Let the inflation games begin

If any of you read my replys, you know I help manage a nationally known farm supply and feed store. We seel all manner of goods, hardware, fencing, and feeds for the full time/ part time farmer and hobby farmer... so called "self reliant" peoples.

I read this weekend, Saturday, October 16 on Reuters News Service, an article entitled "Two Fed officials favor aggressive easing options"... essentially, it stated that the fed was seriously considering pouring billions of dollars, and printing more, into the economy to kick strart inflation to fight deflation.

That had me concerned due to the loss in value of the American dollar over the last few weeks and the possibilty the US Fed may try to devalue our currency in order to pay down our debt.... aka Wemer Republic style circa 1920-1924.

With this fresh in my mind, I go into work today, Monday, and start the daily process of opening our store, counting tills, processing payroll, and setting the days tasks... one of which is price changes. Imagine my shock when whole kernel feed corn went up another dollar...from $8.29 to $9.29 per 50lb bag. What was more disturbing is it had already gone up $1.30 in the last 2 weeks. So, at the beginning of October...corn was going for $6.99 and as of Oct.18, it was $9.29.

Now I realize that there have been regional droughts, as well as international droughts...markets and commodities have gone up due to speculation, but a jump of almost 50% in price is disturbing. This was followed by the realization that all of our feeds, corns, and grains had increased anywhere from .50cents to $1.20 per bag item.

What this means is feed costs were going up. This means it costs more to feed livestock. Accordingly, I followed up on some recent conversations with some of my customers and found that prices at the beef markets were low....nobody can afford to feed their cattle so they are selling them...flooding the markets with beef...initially you will see some good buys on beef, but by next spring, there will be shortages and higher prices. Same with pork, chickens, eggs, and thusly...passed all the way up the commercial and grocery food chain.Higher grain costs mean higher prices on pasta, loaf breads, cereals, cake mixes, etc.

Mix market speculation with drought and shortages, throw in Fed induced inflation and ... presto... you have some very harsh economic times for everybody.

I just wanted to send this as a warning to all of our friends here at ATS. We knew this time was coming...and if you were smart...you have been preparing. But it is still a shock to see it actually happening.

My question to you and the catalyst for discussion is:

Now that we can see some of our fears coming to fruition, what extra steps will you take if any...and what advice do you have?

reply to post by AlreadyGone


Don't let another Hitler rise...


Turning right is not the way to get out of this problem.

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
If any of you read my replys, you know I help manage a nationally known farm supply and feed store. We seel all manner of goods, hardware, fencing, and feeds for the full time/ part time farmer and hobby farmer... so called "self reliant" peoples.

I read this weekend, Saturday, October 16 on Reuters News Service, an article entitled "Two Fed officials favor aggressive easing options"... essentially, it stated that the fed was seriously considering pouring billions of dollars, and printing more, into the economy to kick strart inflation to fight deflation.

That had me concerned due to the loss in value of the American dollar over the last few weeks and the possibilty the US Fed may try to devalue our currency in order to pay down our debt.... aka Wemer Republic style circa 1920-1924.

With this fresh in my mind, I go into work today, Monday, and start the daily process of opening our store, counting tills, processing payroll, and setting the days tasks... one of which is price changes. Imagine my shock when whole kernel feed corn went up another dollar...from $8.29 to $9.29 per 50lb bag. What was more disturbing is it had already gone up $1.30 in the last 2 weeks. So, at the beginning of October...corn was going for $6.99 and as of Oct.18, it was $9.29.

Now I realize that there have been regional droughts, as well as international droughts...markets and commodities have gone up due to speculation, but a jump of almost 50% in price is disturbing. This was followed by the realization that all of our feeds, corns, and grains had increased anywhere from .50cents to $1.20 per bag item.

