Financial Crisis - 2013 - ????

**Malsua** · March 28th, 2014, 12:25

10 years ago I couldn't be bothered to use coupons, now we tend to only buy items that are on sale because I refuse to buy stuff like Chicken at $6.59/lb. I'll wait until they kill the old egg layers and discount it down to $1.19/lb.

Beef is to the point that even cheap cuts, like Bottom Round are $4.59/lb. This is meat that you need to cook for 4 hours...don't get me wrong, a bottom round that's been in the Crock Pot most of the day is fantastic, but it brings me back to my youth. Mom could only afford to buy the cheapest beef so we ate a lot of tough cuts. While I can afford to eat any meat I want, I refuse on principal.

If you've never had crock potted bottom round, it's really easy to make. Put the meat in the pot, pour in some beef broth, cook. If you can control the temp automatically, have it drop to low after 2 hours. If you are just leaving for the day, put it on low when you leave in the morning, it'll be done when you get home. Slice in 3/16"-1/4" slabs, serve with your favorite veg or add a starch. It's tender and juicy.

**Ryan Ruck** · March 28th, 2014, 13:29

Agreed. I don't want to eat up more than 1/4 of my paycheck on food. I buy in bulk, use coupons, or buy freshness quick sale markdowns.

If I come across pre-cooked cold or hot roasted or fried chicken that has been marked down for quick sale, I'll buy as much of it as I can and freeze what I don't use right away.

Like you said slow cooking tougher, cheaper meat is a great budget meal. Just made a pot roast myself a couple weeks ago. A crock pot makes the cooking extraordinarily easy. Take meat, drop in pot, add veggies of choice, add plenty of water, salt, and black pepper, and then just turn the crock pot on low and let it sit all day. Simple and takes 10-15 minutes to prepare.

Besides, I need to eat cheap so I can afford good beer!

**American Patriot** · March 31st, 2014, 13:29

Ryan... buying in bulk isn't always what it appears.

Ask Phil.

Safeway is a PRIME example of jerks who abuse that idea.

If you go in and look CLOSELY at their tags for instance, you can purchase a 3lb bag of sugar and a 6lb bag (as an example).

If you read their tags they usually have a "price per unit" usually ounces or something. Compare the two tiny little number (usually in the lower right hand corner in Safeway) and you will see that they price the bulk stuff up a few pennies or fractions of a penny more so that the total spent on a 3lb bag is actually less to buy two, than one larger, bulk bag.

Also, Safeway isn't the only folks that do that. Walmart does it ALL the time. Sams Club I don't know about - I don't use that place. But every other store I've tested this in of late, including the Commissary DOES this shit.

People THINK they are getting a great deal by buying it because a quick mental calculation says "divide by 2 or 3" or whatever the bulk amount is. But over all you're paying more in most places for bulk items now.

If you don't believe me, take a calculator and spend some time comparing and writing it all down.

Now, not ALL places do this of course. You have to be careful though.

As to buying meat....

there's always squirrel...

**Ryan Ruck** · April 5th, 2014, 17:57

More Americans See Middle Class Status Slipping

April 2, 2014

A sense of belonging to the middle class occupies a cherished place in America. It conjures images of self-sufficient people with stable jobs and pleasant homes working toward prosperity.

Yet nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they're no longer part of it.

They are former professionals now stocking shelves at grocery stores, retirees struggling with rising costs and people working part-time jobs but desperate for full-time pay. Such setbacks have emerged in economic statistics for several years. Now they're affecting how Americans think of themselves.

Since 2008, the number of people who call themselves middle class has fallen by nearly a fifth, according to a survey in January by the Pew Research Center, from 53 percent to 44 percent. Forty percent now identify as either lower-middle or lower class compared with just 25 percent in February 2008.

According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they're middle or upper-middle class fell 8 points between 2008 and 2012, to 55 percent.

And the most recent General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, found that the vast proportion of Americans who call themselves middle or working class, though still high at 88 percent, is the lowest in the survey's 40-year history. It's fallen 4 percentage points since the recession began in 2007.

The trend reflects a widening gap between the richest Americans and everyone else, one that's emerged gradually over decades and accelerated with the Great Recession. The difference between the income earned by the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans and by a median-income household has risen 24 percent in 30 years, according to the Census Bureau.

Whether or not people see themselves as middle class, there's no agreed-upon definition of the term. In part, it's a state of mind. Incomes or lifestyles that feel middle class in Kansas can feel far different in Connecticut. People with substantial incomes often identify as middle class if they live in urban centers with costly food, housing and transportation.

