The Price Of Ground Beef Has DOUBLED Since The Last Financial Crisis

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Michael Snyder

Since the depths of the last recession, the price of ground beef in the United States has doubled.  Has your paycheck doubled since then?  Even though the Federal Reserve insists that we are in a “low inflation” environment, the government’s own numbers show that the price of ground beef has been on an unprecedented run over the past six years.

In early 2009, the average price of a pound of ground beef was hovering near 2 dollars.  In February, it hit a brand new all-time record high of $4.238 per pound. Even just 12 months ago, the price of ground beef was sitting at $3.555 per pound.  So we are talking about a huge increase.  And this hits American families where they really live.

Each year, the average American consumes approximately 270 pounds of meat.  The only nation in the world that eats more meat than we do is Luxembourg.  If the paychecks of American workers were going up fast enough to deal with this increase, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.  But of course that is not happening.  In an article just last week, I showed that real median household income is a couple thousand dollars lower now than it was during the depths of the last recession.  The middle class is being squeezed, and we are rapidly getting to the point where burgers are going to be considered a “luxury” item.

The U.S. Government Will Borrow Close To 4 Trillion Dollars This Year

Michael Snyder

When you add maturing debt to the new debt that the federal government is accumulating, the total is quite eye catching.  You see, the truth is that the U.S. government must not only borrow enough money to fund government spending for this year, it must also "roll over" existing debt that has reached maturity.  Of course the government never actually pays off any of that debt.  Instead, it essentially takes out new debts to cover the old ones. So the U.S. government is actually borrowing far more money each year than most Americans realize.

For fiscal year 2013, the U.S. budget deficit will be about $845 billion, but on top of that the government will also have to borrow about 3 trillion dollars to pay off old debt that is maturing.  Overall, the U.S. government will borrow close to 4 trillion dollars this year, and that number will likely be even higher next year.  That is not going to cause a crisis as long as interest rates stay super low, but if interest rates begin to rise substantially, the game will change dramatically.

Inflation Is Too Low? Are You Kidding Us Bernanke?

Michael Snyder

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this week that inflation in the United States needs to be higher.  Yes, he actually came right out and said that.  It almost seems as if Bernanke is trying to purposely hurt the middle class.  On Wednesday, Bernanke told the press that "both sides of our mandate are saying we need to be more accommodative".  Of course he was referring to the Fed's dual mandate to keep unemployment and inflation low, but Bernanke has a very unique interpretation of that mandate.  According to Bernanke, inflation in the U.S. is now "too low".  The official inflation rate is currently sitting at about 1 percent, and Bernanke insists that such a low rate of inflation is not good for the economy.  He would prefer that the rate of inflation be up around 2 percent, and he is hoping that more "monetary accommodation" will help push inflation up and the unemployment rate down.

But what Bernanke will never admit is that the official inflation rate is a total sham.  The way that inflation is calculated has changed more than 20 times since 1978, and each time it has been changed the goal has been to make it appear to be lower than it actually is.

Will It Be Inflation Or Delfation? The Answer May Surprise You

Michael Snyder

Is the coming financial collapse going to be inflationary or deflationary?  Are we headed for rampant inflation or crippling deflation?  This is a subject that is hotly debated by economists all over the country. Some insist that the wild money printing that the Federal Reserve is doing combined with out of control government spending will eventually result in hyperinflation.  Others point to all of the deflationary factors in our economy and argue that we will experience tremendous deflation when the bubble economy that we are currently living in bursts.  So what is the truth?

Well, for the reasons listed below, I believe that we will see both.  The next major financial panic will cause a substantial deflationary wave first, and after that we will see unprecedented inflation as the central bankers and our politicians respond to the financial crisis.  This will happen so quickly that many will get "financial whiplash" as they try to figure out what to do with their money.  We are moving toward a time of extreme financial instability, and different strategies will be called for at different times. 

So why will we see deflation first?  The following are some of the major deflationary forces that are affecting our economy right now...

Trillion Dollar Coin Reveals the Monetary System in Death Throes

Eric Blair

I’m thrilled that the trillion dollar coin idea is being taken seriously by the establishment. Not because I think it is a viable solution to the national debt, necessarily, but because it shows just how close our monetary system is to reform.