What this means is feed costs were going up. This means it costs more to feed livestock. Accordingly, I followed up on some recent conversations with some of my customers and found that prices at the beef markets were low....nobody can afford to feed their cattle so they are selling them...flooding the markets with beef...initially you will see some good buys on beef, but by next spring, there will be shortages and higher prices. Same with pork, chickens, eggs, and thusly...passed all the way up the commercial and grocery food chain.Higher grain costs mean higher prices on pasta, loaf breads, cereals, cake mixes, etc.

Mix market speculation with drought and shortages, throw in Fed induced inflation and ... presto... you have some very harsh economic times for everybody.

I just wanted to send this as a warning to all of our friends here at ATS. We knew this time was coming...and if you were smart...you have been preparing. But it is still a shock to see it actually happening.

My question to you and the catalyst for discussion is:

Now that we can see some of our fears coming to fruition, what extra steps will you take if any...and what advice do you have?

I've been trying to stock up on survival foods for the past year+...I've noticed a trend in food sold in stores, the packages are staying the same size but the weight of the products inside are getting smaller, 7oz instead of 8oz..etc....giving the illusion that prices are staying the same.
Today I went to the local feed store and purchased 100 lbs of wheat to store, $12.50 for a 50lb bag..up from $9.50 last year.... People need to realize that food shortages are coming and the feed stores are a great alternative to store prices when it comes to cheap whole grains. The only difference between store bought wheat and feed store wheat is store bought wheat has been cleaned to remove all stems, husks..etc...that's all. The 50lb wheat sacks I bought today look very much like the store bought $2+ a Lb wheat, except I paid 25 cents a Lb for mine.
So don't overlook the feed stores for your survival food stocks...!!!!!

What we are seeing right now is a game of economic attrition. The current debt (read that as "run up of speculative wealth) tsunami is weakening entire countries and will create permanent demand destruction for many commodities.

Permanent poverty "zones".

Prices will level out when countries like Greece look a lot more like Somalia.

Originally posted by ghostsoldier
reply to post by AlreadyGone

 

Don't let another Hitler rise...


Turning right is not the way to get out of this problem.

What are you talking about Hitler was a National Socialist (considered Right) and his enemies were the Commnunists (Left). Communism is considered international socialism.

This is all in your head. Inflation by our benevolent leaders is only 1.7%, and in fact, that's not enough according to our great leader Ben Bernanke. We all need to obediently and blindly trust our leaders and continue to show support by going out and buying stuff at walmart to keep our economy strong. Remember, those who bless Israel are blessed, so if you really want to keep America great, give some money to Israel.

Inflation, deflation.....sounds like the economy is a balloon eh? I have posted and often said
that if TPTB really wanted to fix the economy they could. They need to start with energy,
except they will never do that. Think of logistics and how much it adds to the prices of commercial
and private goods. It takes energy to harvest commodities, It takes energy to manufacture goods
and provide services, it takes energy to transport those things from harvest to manufacturing to
warehouse (storage), to local stores. Every station adds to the price of whatever it is we are buying
because it costs energy to do so. Free energy would benefit Corporations and people alike! It would
drastically reduce costs in every sector and ultimately benefit consumers by lowering the price on
everything. Because corporations save money on logistics, they would be automatically offsetting
wages. Think about it, they could start hiring workers again and still make hefty profits.

No, there is something else going on.....i just can't place my finger on it though. You would think
that greedy corporations would jump at the chance to make booya money but they still don't
do it, why? It is a win/win situation for all, the fact that they don't do it makes me a little bit
(just a little bit ) suspicious. Any ideas why? I'd sure like to here some opinions.

reply to post by Mr. D


The problem is you and I are both long term thinkers, and 99% of the people with the money are short-term - its not profitable in the short term for things to change, so things don't.

T'is bogus I decree.

I completely agree, Ive looked into quite a few over unity systems/inventors and I am convinced that most operate on the same principles which in my mind gives each one more credibility. If you take out the labor part of the equation (which should be easy with over unity IMO) then food and almost every other necessity becomes free as well. But obviously this is not part of 'their' plan. The only thing I can attribute this to is the whole 'project for a new America' with bush, Chaney, etc... where they say they need another 'pearl harbor'. I don't think they want the economy and the world to work, I think they want it to collapse. And what will they put in its place? well I don't even want to imagine.