In any case, individuals and families who feel they've slipped from the middle class are likely to spend and borrow less. Such a pullback, in turn, squeezes the economy, which is fueled mainly by consumer spending.

"How they think is reflected in how they act," said Richard Morin, a senior editor at the Pew Research Center.

People are generally slow to acknowledge downward mobility. Many regard themselves as middle class even if their incomes fall well above or below the average. Experts say the rise in Americans who feel they've slipped below the middle class suggests something deeply rooted.

More people now think "it's harder to achieve" the American dream than thought so several decades ago, said Mark Rank, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Three years ago, Kristina Feldotte, 47, and her husband earned a combined $80,000. She considered herself solidly middle class. The couple and their four children regularly vacationed at a lake near their home in Saginaw, Michigan.

But in August 2012, Feldotte was laid off from her job as a special education teacher. She's since managed to find only part-time teaching work. Though her husband still works as a truck salesman, their income has sunk by more than half to $36,000.

"Now we're on the upper end of lower class," Feldotte said.

Americans' self-perception coincides with data documenting a shrinking middle class: The percentage of households with income within 50 percent of the median — one way to define a broad middle class — fell from 50 percent in 1970 to 42 percent in 2010.

The Pew survey didn't ask respondents to specify their income. Still, Pew has found in the past that people who call themselves middle class generally fit the broad definitions that economists use.

Roughly 8.4 percent of respondents to the General Social Survey, last conducted in 2012, said they consider themselves lower class. That's the survey's highest percentage ever, up from 5.4 percent in 2006. NORC is a social science research organization at the University of Chicago.

Tom Smith, director of the survey, said even slight shifts are significant. Class self-identification "is traditionally one of the most stable measures" in the survey, he said.

By contrast to the most recent recession, the severe 1981-82 downturn had little effect on class self-identification in Smith's survey.

Why do so many no longer regard themselves as middle class? A key reason is that the recession eliminated 8.7 million jobs. A disproportionate number were middle-income positions. Those losses left what economists describe as a "hollowed out" workforce, with more higher- and lower-paying and fewer middle-income jobs.

Rob McGahen, 30, hasn't yet found a job that paid as well as the purchasing agent position at Boeing's defense division that he left in 2011. Nervous about the sustainability of that job because of government defense cuts, McGahen quit after buying a bar near his St. Louis home.

The bar eventually went bankrupt and cost him his house. He and his wife moved to Pensacola, Fla., where he's had little luck finding work in defense contracting.

Now, he works in the produce section of a supermarket. His wife earns the bulk of their income as a speech pathologist. Their household income has been cut in half, from $110,000 to $55,000, and he and his wife have put off having children.

"It's definitely been a step back," McGahen said.

Now living in an apartment, he misses the couple's three-bedroom house on a quiet cul-de-sac in a St. Louis suburb.

Home ownership is among factors economists cite as markers of middle-class status. Others include being able to vacation, help children pay for college and save for a secure retirement.

Yet stagnant middle-class pay, combined with steep price increases for college, health care and homes, have made those expenses harder to afford. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, hasn't budged since 1996, according to the Census Bureau. Average college tuition has soared 174 percent in that time.

Many of the formerly middle class are still struggling with student debt. McGahen, who has an MBA, estimates he'll be making $600 payments on student loans each month for the next decade. Feldotte, with two master's degrees, says she has "lots and lots of debt."

And she isn't prepared to help her children pay for college.

"There's no money to help them," she said.

Some people feel they've fallen out of the middle class even as their incomes have remained stable, because their costs have risen. One is Richard Timmerman, 66, a retired postal employee in River Falls, Wis.

He's been living off his pension since retiring five years ago. His wife, a sales manager at a hotel and conference center, hasn't had a raise in that time. The recession hammered the hotel's business, though it's slowly recovering.

Yet his cost of living has risen in the past decade or so. Gas prices have surged over that time. So has food. And only this year did the value of Timmerman's retirement savings regain its level of six years ago.

"I see my position in the social structure having gone down a notch," Timmerman said. He considers himself lower-middle class, compared with middle class a few years ago.

A slowly improving U.S. economy could lift some people back into the middle class. Still, the recession and slow recovery have left permanent scars.

McGahen and his wife are trying to rebuild their savings. They no longer have credit cards. Timmerman travels much less than he thought he would in retirement.

"I have really beat myself up a lot over the last 2½ years," McGahen said. "Until I get myself up and going again and in a good place ... it is tough."

Thank God the unemployment rate held steady at 6.7% and regained all the jobs lost in the recession!

