Commentary on heat and the coming food crisis, Japan repositioning its auto industry, how the US and European sun drenched economies have adjusted, strange philosophy, what if Europe fails, and can there be more room in Mitt’s mouth for his feet.

More on the food squeeze.

Financial Times -- US drought: Stuck on dry land
The heat wave that has pushed corn prices to record highs threatens a new food crisis.

Related.

Project Syndicate -- Our Summer of Climate Truth
For years, climate scientists have been warning the world that the heavy use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) threatens the world with human-induced climate change.

 

Globe and Mail -- Scientists warn it’s the ‘new norm’ after worst drought in 800 years
The signs of drought were everywhere, from shrivelled rivers and lakes in the American West to brittle brown lawns and parched farm crops in the Canadian Prairies.

Related.

Japan Times -- New growth strategy to focus on autos, FTAs
The government Monday gave a tacit nod to a new economic growth strategy containing numerical goals for 2020, including one to make environmentally friendly vehicles account for 50 percent of new car sales by that time, and one to make free-trade pacts with other countries account for 80 percent of trade.

Fast adjustment in the US, slow in Europe.

voxed -- Club Med and the Sun Belt: Lessons from adjustment within a monetary union
The US and the Eurozone are slowly recovering after the bursting of their huge housing bubbles.

Slavoj Zizek running on empty.

New York Review of Books -- The Violent Visions of Slavoj Žižek
Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than the Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek.

Meanwhile back Euroland.

Brookings -- What if Europe Fails?
The European Union is engaged in a ferocious political, diplomatic, and economic struggle to preserve the future of the single currency, the euro, and the viability of what has become known simply as ‘‘the project,’’ namely the process of integration that has been the bedrock of Western European politics for over half a century.

Romney again.

Globe and Mail -- Romney’s ‘racist’ economic statement outrages Palestinians
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who called his comments racist and out of touch.