China went on an unprecedented seven-year construction spree to modernize its cities and infrastructure before throngs of athletes, tourists and media members arrived from around the world, stockpiling raw materials to accomplish its makeover.

Building the Olympic facilities and spiffing up Beijing for the cameras was only a drop in the bucket compared to overall growth in China's economy, but consider that the spectacular National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, required 45,000 tonnes of steel. Over that time, China became the number one consumer of metals and the number two buyer of oil behind the United States.

No one is expecting China to slam on the brakes when the Olympics end. But even a cooling from 10 percent growth a year to 8 percent should have negative consequences for commodity prices, given that demand from the United States and Europe is withering.

Hilton's tongue-in-cheek proposals actually sound as reasonable as the policy ideas of either of the actual candidates for President.

"We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars," Hilton proposed.

So, if the "wrinkly white haired guy" or the "elitist" aren't your cup of Texas tea, try writing in a vote for the "hot" candidate ... but prepare for an executive residence renamed the Pink House.

Today, millions of acres of prime U.S. farmland are under water only weeks after being planted. So far 19 levees have failed on the swollen Mississippi (see a government map of the flood area here,) as a hump of floodwater moved downriver. Most were agricultural levees protecting corn and soy fields. The Army Corp of Engineers, which operates river locks and dams, said seven more levees may overtop in the coming days. Among the most fertile farms in Iowa and Illinois, the two biggest corn producers, have land that lies in the Mississippi River's expansive floodplain.

On June 30, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will release its annual acreage report, which will give an accurate picture of the crop damage.  In March USDA said farmers intended to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, down from a 92 million acres in 2007. They expanded soy plantings to 75 million acres from 64 million. It does not look good for farmers, some of whom replanted during a let up in the rain, then lost fields a second time. Up to 5 million acres across the Midwest may have been ruined and will not produce a crop this year. Farm losses could top $2 billion. The result: record high prices this week for corn, cattle and ethanol. If you thought your food and fuel budget was tight, just wait ...

There are a slew of reasons for high food prices. China requires more calories and Chinese are eating more meat. The weak dollar, weather disruptions, government intervention and speculation in commodities have been a perfect storm for food inflation. (Food price spikes are tracked in Food and Argiculture Organization graphic on the left).

Last week a top official at the International Monetary Fund, John Lipsky, said that increased demand for biofuels accounts for 70 percent of the increase in corn prices and 40 percent of the increase in soybean prices. Still he noted that oil prices would have been higher in the absence of biofuels. Francisco Blanch a commodities researcher at Merrill Lynch told Business Week that oil prices could be at least 15 percent higher without ethanol.

U.S. farmers planted the largest corn crop since WWII last year. The 25 percent of the U.S. corn crop that goes into ethanol production is not available for food products like cooking oil, corn sweetener and tortillas. Almost half of the corn crop goes to feed livestock. But making ethanol from corn also yields a byproduct called distillers dried grain, which is used as concentrated animal feed.

A blacklash against the ethanol blacklash is building. The Renewable Fuels Association is battling negative perceptions with data it says shows rising energy costs have twice the impact of increased corn costs on food inflation. Brazil is also alarmed at the criticism since it produces almost as much ethanol as the United States from its abundant sugar cane and is eager to increase its exports. Ethanol is a crucial part of the energy mix in Brazil and is distilled and distributed to pumping stations far more efficiently and with a much greener footprint than in the United States. Brazil can vastly expand cane production without competing with food acres.

One has to wonder whether it makes sense for the United States to reduce or eliminate the U.S. 54 cent per gallon ethanol import tariff to help it meet renewable fuel targets with less impact on food and animal feed prices. Of course that would be a tough sell to American corn farmers.

Gold's oil-buying power is at its lowest in three years. (The chart shows the price of oil rising relative to the price of gold.) Hedge funds and other traders who play the gold/oil spread could be taking profits. Otherwise, this is hard to explain, since gold is considered a leading indicator of inflation.

In the past two weeks, crude oil prices rose to a record near $120 a barrel, while the spot price of gold fell from around $950 to $870 an ounce. Today an ounce of gold buys 7.65 barrels of oil. When gold was near $1,000 an ounce earlier this year, an ounce bought more than 10 barrels of oil. Gold's weakest point relative to oil was in 2005 around 6 barrels.

Is the underperformance signalling that inflation expectations are overblown? Perhaps the Fed knows something ... it cut a key interest rate another quarter percentage point on Wednesday and said it expected inflation to moderate in coming quarters, as energy and commodity prices level out. "I am still not getting why gold is trading down here and crude is up there. So something's gotta give," said Jonathan Jossen, an independent floor trader on the COMEX gold floor.

Watch this video uploaded to YouTube to see the monster-of-monster trucks in action.

The largest of these trucks, manufactured by Caterpillar, Komatsu of Japan and Germany's Liebherr, can carry almost 350 tonnes. Each tire can cost up to $125,000 but they can easily be flattened by a fist-sized stone wedged in its treads.

To avoid blowing a tire, a mine might reduce the bucket load even when operating full-out to keep up with global copper demand. Light trucks will speed ahead of the big ones and radio in debris on the mine roadbed. "You get guys jumping out of vehicles throwing stones off the road," one analyst told me.

More women are getting hired anyway and not just to drive trucks. With the copper industry booming, both tires and workers are in short supply. Copper prices are near records but so are operating costs.

Yet even in Australia, with its macho image, at one large mine, reportedly the truck drivers are 60 percent female and 40 percent male.  In the superstitious old days they said women were back luck at a mine. Today, it seems they're a charm.

The trip downtown from the airport now takes about 25 minutes. Four years ago, before the sleek Costanera Norte freeway tunnel opened, travelers had to endure a bumpy, meandering hour-long cab ride through endless neighbourhoods. The city is sprouting new highways like Nororiente to its suburbs. Americans can feel at home, a shopping mall boasting the highest tower in Latin America, Costanera Center, is going up in the heart of Santiago's new financial district - locals call it "Sanhattan."

American farmers are chilling on planting corn, or at least Monday's USDA data points to a backlash against the overplanting of corn in 2007. So does this mean the ethanol promise is beginning to fade?

Soybean futures dropped their exchange-set maximum at the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday after the Department of Agriculture released its widely anticipated report on prospective plantings by U.S. farmers.

Corn and soybeans are planted in the same areas of the Midwest and Upper Midwest and farmers systematically rotate between the two crops. Corn is planted first but requires more fertilizer and energy intensive field work. Now soybeans appear to be the flavor of the year.

Farmers want to plant almost 75 million acres of soybeans, used in mainly animal feed, cooking oil and the renewable fuel biodiesel, up from 64 million last year. They are shifting land out of corn. After blanketing the Midwest with 94 million acres of corn in 2007 -- the most since 1944 -- 2008 will see a slightly-less-smothering 86 million acres. The plans should lift corn prices, a CME panel predicted.

On reuters.com, track corn futures prices here
Track soybean futures prices here

Here are two outstanding examples of the ripple effects around the world when the dollar stumbles. Oil is at a record high at $110 and gold has topped $1,000 an ounce for the first time, while the dollar has fallen below 100 yen for the first time in more than a decade. Most commodities are priced in dollars, so the weaker the greenback, the cheaper it is for holders of other currencies to buy gold and oil. Gold is also generally seen as a hedge against oil-led inflation. Gold has jumped 19 percent this year on top of a 32 percent rise in 2007.