Happy days are here again!

Wait, you mean the workforce participation rate is still at all time lows and that most of the jobs regained are just those, part time jobs not careers? Oh...

**Ryan Ruck** · April 9th, 2014, 03:53

Beef Prices Hit All-Time High In U.S.

Extreme weather has thinned the nation's cattle herds, roiling the beef supply chain from rancher to restaurant

April 8, 2014

Come grilling season, expect your sirloin steak to come with a hearty side of sticker shock.

Beef prices have reached all-time highs in the U.S. and aren't expected to come down any time soon.

Extreme weather has thinned the nation's beef cattle herds to levels last seen in 1951, when there were about half as many mouths to feed in America.

"We've seen strong prices before but nothing this extreme," said Dennis Smith, a commodities broker for Archer Financial Services in Chicago. "This is really new territory."

The retail value of "all-fresh" USDA choice-grade beef jumped to a record $5.28 a pound in February, up from $4.91 the same time a year ago. The same grade of beef cost $3.97 as recently as 2008.

The swelling prices are roiling the beef supply chain from rancher to restaurant.

Norm Langer managed to go two years without raising prices at his famed Westlake delicatessen.

But last week, he reluctantly began printing new menus showing a 50-cent increase for sandwiches at his 67-year-old restaurant.

Langer accepts it's one of the perils of business when your bread and butter happens to be corned beef and pastrami. But he fears he may have to raise prices again, driving away customers.

"No beef, no delicatessen. That's the bottom line," Langer said after a typically frenetic lunch service. "Jewish delis aren't vegetarian, they're based on corned beef and pastrami. Things are beyond my control. With the price increase, I hope my customers are tolerant."

Langer said beef prices are the main reason his wholesale food costs have risen 45% in the last two years — much of it passed from his longtime supplier, R.C. Provision Inc.

The half-century-old Burbank company prepares corned beef, pastrami, roast beef and chili for L.A. icons such as Canter's Deli, Pink's Hot Dogs and Original Tommy's Hamburgers. All the restaurants have to do is heat it up or slice it to their liking.

It's been an increasingly difficult endeavor, with slaughterhouses driving up their prices for brisket and navel, an extra fatty portion of the belly crucial for making unctuous pastrami.

"For any profitability, you have to mark it up more and more," said the company's general manager, Jerry Haines, who has watched profit margins dwindle to about 1% from 5% in the last few years rather than hike prices enough to cover the increased costs.

Speaking last week at his company's plant scented with paprika and smoked beef, Haines said small businesses like his are struggling to secure enough red meat. Slaughterhouses, also known as packers, are more likely to reserve their reduced supplies for big customers like McDonald's.

There's more pressure to throw the special cuts needed to make deli meat into the grinder for hamburgers. What's left for Haines costs more. Brisket has more than tripled in price since 2008. Navel has more than doubled.

"This whole thing now is being driven by hamburger," said the gravelly voiced Haines, who keeps years of beef prices recorded on stacks of small sheets of paper. "You take all the McDonald's and Burger Kings across the United States; the amount of meat needed to make those hamburgers is forcing the value of other cuts of meat to go up."

The biggest fast-food chains aren't immune to the price pressure either. Experts say $1 value menus could soon be a thing of the past.

In October, McDonald's said its Dollar Menu of more than a decade would morph into a so-called Dollar Menu & More, which mixes $1, $2 and $5 items. Wendy's made a similar move last year.

Yum Brands Inc., which owns Taco Bell, said in December that it expects 4% price inflation for beef and other meats in 2014, though the company didn't indicate whether the costs would be passed on to consumers.

That's in line with research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which forecast all food inflation to be between 2.5% and 3.5% this year.

Soaring beef prices are being blamed on years of drought throughout the western and southern U.S. The dry weather has driven up the price of feed such as corn and hay to record highs, forcing many ranchers to sell off their cattle. That briefly created a glut of beef cows for slaughter that has now run dry.

The nation's cattle population has fallen to 87.7 million, the lowest since 1951, when there were 82.1 million on hand, according to the USDA. (The peak was 1975, with 132 million heads of cattle, but the animals then were less meaty and required more feed).

"We're dealing with chronically low herds," said Richard Volpe, an economist for the USDA. "Beef prices should remain at near-record highs this year and into 2015."

Volpe and other experts say American consumers probably will think twice at the supermarket meat aisle, forgoing steak and ground beef for cheaper sources of protein.

"Chicken and other poultry may stand to benefit from this whole big mess," said Smith of Archer Financial Services.

