It is a measure of the deepening crisis of global capitalism that on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the US Federal Reserve has decided to pump still more money into the financial system...One of the effects of the previous rounds of QE has been to fuel speculation in commodities, pushing up the prices of fuel and basic foodstuffs, which increases the hardships faced by hundreds of millions of impoverished people around the world. The jump in the prices of gold and oil after the measures were announced indicates that a new round of commodity speculation may be about to begin. ['Qualitative easing' is just euphemism for a continued bailout of the financial oligarchy at the expense and to the detriment of the vast majority. --MDR.]