is scary. Even scarier is what’s driving these investment bankers into Green Acres:
If investors are already pushing up the price of prime farmland to hedge against the possibility of hyperinflation, will sharply higher food prices be far behind?