One reason why beef prices will take some time to ease: Calves require more than two years to gain enough weight for slaughter. And not every rancher will still have a herd to breed from after so much liquidation.

Kevin Kester, a fifth-generation rancher in Parkfield, about 25 miles northeast of Paso Robles, is faced with selling off his remaining 300 cows, which have provided crucial DNA for new calves. The herd is not unlike a rancher's intellectual property — storing decades of coveted genetic material for traits such as healthy and productive birthing and meatier mid-sections (think more prime rib).

Recent rains have provided grass for a few weeks more. But the cost of keeping the cattle beyond that on expensive hay is too high.

"Twenty-plus years of genetics down the toilet," Kester said.

**American Patriot** · April 11th, 2014, 16:55

In keeping with food prices.....

Mary had a little pig,

She kept it fat and plastered;
And when the price of pork went up,
She shot the little bastard.

Mary had a little lamb.
Her father shot it dead.
Now it goes to school with her,
Between two hunks of bread.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings' horses,
And all the kings' men.
Had scrambled eggs,
For breakfast again.

**American Patriot** · April 15th, 2014, 13:59

Consumer Prices Rise as Americans Pay More for Food, Rents

By Shobhana Chandra Apr 15, 2014 7:41 AM MT 6 Comments Email Print

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Consumer prices accelerated in March as Americans paid a bit more for food and rent, a signal of improving demand in the world’s largest economy that will ease Federal Reserve policy makers’ concern about too-low inflation.
The consumer-price index climbed 0.2 percent after increasing 0.1 percent the prior month, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. Over the past 12 months, costs rose 1.5 percent compared with a 1.1 percent year-to-year gain in February that was the smallest in four months.
Rents may continue to climb as more Americans, who are just starting to recover from the collapse in home prices, forego ownership and instead turn to leasing properties. The Fed’s goal of 2 percent inflation has proved elusive as the economic expansion was slow to gain momentum.
“The overall picture is that inflation has stopped falling and is on a gradual uptrend,” said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Plc in New York, who correctly projected the gain in CPI. “To some extent, today’s numbers relieve fears about the U.S. slipping into deflation.”
The median forecast of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.1 percent rise. Estimates ranged from unchanged to a 0.4 percent gain.
Stocks rose after earnings from Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola Co. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.5 percent to 1,839.66 at 9:40 a.m. in New York.
Core Prices

The core gauge, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, also rose 0.2 percent in March, after climbing 0.1 percent the previous month. Economists had forecast a 0.1 percent gain, according to the survey median.
The core CPI climbed 1.7 percent from March 2013 following a 1.6 percent advance in the prior 12 month period.
The Fed’s 2 percent goal is based on the Commerce Department’s inflation gauge that is tied to consumer spending. That measure climbed 0.9 percent in the 12 months through February.
Energy costs decreased 0.1 percent in March from a month earlier, while food expenses climbed 0.4 percent, reflecting the biggest gain in pork prices since August 2012.
About two-thirds of increase in core prices reflected rising rents as more Americans forego homeownership.
Owners-equivalent rent, one of the categories designed to track rental prices, climbed 0.3 percent. Over the past 12 months, shelter costs, which also include hotel rates, increased 2.7 percent, the biggest gain since March 2008.
Hourly Pay

The cost of living gain squeezed paychecks. Hourly earnings adjusted for inflation dropped 0.3 percent, the biggest decrease since February 2013, after a 0.3 percent increase the prior month, a separate report from the Labor Department showed. They were up 0.5 percent over the past 12 months, following a 1.1 percent gain.
Department-store chains and clothing sellers may continue to hold the line on prices as they compete for customers.
Michael Nicholson, chief financial officer of Women’s clothing chain Ann, said on a March 14 earnings conference call that he sees “a very promotional environment in terms of the consumer” so far this year.
At Macy’s, “putting importance on value and pricing” is a theme across its consumers, Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet told analysts at a consumer conference on March 25. While that isn’t new for the department-store chain, “it’s something we will continue to deal with going into the future.”
Fed officials debated whether to signal a concern with too-low inflation when they met March 18-19 to discuss the likely future path of interest rates.
Fed Views

“A few participants proposed adding new language in which the committee would indicate its willingness to keep rates low if projected inflation remained persistently below the committee’s 2 percent longer-run objective,” according to meeting minutes released April 9. That would involve including a “quantitative element” in the Fed’s statement, according to the report.
Policy makers at the meeting moved away from such quantitative guideposts, dropping language that tied an increase in their benchmark interest rate to a specific level of unemployment. Instead, they said they would consider a “wide range of information,” including measures of labor-market conditions, inflation pressures and financial conditions.
Meeting Minutes

