Pirates Plunder Consumers?

Ahoy, consumers. Beware of yer pocketbooks. Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia are up 75 percent this year, threatening price hikes for everything from the gas in your car to the shoes on your feet.

The price of oil increased this week after Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. British researcher and author Roger Middleton says Asian exporters may be forced to ship their goods the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope to reach European and American shores.

The longer route would add up to three weeks to the delivery of goods from Asia and of oil and gas from the Middle East to European markets. Someone will have to pay for that extra time – very probably the consumer. For Europe and the eastern seaboard of America, this inflation is a real possibility.

The brashness of these modern-day pirates has also forced people to rethink their romantic, Disneyesque notions about pirates — and how desperate the Somali people truly are.