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We were losing 700 000 jobs per month back then, so I'd say things are a heck of a lot better now, considering we just gained 300 000 in Decenber. That is a differnece of PLUS 1 MILLION per month.
Commodities spiked early in 2008 and the jobs picture didn't come apart until later that year. You cannot lump the two events together. Commodities, gold, and the stock market crashed in tandem with job losses.
This might not be so cut and dry as sensationalist headline of thread indicates.
That link shows a graph about prices farmers received for livestock, crops, etc. was up 18.5% from a year ago, not groceries that we buy. I don't buy many cows or truckloads of soybeans, I buy things where most of the price is the manufacturing, packaging, transportation, grocery etc. add-ins to create final products that are sitting on shelves. If 3/4 of the cost of my bowl of cereal is the added in factors, and assuming none of the farm prices were absorbed along the chain, then we're talking a 4.5% increase. That is supposition I have no idea how much of the final cost is reflected on base.
Is there a source for grocery store price change for an average cart full of stuff?
Obama promised Wall Street he'd let them have free reign to manipulate and speculate prices up on commodities liek food and oil, so what's the problem?
You people need to relax. Go take a nice long Hawaiian vacation, or something.
The inflation is not going to show up in the figures (even the non-core ones), because manufacturers have recently reduced the size of their boxes and cartons in order to keep the same nominal price. This was also reported on an ABC News hourly update on my local affiliate radio program.
So my question remains, is there a good way to measure this? Surely there must be something better than an agriculture index, unless you are the rare cat that decides they need a ton of corn so drives their dump truck to Iowa to get some.
What about consumer expenditures surveys? Sure obviously flaws there (belt tightening) but probably a better price inflation picture than this 18.5%.
So my question remains, is there a good way to measure this? Surely there must be something better than an agriculture index, unless you are the rare cat that decides they need a ton of corn so drives their dump truck to Iowa to get some.
What about consumer expenditures surveys? Sure obviously flaws there (belt tightening) but probably a better price inflation picture than this 18.5%.
Those costs will translate to the consumer. Last I heard the grocery stores and distribution channels weren't running on fat profit margins.
We were losing 700 000 jobs per month back then, so I'd say things are a heck of a lot better now, considering we just gained 300 000 in Decenber. That is a differnece of PLUS 1 MILLION per month.
How many people are no longer considered unemployed nowadays?
So my question remains, is there a good way to measure this? Surely there must be something better than an agriculture index, unless you are the rare cat that decides they need a ton of corn so drives their dump truck to Iowa to get some.
What about consumer expenditures surveys? Sure obviously flaws there (belt tightening) but probably a better price inflation picture than this 18.5%.
Well you could budget $50/week for all your groceries.
And see in a few months if that $50 still buys the same amount of groceries...
Perhaps a lot of posters here don't pay attention to prices at the grocery store?
So my question remains, is there a good way to measure this? Surely there must be something better than an agriculture index, unless you are the rare cat that decides they need a ton of corn so drives their dump truck to Iowa to get some.
What about consumer expenditures surveys? Sure obviously flaws there (belt tightening) but probably a better price inflation picture than this 18.5%.
No, not for some items if they change the size and keep the price the same.
Other items can easily be measured and compared across comparable stores:
-6/12 pack of brand soda
-quart/gallon of brand milk
-dozen eggs
-fruit sold by the pound
-brand name frozen that is static..like box of Eggo waffles
-price/lb of cuts of meat
energy is easily measured (gas/propane/diesel)
It takes a while before the higher priced commodity works it's way through the system and back to the consumer. Also depends on futures contracts they bought to lock in prices.
The commodity market is not easily followed. I do read this guy regularly.
This link is for two editorials he writes..Agri-food and Gold. I've never read his gold one..just the agri-food thoughts editorials.
One item he noted was that a bale of cotton outperformed gold in 2010 by a factor of 4. http://www.safehaven.com/author/33/ned-w-schmidt
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