The minutes also showed that “a couple” of participants suggested that too-low inflation “raised questions” about whether the Fed was providing enough stimulus. Still, “most” expected prices to return to the 2 percent goal “over the next few years.” Their economic projections in March showed the personal consumption expenditures price index in a range of 1.7 percent to 2 percent by 2016.
The CPI is the broadest of three price gauges from the Labor Department because it includes goods and services. About 60 percent of the index covers prices consumers pay for services from medical visits to airline fares, movie tickets and rents.
Wholesale prices rose 0.5 percent in March, driven by the cost of services while commodities stagnated, data showed last week. Import prices climbed 0.6 percent last month following a 0.9 percent gain.
The trend of inflation running below target isn’t just limited to the U.S. Almost two-thirds of the 121 economies tracked by Bloomberg are experiencing smaller gains in consumer prices than a year ago, with many undershooting their goals. Yet policy makers seem to be ignoring the danger of deflation, according to some economists.

**Ryan Ruck** · April 16th, 2014, 04:42

Surplus U.S. Food Supplies Dry Up

As the farm economy collapsed in the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was saddled with mountains of surplus cheese, corn and other foods that it socked away in warehouses and even caves.

As recently as 2003, the USDA had to buy so much powdered milk to support dairy prices that beleaguered officials shipped some to U.S. ranchers for cattle feed.

While the previous surpluses were costly and sharply criticized, much of the food found its way to the poor, here and abroad. Today, says USDA Undersecretary Mark Keenum, "Our cupboard is bare."

U.S. government food surpluses have evaporated because, with record high prices, farmers are selling their crops on the open market, not handing them over to the government through traditional price-support programs that make up for deficiencies in market price.

Worldwide, food prices have risen 45% in the past nine months, posing a crisis for millions, says the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Because of the current economics of food, and changes in federal farm subsidy programs designed to make farmers rely more on the markets, large U.S. reserves may be gone for a long time.

The upshot: USDA has almost no extra food to supplement the billions in cash payments it spends to combat hunger at home and in developing nations.

A coalition of religious and farm groups, in an open letter to Congress this week, warned that low supplies increase the risk of hunger and higher prices, calling for creation of a strategic grain reserve.

"As a matter or national security, our government should recognize and act on its responsibility to provide a stable market for food in an era of unprecedented risk," says the letter from the National Family Farm Coalition and various groups.

Others experts say large government stockpiles are not only unnecessary, they are counterproductive. That includes John Block who, as President Reagan's Agriculture secretary during the 1980s, went to enormous lengths to get rid of extra food: giving commodities to farmers as payment for idling land, offering surplus grain as a subsidy to exporters and holding cheese giveaways for the poor.

"We shouldn't have large reserves stacked up. It was very costly for us," Block said, noting that for years he was accused by other nations of depressing their farm sectors by dumping extra U.S. food on world markets.

Still, even he terms the current world situation "shocking" in the sense that prices for so many types of food have risen at once.

The USDA's sole remaining sizable stockpile contains about 24 million bushels of wheat in a special government trust dedicated to international humanitarian aid. The special food program, which also holds $117 million in cash, has dwindled from its original 147-million-bushel level as Republican and Democratic administrations have used it but not fully replenished it.

That leaves the Bush administration with less flexibility to respond quickly to international food aid needs. President Bush in mid-April drew $200 million from the Emerson Humanitarian Trust, named after former congressman Bill Emerson, a Missouri Republican. Bush's action followed a desperate plea from the United Nations for food aid. Thursday, the president announced he would ask Congress for $770 million in separate, additional funding to meet international needs.

But Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, at a recent food aid conference, says his agency faces tough decisions about managing the rest of the reserve in times of widespread hunger. "How far do we draw down?" he asked. "Do we take it down to zero because we need it? Do we hold some in there, because who knows what's going to happen, for emergency purposes later?"

Nutrition Programs In Need

Domestic nutrition programs, supported by once-bountiful commodity supplies, also face increasing stress. In a sign of how tight the situation has become, Keenum last summer dug into little-used legal authority to barter the last remaining USDA raw cotton and other surplus for about $120 million of canned meat and other processed goods desperately needed by domestic food banks and international programs.

"Now that we've created the program, it would be great if we had more stocks we could convert," Keenum says. "We just don't."