When you hear of a government artificially inflating/deflating currency you know it is rigged. As it is rigged this allows for them to make decisions about the currency which we see with them working the printing presses overtime. Now they want to devalue the currency so that trading out of the US will be a lot cheaper. What does this all sound like? Currency manipulation, the same thing we accuse China of doing.

What is my point here you ask? When currency is being manipulated it is either manipulated by government officials or top banking officials, since the Federal Reserve is run by America’s top bankers the manipulation comes from them with the advice from the government. This means that they can manipulate the currency in ways that are simply good business practices because why would the nations top bankers want the dollar to crash?

The implementation of a global currency or a transnational currency would then be implemented to restore order when the dollar has been ‘manipulated to death’. When it has been manipulated too far the investors will not trust investing in the dollar as they will no longer feel comfortable with its long-term stability as it is subject to regular changes. This leads to its value hitting a sharp decline and once again straight into the arms of a loving global or transnational currency.

This way the top bankers of the world will have the choice on how to issue the currency and artificially change it to better suit the needs of the world. They will effectively remove any single government from the business of currency and thus we will all be sending our money to the hands of these multinational bankers to manage our entire economic system. Sounds ineffective right? You are correct, look at Europe for example.

The European countries who are suffering would typically hit a currency problem with devaluation, high inflation or horrible deflation. Since there currency is run by an outside entity subject all European countries are inputting an investment to rescue a few countries from the edge. Thus a redistribution of national wealth and security from the wealthier more productive countries to the poorer less productive countries. This would lead to a multinational bailout of sorts.

What is the problem then? Well that is the point when we enter a constant state of indebtedness to those other countries which would then hold us virtually at gunpoint to continue within the same currency as them. Once we enter a transnational currency if we try and leave our debt will spike, our new currency will be worthless and our society will break down. This means we will never leave the transnational currency and will forever be subject to them. There is an alternative way out but I doubt any of our leaders would be willing to throw the country into a state of anarchy just to leave a currency and seriously piss off the big bankers.

This is all a scam, everything that is going on is engineered so we will be forced into a global/transnational currency and thus forever in debt to ever other state which is more successful than us who will be forced to bail us out. You would think they learned from the Euro about how bad transnational currencies are, I guess they really don’t care.

My reply is to spread the abundance paradigm. If we can eliminate money in favor of an egalitarian society as I describe in my several threads and my book (link to free version in my sig).

I offer these links for review:

www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have been saying that hyperingflation is immanent. I have a solution to our dying pyramid-sceme money system and will continue to herald is untill things are so bad...

I have noticed the shrinking packages for a while also... my feedstore prices are steadily going up... I am about to get my own chicken plucker.. I have lots of chickens and plan on selling poultry meat/eggs and live chicks to replace hens to my neighbors. chickens are a real good source of barter... should keep us going a while.

I have bartered chickens for " canning jars/games/toys clothes tools and goats to name a few items. It will be tough soon... we have done the best we can.. with the mortgage fiasco... now that will get the pot boiling over real fast...Americans will not stand for losing their homes to crooks!

Good post.. We all need to work together... Lets hope we can all manage.

Corn went limit up last week a couple times. What do you expect? The small specs got shaken out the week before that when corn had a massive drop. The big players are long. The crops are being harvested and they are not bringing in the quantity they expected. I don't know the fundamental information on corn off the top of my head to tell you why the harvest is low. I do know that farmers are giving up growing other crops so they can grow corn that will be turned into gasoline. When farmers can make more money by growing a crop that does not go for food, we are in trouble.

