Which will actually hurt you and me in some not so surprising ways. From Breitbart:

Brazil’s central bank raised its key interest rate half a percentage point to 11.25 percent late Wednesday, amid fears that inflation was getting out of hand.

The move, though, adds to upward pressure on Brazil’s currency, the real, whose soaring value against the dollar has already become problematic for the country’s exporters.

The central bank’s monetary policy committee decided the interest rate hike unanimously, the institution said in a statement.

Market observers had been expecting the increase, the first since July last year.

Inflation last year quickened to 5.91 percent, well above the government’s target of 4.5 percent.

[…]

Although hiking the interest rate will make credit purchases more expensive in Brazil, it will also further enhance the country’s allure to foreign investors who are guaranteed rate-linked returns higher than for any other big economy in the world.

That will inevitably push the real up further against the dollar.

It has already soared more than 100 percent against the greenback over the past eight years and looked likely to climb further despite government efforts to tax foreign capital for fixed-income investments and heightened deposit requirements for domestic banks making foreign exchange bets against the real.

The move also makes Brazilian commodities, such as iron ore, soya beans, orange juice and coffee, more expensive on the world market, undercutting exporters’ performance.

So this will add pressure to are already pressured Municipal bond market by making investment in Brazil more profitable, and will raise the prices of things like coffee and orange juice which are already getting too expensive. Stock up. There’s a deal for $30.00 off a 40oz Dunkin Donuts  ground coffee bag on Amazon right now.

So awful is Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis that a farmer can walk out one morning and find over 200 cows dead in his field, even though there was no evidence they were sick before. But the owner also believes it could have been Bovine Virus Diarrhea. See no one knows but don’t worry.

And don’t worry about the deaths of millions of cattle in South Korea:

In South Korea a potential economic collapse and food shortage may be in the offing due to an outbreak of Hoof-and-Mouth disease. 1.4 million cattle and pigs have been slaughtered in South Korea in an attempt to get ahead of the fast spreading, highly contagious and completely devastating disease. That amounts to 8% of the total livestock in that country.

Meat prices throughout the nation are soaring as a result. The outbreak of Hoof-and-Mouth disease in South Korea began back on November 28 and has spread across much of the nation despite massive efforts by the South Korean government to contain the disease.

Quarantines are in effect, and 68,000 soldiers have been called out to assist regional forces involved in the destruction of infected livestock. Losses are expected to reach $1.2 billion dollars. The soaring cost of meat has added to already inflated food prices.

In addition to battling the outbreak of Hoof-and-Mouth disease South Korea was hit by another outbreak of (H5N1) avian flu, or bird flu, at the end of December, 2010. More than 40,000 poultry have been destroyed.

Hoof-and-mouth disease is a horrific, but commonly known occurrence in livestock so while tragic, what it occurring in South Korea doesn’t seem related to the “mysterious” deaths of other animals around the world.

Sure seems like we should be worrying to me. Animals are dying off at an alarming rate and that will keep us from having enough food. But hey, nothing to see here.