The fact that USDA's larders are depleted doesn't mean the country is out of food. The vast majority of U.S. grain is in the hands of farmers and private firms. Overall, the USA is expected to have carryover supplies of 241.9 million bushels of wheat this year, for example. But the USDA situation is indicative of broader trends, with domestic and international grain supplies in decline.

Total U.S. wheat stocks are down from 777 million bushels in 2001, and are the lowest since World War II. The USDA says that's about a 35-day supply of wheat and notes that farmers in Texas are already starting to harvest a new crop. The American Bakers Association estimates the country has a 24-day supply of wheat compared with the previous three-month level on hand.

International grain supplies are the tightest in three decades, and prices of wheat, corn, rice and other food staples have doubled or tripled.

"The whole world has gotten fairly sanguine about food supplies," says Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. "Advances in logistics and just-in-time production have allowed the world to get by on very low stock levels for a very long time. We kind of undershot it this year."

But Babcock says a strategic food trust like that proposed by farm and religious groups raises tough policy questions: How would it be managed? When would it be tapped? Whom would it benefit? And how would USDA keep it from acting as a disincentive to advances in productivity?

There is some basis for comparison. The nation for years has maintained a strategic petroleum reserve as a form of energy security. The White House, which now wants to increase supplies in the reserve, is in a struggle with members of Congress who say such a move is unwise at a time when oil prices are above $100 a barrel.

Congress, so far, has responded to the growing food crisis by proposing a major increase in nutrition funding in a five-year farm bill now under debate. Lawmakers and the White House are also prepared to spend more money for international programs. The U.S. in the last year provided more than $2 billion in foreign food aid.

"The commitment is there to deal with the international and domestic situation … in a formidable way," says Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chair of a House subcommittee that funds food aid.

But there has been no major re-examination of one of the major factors contributing to tight supply: recent federal laws mandating increased production of ethanol, which in the USA is generally made from corn.

Many farmers today are growing crops for fuel, not food, a development outside of USDA control and one that makes it harder for the government to manage crop production. As much as a third of the corn crop could be dedicated to ethanol production.

Commodity Programs

The USDA accumulates stockpiles several ways. It buys dairy products when prices are low. Farmers who grow wheat, corn, soybeans and other grains can forfeit their crop to pay off loans. The USDA can buy crops, including fruits and vegetables, when surpluses develop.

The federal government spends more than $60 billion a year on food stamps, the school lunch program and other nutrition aid. Much of that is in cash, but the programs can also benefit from surplus commodities. The USDA on Thursday announced it would buy $50 million in pork products for feeding children and school lunch programs, as part of its effort to cope with rising food prices. The purchase also helps pork producers who have been hit by rising grain prices.

In general, higher prices mean federal spending is rising, and many school districts are being forced to raise lunch prices. High prices and low supplies have probably had the most immediate impact on food banks, which face rising caseloads and falling private-sector donations as the economy slows.

"USDA food truly is some of the most nutritional that we receive. We are located where there is no food industry other than retail groceries and small restaurants. … We could not feed the people we need to without the support of the USDA," says Rhonda Chafin, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee. America's Second Harvest, a network of 205 food banks serving 25 million, is seeing a 20% rise in its caseload.

Food banks and other programs receive $140 million in annual commodity donations, which could rise to $250 million in the five-year farm bill under debate. The USDA provides extra food via a bonus program, buying surplus goods as they become available.

The program is an add-on that varies from year to year, though food banks have come to rely on it. The bonus began to dry up several years ago as food prices rose, plummeting from about $250 million in 2003 to $58 million last year. The USDA barter program has partly picked up the slack.

The Emerson Trust, the reserve for humanitarian aid, was created when the government was swimming in supply. The trust isn't the main U.S. food aid program but is an important backstop that's been tapped seven times since 2002 to aid Africa and Iraq.

Sporadic Replenishment

The trust has been sporadically replenished since the mid-1990s. In addition to wheat, it now holds $117 million in cash: enough to buy about 14.6 million bushels of wheat at the current price. Still, that would leave overall supply down about two-thirds from original levels. International feeding organizations, which have pushed for years to get the trust replenished, note that it is the only U.S. stockpile for emergency needs. Now, at a time when it is desperately needed, they say, the stocks are not there.

Food aid "is going to have to be significantly higher if we're going to continue to play the role we've played in the past; … $117 million is not much," says Lisa Kuennen-Asfaw of Catholic Relief Services.

As is the case with many food programs, use of the trust has been politically charged in the past. For example, wheat growers have protested that pulling wheat out of the trust when prices are low further depresses markets. Companies that have been paid for years to hold supplies of wheat for the trust don't want to lose their payments.