We have three generations of people now who do not know how to raise their own food. How many people who have access to garden plots even know what to do with the food to store it for winter? Americans have turned over their independence to corporations to feed them. We are dying sooner and more unhealthy than we have ever been. It is time to use the internet for something productive. People need to educate themselves on old fashioned survival. My grandparents did not call it survival. It is just what everyone had to do. Where there is a will there is a way. Do we have the WILL to change the way we do things? Depending on a corporation to feed my family is suicide.

reply to post by Misoir

This is all a scam, everything that is going on is engineered so we will be forced into a global/transnational currency and thus forever in debt to ever other state which is more successful than us who will be forced to bail us out. You would think they learned from the Euro about how bad transnational currencies are, I guess they really don’t care.

You are correct. The US Money supply DOUBLED between 2008 and 2009 from $880.30 billion to $1663 billion.

Also feed prices had already doubled in 2008 when corn went from $7.50 a hundred weight to $14.20 a hundred weight. Worse, thanks to Grain Trader (Cargill VP), Dan Amstutz's "Freedom to Farm Act of 1996, the USA did away with it's strategic Grain Reserves.

These quotes show the grain traders greed and the level of concern for other humans. Keep in mind that four privately owned grain traders control 90% of the world's grain. They are Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, Andre, and Bunge. The family members earn about ½ billion a year each. This is in response to Ag Sec Ed Schafer's announcement in 2008 "the cupboard is bare"

“In summary, we have record low grain inventories globally as we move into a new crop year. We have demand growing strongly. Which means that going forward even small crop failures are going to drive grain prices to record levels. As an investor, we continue to find these long term trends... very attractive.” Food shortfalls predicted: 2008 www.financialsense.com...

“Recently there have been increased calls for the development of a U.S. or international grain reserve to provide priority access to food supplies for Humanitarian needs. The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and the North American Export Grain Association (NAEGA) strongly advise against this concept.. Stock reserves have a documented depressing effect on prices... and resulted in less aggressive market bidding for the grains.” July 22, 2008 letter to President Bush www.naega.org...

Now you know. The US government supports starvation so a few individuals can profit.

William Engdahl does a very good job of telling the history of what is going on in the global food supply. A review of his book in three parts is here:
www.smirkingchimp.com...
www.smirkingchimp.com...
virtual.smirkingchimp.com...

“Since 1981, until about a year or so ago we started rethinking it, we thought that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food so that, thank goodness, they can leap right into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to, I am not pointing the finger at anybody, I did that. I have to live everyday with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce their rice crop in Haiti to feed those people.” Bill Clinton, March 2010

What Bill Clinton actually did was just an extension of the neoliberal scheme started by Reagan and Bush. The idea was to collapse the agricultural base of targeted nations by opening up their markets to corporate produced agribusiness food products that were subsidized by the US taxpayers. This allowed these businesses, “my farmers” [actually Cargill and Monsanto] as Clinton refers to them, to get in and sell cheap products that would undermine rice prices in Haiti to the point where local farmers could not afford to compete. Top that with forcing the Haitian government to pass laws requiring local farmers to buy seed and fertilizer from our companies at inflated rates, and you have a recipe for deliberately wiping out the entire indigenous agricultural base.
seminal.firedoglake.com...

Note that “my farmers” in the USA were also targeted. See History, HACCP and the Food Safety Con Job and the reprocussions of Amstutz "freedom to Farm Act" dubbed Freedom to fail that pushed US farmers towards extinction

as hoped for by designers of NAFTA, has been 'modernisation' - a sharp decline in the share of agriculture and allied sectors in the workforce. From nearly 27% in 1991 it declined to slightly less than 15% in 2006, losing more than 2 million jobs[18]. Again small and marginal farmers and agricultural labour bore the brunt, as evidenced by very sharp decline in the number of rural households. According to a study by Jose Romero and Alicia Puyana carried out for the federal government of Mexico, between 1992 and 2002, the number of agricultural households fell an astounding 75% - from 2.3 million to 575, 000[19].
www.countercurrents.org...

Not only is the price going up on livestock feed, but the quality of some of the Grass and Alfalfa Hay,
but i prefer a 50/50 pelleted feed for our horses. Less waste.

