Tag: Prices

Is It Price Gouging?

By now we all have been to the grocery store and have been flabbergasted at the high price of eggs….my experience has been a wide range of prices for a dozen from $4.32 to $7.52….

Would there be some form of price gouging going on with these prices….

A US senator has joined farmers in calling for an investigation to crack the problem of soaring egg prices. Government data shows the national average retail price for a dozen eggs reached $4.25 in December, for a 138% increase from the $1.79 average a year earlier, though the average price nears $10 in some parts of the country, per Vice. All this has led to more shouts of price gouging, per the AP. Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, has called for the FTC to investigate Cal-Maine Foods, the largest US egg producer, after it reported a 110% increase in quarterly sales and 600% increase in gross profits, per the Hill. Cal-Maine logged profits of $198.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to $1.1 million a year earlier.

Cal-Maine says its eggs cost $2.71 a dozen on average in the most recent quarter, which is almost double the price of a year ago but well shy of the prices consumers are paying. In explaining the prices, set in negotiations with distributors and stores, the company cites increased demand, higher costs, and fewer chickens as a result of the avian flu outbreak. The slaughter of 43 million egg-laying chickens within the last year reduced the supply by 5% to 6%, per the AP. However, chickens have been laying more eggs on average, per Vice. Though some experts disagree, Farm Action’s Joe Van Wye says supply concerns accompanied by a 22% increase in production and input costs since 2021 fails to explain the price spike.

There “appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits,” said Farm Action, which has long warned about major firms driving up consumer prices, per the Hill. Sen. Jack Reed of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies added to the pile on Tuesday, asking the FTC to investigate “the industry’s role in perpetuating high prices and hold those responsible accountable for their actions.” The Rhode Island Democrat noted “small producers, which have faced many of the same market challenges as the biggest producers, have managed to keep prices under control.”

I believe it is price gouging and the big retailers are the worse.

Are there any thoughts on this turn in our food supply?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2022–First News

You have begun a new year…a year of elections, pandemic and far Right silliness and hatred….so I feel bad about being the messenger of more bad news for us mere mortals…..

Our holiday season of last year was the most expensive in recent history….sorry to say 2022 is not looking like any improvement…..

Red-hot inflation has been showing up in tangible form in everyone’s grocery bills throughout 2021. Is there relief on the horizon in the new year? Not so much. The Wall Street Journal surveyed several major food manufacturers and finds that prices for just about everything will keep rising. Kraft Heinz, for example, projects an average price increase of 5% for its products, though some will go as high as 20%. Fans of the company’s Grey Poupon mustard should brace for a hike of up to 13%. Another big name, Mondelez International, plans to raise the price of its cookies, candy, and other goodies by up to 7% starting in January. General Mills also will be raising prices next month. Produce, dairy, bread, juice, mac-and-cheese, frozen meals, mayo—you name it, it’s probably going up.

“There’s nothing immune,” says Tony Sarsam of of food retailer and distributor SpartanNash Co. The story cites by-now familiar problems, including supply-chain issues and higher labor and packaging costs. Not surprisingly, this will not only affect those who cook at home but those who eat out, notes Mashed. The costs of some items have risen higher than others over the past year, including beef (24%), bacon (20%), and eggs (12%), and no short-term relief looks to be in sight. Virtually all restaurants surveyed report major supply-chain problems with key ingredients, and menu prices are on track to keep rising. The Cheesecake Factory, for example, just raised prices 3% and may add another 2% in 2022.

Not to worry as wages stagnate the billionaires will still go to space and rake in fed money as they wait their turn in the rocket.

My prediction for 2022….nothing will change…the GOP will continue to do what they do best…..obstruct, the Dems will rant and rave and in the end do nothing, the MSM will continue to push a pro-war agenda of the MI-C….Americans will suffer from high prices and low wages…in other words the same crap we have suffered with for many decades.

Sorry to pee on the new year’s parade but forewarned is forearmed…..

Be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Workers Real Wages Fall

This is what should be talked about in the media.  But no…instead we get an array of mindless speculation on who the Veep will be.

US prices jumped in July by their highest month-to-month rate since 1981, in one of the sharpest inflation spikes since the Second World War.

The July Producer Prices index, reported Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rose by 1.2 percent, on top of a 1.8 percent increase in June. “Core” prices, which exclude food and energy, shot up by .7 percent, more than triple economists’ expectations. Producer prices were up 9.8 percent from a year ago.