USDA's Keenum says the U.S. government has the will and the money to continue providing needed resources to hungry people.

"We're not seeing a shortage of food in this country," Keenum says. "The issue is having the resources to purchase food for international and domestic needs."

**American Patriot** · April 17th, 2014, 16:49

If it hadn't joined this part of the destruction of the economy yet, it has now.

Are you ready for $500-$1500 monthly electric bills?

Image | Posted on April 17, 2014 by tomfernandez28

This not a spoof, I wish it was. It’s very REAL. If this doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what will. If this doesn’t prove once and for all how Barack Obama has had a deliberate, by design, agenda of destroying the economy, I don’t know what otherwise will prove that.
But before you finish reading this article, load this video by Ryan Houck of Free Market America, it’s profound and brilliant, and it chronicles everything Obama and the progressives/liberals have been trying to do. Understand that and you will under the economically destructive, and freedom-killing agenda of the left. And you might vote accordingly in the next election if you haven’t been doing so already.
Now let’s show you how you’re going to be paying about 5-6 times, what you pay for electricity now, by the time 2015-2016 comes around.
It an article titled “The next great failed initiative of Barack Obama” by Steven H. Ahle of Examiner.com, some interesting information was revealed about the energy policy of the Obama Regime and what it will do to all of us very soon.
The article by Ahle mentions that electricity generated from coal has fallen from 44.6 percent to about 36 percent. This would lead to more electricity being generated by other means, including natural gas and renewable sources. Of course, one of the best ways to generate electricity, and we have enough of it to last forever, is nuclear power. But the far left doesn’t want that. The extremist of the left have demonized nuclear power and scared everyone to death of it, maybe its time for an electric industry campaign using Reddy Kilowatt to convince people of the safety of nuclear power.
This grossly unnecessary intrusion into the function of the electricity generation market is having dire effects that we will all have to pay for, quite literally. Your monthly electric bill is going to go sky high over the next few years. What little is left of the middle class is headed straight the poorhouse as a result.
The article by Steven Ahle says, “As a result, PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states held it’s auction for 2015 electricity capacity.
The numbers are shocking. Remember that the cost for 2012 was only $16 dollars per megawatt. In 2015, the price will go up to $136 dollars per megawatt, for electricity that will come from natural gas. For the Mid-Atlantic region of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. And in Northeast Ohio, the price jumps to an incredible $357 dollars per megawatt.”
These are real increases in prices that can ONLY be passed along to us the customers who pay for electricity at the retail level. I talked to a few people I know, and their household electricity bill each month is around $100 or more. If the price of electricity multiplies by 10 times, going from about $16 per megawatt to around $160 per megawatt, it’s inescapeable that the price you pay will also multiply by 10 times as well. So if you’re paying as little as $50 per month or as much as $150 now, you’re going to be paying about $500 to $1500 per month for electricity by 2015 to 2016. These rates are already locked in by the wholesale purchase contracts bid for that are mentioned above.
This is not by accident, and it didn’t have to be. Before the Obama Regime arrived in Washington D.C., energy policy was going in the opposite direction. Electricity generation was getting cheaper as clean-coal technology lead to much higher levels of coal-fired generation, and increasing degrees of competition and customer choice was also lowering electricity prices. But the Obama regime has an agenda, as outlined in that Free Market America video, to promote renewable energy sources, that are not yet economically viable on the market, by unnaturally and unnecessarily causing conventional energy prices to sky rocket. This is deliberate, it’s by design, and it is the desired policy of the Obama Regime.
Exactly as Ryan Houck said in that video, when he said, “I’d make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy would seem cheap.” That is exactly what is going on.
Most of us can’t afford to pay $1000 per month to keep the lights on. But Barack Obama doesn’t care. Elections have consequences. Think about that next time you vote and think seriously whether you’re going to vote for liberal Democrats with this agenda again. And thank those low-information voters who voted in this Regime without having a clue that they would destroy the economy this way.

**Ryan Ruck** · April 21st, 2014, 16:01

Good thing these aren't things most of us use...

Beef Prices Hit Record High, Milk, Butter, Egg And Vegetable Prices Are On The Rise Too

April 14, 2014

Hitting the grocery store is getting more costly.

Beef prices are at a record high, and the cost of other staples, such as milk, butter, eggs, fruit and vegetables are climbing. With a severe drought ravaging farms across most of California, prices are at risk of shooting significantly higher this year.

The price of a pound of ground beef has hit $3.55 a pound, a record high even when adjusted for inflation, according to government readings for February. That's up 56% since 2010. The average for round steak is at $5.28, among the highest prices seen in the last 20 years.