They allow speculation on grain and commodities (like oil) that artificially drives the price up, it has nothing to do with real supply and demand, it's Wall st. Again. And the Fed pumping out dollars will lead to hyperinflation. Meaning the proverbial "wheelbarrel full of cash to buy a loaf of bread". This all is by design to extract more wealth from the middle(soon to be poor) class and poor class's. The wealthy of course, will get richer. This will backfire on those perpetuating this diabolical scheme.

I'm already noticing prices going up. Gas and groceries alike. I went to the grocery store about a week ago and again this past weekend and I was like "whoa, what the heck" and I know things like canned and dried goods (rice, noodles etc.) were probably the same stuff on the shelf from last week, but at least a 2% to 3% increase in 7 days or less. Gas is also steadily rising. It has leveled a bit in the past couple of days, but at least .05 cents higher than a couple of weeks ago and the holiday season hasn't even started yet.

So, when prices rise like this... Who, in the end, benefits? Prices are going up because more money is being printed (devaluing of the dollar). So, why print more money? Does it really reduce the national debt to print more money?

Wouldn't it be better to have a stronger dollar? Wouldn't DEflation be preferred to INflation because people would purchase more, meaning factories would produce more, meaning the economy would improved because those factories seeing more success (sales) over time might hire more workers? It just seems like TPTB are doing everything EXCEPT for what needs to be done.

My head wanna splode now. Well, I suppose we can only do our best and pray. We can't control the winds, but we can adjust our sails. Best of luck to you all... before, during and after the potential storm to come.

reply to post by GhostLancer

So, when prices rise like this... Who, in the end, benefits?

Luckily someone with better brains than I figured that out for us.

First let me clarify a couple of points. Fiat money (dollar bills) do not have a fixed value as most Americans think. If the corn crop was bad in 2010 than corn will have a greater value (price) in relation to money. If it was a bumper crop it will have a lesser value (price) The same is true for everything you buy, but unlike third world countries the buyers and producers no longer bargain to determine the price, instead middlemen set the price for both the producer and the end user and make oodles of money by squeezing both ends.

Second fiat money is NOT wealth. Wealth is the excess product we make using our resources and labor. Bankers trade their fiat (counterfeit) money for our labor.

Because fiat money is not capital, (WEALTH) Mises concluded that an increase of the money supply confers no identifiable social value.

When new money is created it does not appear magically in equal percentages in all people's bank accounts or under their mattresses. Therefore money spreads unevenly, and this process has varying effects on individuals, depending on whether they receive early or late access to the new money.

It is these losses of the groups that are the last to be reached by the variation in the value of money which ultimately constitute the source of the profits made by the bankers and the groups most closely connected with them.
www.lewrockwell.com...

Therefore it is the poor and middle classes who through devaluation of their wages and increases in the prices of the goods they buy transfer wealth to the bankers and the groups most closely connected with them. This can be seen in another source of information.

The typical American CEO is not as uneducated as his factory workers so he is not about to take a pay cut caused by the increase in the money supply.

In 1976 A typical American CEO earned 36 times as much as the average worker. By 2008 the average CEO pay increased to 369 times that of the average worker. timelines.ws...

Lets take a look at what that actually means:
1976:
gold= $124.74/oz, Money supply=$113 billion, min wage=$2.30 or 0.0184oz gold & CEO =0.663oz
2008:
gold=$880.30/oz, Money supply=$831 billion, min wage=$5.85 or 0.0066 oz gold & CEO =2.44oz

Note how the price of gold and the money supply both rose by about factor of eight. The CEO real salary, in gold, increased by over a factor of 3.5 times. But look what happened to the factory worker. He had an illusionary doubling of his wage in fiat money when actually it was DECREASED to 1/3 of what his counter part was making in GOLD in 1976.

This is how the banksters and corporate CEOs are stealing the wealth of the poor and middle class by stealth.

I hope I managed to explain that clearly enough.