The consumer price statistics released last Thursday mirrored the producer price statistics. Seasonally-adjusted consumer prices jumped .8 percent last month—more than double earlier predictions—and were up 5.6 percent since July 2007. Even so, inflation has picked up in recent months. While the Consumer Price Index rose at a comparatively low annualized rate of only 2.8 percent in the first quarter, it shot up at an annualized rate of ten percent in the past three months.

The living standards of workers continue to decline as the purchasing power of their wages falls and pay increases fail to keep up with inflation. The most recent Bureau of Labor statistics report found that real average weekly earnings fell by .8 percent from June to July. Over the past year, weekly earnings fell by 3.1 percent. Thus, the average household now earns a staggering $1,500 less than it would if wages had kept pace with inflation over the past twelve months.

Skyrocketing prices, falling wages, rising unemployment, and falling home values are all lining up to create a massive social catastrophe. According to Credit Suisse, the credit analyst, there will be some 6.5 million home foreclosures by 2012, amounting to 12.7 percent of homeowners with mortgages. While arranging multi-billion dollar bailout of big investors involved in the mortgage meltdown, the Democrats and Republicans have offered no relief for working people facing the loss of their homes and unsustainable levels of debt.

Now the question is:  will the worker finally wake up and realize that the two candidates are offering nothing but a continuation of the crap they are facing now?  Or will they just slide into their party politics and screw themselves yet again?

The Economy As Of May 2008

All media economic reporters are gonna tell the viewer just how good the economy is, but as usual they are talking to people with NO monetary problems.

A record number of US homeowners faced foreclosure on their properties in May, according to statistics published Friday. That same day, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing a sharp increase in consumer prices for the month of May.

The latest foreclosure data released by the real estate research firm RealtyTrac showed a 4 percent increase in foreclosure filings in May over the previous month, representing a 65 percent increase over April 2007. One in every 519 properties in the US received a foreclosure filing in May.

As homeowners’ wealth plummets together with their home values, the cost of living has continued to increase. Consumer prices increased 0.6 percent in May, or at an annualized rate of 7.2 percent, significantly higher than the 4.2 percent rise seen during the past 12 months. The price increases were sparked by a sharp rise in energy and transportation costs. Energy costs—driven by spiraling oil prices—surged by 4.4 percent in May alone. Transportation costs spiked by 2 percent in May, as airlines and trucking firms passed high oil prices on to their customers.

Despite high “headline” consumer prices, the most recent figures were portrayed as reassuring by economists, who noted that “core” inflation remained under control. Core consumer prices—which are calculated by stripping out food and energy costs—rose only 0.2 percent in May, and in general have stayed at a relatively low 2.3 percent year-to-year rise.

It is important to understand the relationship between the population’s real income and the various measures of prices. Inflation—or more specifically the differential between its core and headline measures—is one of the major indices of the class struggle. From an individual standpoint, “core” (as opposed to headline) inflation is essentially meaningless because, after all, everyone eats and most people drive. But, on a social level, core inflation is more sensitive to wage demands. When rising prices lead workers to successfully struggle for higher wages, producers tend to pass on the extra costs in the price of finished products, thus pushing up core inflation.

If you are a working class occupant, then your economic future is not as rosy as the future for the monied few.

Oil Reaches More New Highs

A Japanese oil tanker was damaged Monday when it was attacked by a small boat in Middle Eastern waters off the coast of Yemen, the tanker’s owner said. Word of the attack helped to drive world oil prices to a new record.

The attack rattled the nerves of global energy traders, sending the price of benchmark light, sweet crude to a record $117.40 per barrel. Oil prices had also briefly touched $117 per barrel last week, after rebels attacked a pipeline in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.

Okay this is a daily occurrence, but now I want to start a prediction that oil will hit $125 a barrel by July 4th.  Anybody else want to join in?  Come on what you got to lose?

A PR Coup

Congress is holding hearings with oil company executives to find out why they made a combined $123 billion.  It is a valiant effort but this is just a PR stunt before the elections.  Does anyone really believe that this will fix the problem of rising fuel costs?

But the best comment of the hearing was from one oil company executive when asked about the rising cost of gas and the ex said, maybe if the people would not drive so much and cut back the price would come down.  So it is the consumers fault that we are paying high prices at the pump.  And of course, they say they need their tax breaks so they can re-invest–and how has that worked out in 7 years?

Why is it always the consumers fault?