And it's gotten worse lately. In February, beef posted the biggest month-over-month price increase in more than a decade thanks to bad weather.

Growing demand for U.S. beef from overseas markets like Asia is a big factor driving up prices, said Ricky Volpe, economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"These record high beef prices are here to stay," said Volpe. "It'll be a long time until supplies will be more in line with demand once again."

Most of California is suffering from extreme drought conditions, according to the USDA. And California is a major producer of milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables.

"Those prices haven't gotten bad yet, but the drought is a real wild card," said Volpe. "These commodities all have the potential to be significantly impacted by it."

Restaurant chains are trying to hold the line on prices. Mark Allison, senior vice president of culinary operations at Chanticleer Holdings, which operates the American Roadside Burger chain, said his chain raised prices about 12%, even though their beef costs are up even more than that.

"We were able to lock in supply of beef," he said "But if beef prices rise further we'll have to raise prices again."

**American Patriot** · April 21st, 2014, 17:38

I went in to Walmart yesterday. It cost me 145 bucks to get out. Granted I bought four deck chairs (15 bucks each), but the rest of it was food. Mostly salad stuff.

**American Patriot** · April 21st, 2014, 18:05

Thought we had a thread about the bankers that offed themselves?

Oh well...

BNP Banker, His Wife And Nephew Murdered In Belgium

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/20/2014 09:55 -0400

In the beginning it was banker suicides. Then about two weeks ago, suicides were replaced by outright murders after the execution-style killing of the CEO of a bank in otherwise sleepy (and tax evasive) Lichtenstein by a disgruntled client. Then on Friday news hit of another execution-type murder in just as sleepy, if not so tax evasive, Belgium, where in the city of Vise, a 37-year-old Director at BNP Paribas Fortis was murdered alongside his wife and a 9 year old nephew in a premeditated and orchestrated drive-by shooting.
L'venir reports:

According to Marcel Neven, Mayor of Vise, nothing can yet explain what caused the violent shooting that rocked the neighborhood sports hall of his town this Friday, April 18, late at night. A man of 37 years, Benedict Philippens, bank manager Ans-Saint-Nicolas, was shot. A little 9 year old boy, living in Dolhain, was also killed. A lady, the wife of the man and the boy aunt and godmother, Carol Haid, 37 also died of his injuries on Saturday, in the morning. She was hit by three bullets in the back, said a judicial source.

According to information from the survey and some witnesses, a car waiting outside their house Berneau street near the sports hall Visé. When the victims' car is back in the driveway, shots were fired from the car that waited patiently. The author of the shots is actively sought.

So far neither the shooter nor any motive for the execution have not been found: "Some suggest the presence of a single gunman with an automatic pistol, others are surprised that a bullet hole was noted in one of the windows of the sports hall. "That would mean that the author was already in the driveway of the house and waited for the victims side of the house," says a source close to the case."
Like in the Lichtenstein murder, there is a possibility the murder was the result of a previous argument with a customer:

This Sunday, the investigation is ongoing but it seems that the track of reckoning is preferred. In 7Dimanche newspaper, a friend of Benedict recalls that he had a big argument with a customer six months ago. He had even threatened the director publicly. He then had to put on the door. "There are six months, he told me he had a big argument with a foreign client."

Needless to say the locals of the quiet town are stunned by the news:

According to the neighbors, "the couple lived for 5 or 6 years" in his little house. They had been married a little over a year. The neighborhood shocked again that it is a normal family. "Usually, shootings in the region, it is often stories of drug with the Dutch, because it is not far from the border."

The mayor did not say more about the possible causes of this unfortunate news item. He noted, however, that the occupation of the victim, banker, "perhaps could" be related to drama. Marcel Neven adds that this is the first time in his back as mayor he faced such violence in a crime. "The police arrived on the scene Friday night was very impressed to see the body there in the driveway."

So just like in the Lichtenstein murder, was it truly some atrocious act by bankers that caused their clients to take justice into their own hands, or is it becoming the norm that when dealing with members of the banker class, the population - disenchanted with a legal system that is largely in the pocket of the financial system - is increasingly resorting to not only vigilante justice, but the taking of banker lives with no regard for innocent bystanders?
If indeed so, this could mark a dramatic, and lethal, escalation in the way bankers are treated by the broader public, not only in places where banker revulsion is palpable but in quiet, sleepy backwaters like a small Belgium town.

**Avvakum** · April 22nd, 2014, 00:24

Originally Posted by American Patriot