First, for those not familiar with the trillion dollar coin; the idea is that the U.S. Treasury can coin any monetary value they want for whatever purpose they choose.

In this case the idea has been floated to Obama to avert the mandatory raising of the debt ceiling by coining a trillion dollar coin. In other words, Obama can use the coin to pay off a trillion in debt to allow an increase in federal spending without Congress’ approval.

The Inflation Rate Is A Lie Too

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Michael Snyder, Contributor

Can we believe any of the economic numbers that the government is feeding us these days?  Most of the focus recently has been on the bizarre jobs report that the government released last Friday, but the truth is that the inflation rate is a lie too. In fact, the way that the government calculates inflation has changed more than 20 times since 1978. The government is constantly looking for ways that it can make inflation appear to be even lower.

According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was measured the same way that it was back in 1990, the inflation rate would be about 5 percent right now.  If inflation was measured the same way that it was back in 1980, the inflation rate would be about 9 percent right now.  But instead, we are expected to believe that the inflation rate is hovering around 2 percent.  Well, anyone that goes to the supermarket or fills up their vehicle with gasoline knows that prices are going up a lot faster than that.  Just about everything that we buy on a regular basis is steadily becoming more expensive, and so most Americans are not buying it when government officials tell us that there is barely any inflation right now.

John Williams is not the only one doing research into these inflation numbers.

What to Do When – Not If – Inflation Gets Out of Hand

image source

Jeff Clark
Casey Research

The cheek of it! They raised the price of my favorite ice cream. Actually, they didn't increase the price; they reduced the container size. I can now only get three servings for the same amount of money that used to give me four, so I'm buying ice cream more often.

Raising prices is one thing. I understand raw-ingredient price rises will be passed on. But underhandedly reducing the amount they give you ... that's another thing entirely. It just doesn't feel ... honest.

You've noticed, I'm sure, how much gasoline is going up.

Food costs too are edging up.

My kids' college expenses, up.

Car prices, insurance premiums, household items – a list of necessities I can't go without. Regardless of one's income level or how tough life might get at times, one has to keep spending money on the basics. (This includes ice cream for only some people.)

According to the government, we're supposedly in a low-inflation environment. What happens if price inflation really takes off, reaching high levels – or worse, spirals out of control?

Economic Armageddon and You (Video)

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G. Edward Griffin: The Name of the Game is Bailout

This is the second installment in a series of chapter summaries from G. Edward Griffin's must-read book The Creature From Jekyll Island.  This book may be the most important "red pill" available and we highly recommend that you buy and read the full book at RealityZone.

G. Edward Griffin

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Chapter 2 Summary: The Name of the Game is Bailout

Although national monetary events may appear mysterious and chaotic, they are governed by well-established rules which bankers and politicians rigidly follow.  The central fact to understanding these events is that all the money in the banking system has been created out of nothing through the process of making loans.  A defaulted loan, therefore, costs the bank little of tangible value, but it shows up on the ledger as a reduction in assets without a corresponding reduction in liabilities.  If the bad loans exceed the size of the assets, the bank becomes technically insolvent and must close its doors.  The first rule of survival, therefore, is to avoid writing off large, bad loans and, if possible, to at least continue receiving interest payments on them.  To accomplish that, the endangered loans are rolled over and increased in size.  This provides the borrower with money to continue paying interest plus fresh funds for new spending.  The basic problem is not solved, but is postponed for a while and made worse.

Ron Paul tells Manchester crowd inflation will hit 50 percent

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Mark Hayward
New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — Texas congressman Ron Paul on Friday predicted that inflation will hit 50 percent in the next couple of years, thanks to the massive debt the country has accumulated.

Paul, who spoke to admirers and Republican activists at a Manchester house party, said the inflation will act like default.

Social Security checks will still be cut and interest payments will still be made, but the inflated dollars will allow the government to repay borrowed dollars with devalued money, Paul said.

“They cannot pay the debt,” he said. “I don't think that means you shouldn't try and work things out, but with the size of this debt it never gets paid.”

The national debt is about $14.3 trillion.

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Quote of the Day: Griffin on Inflation by the Fed

Activist Post

"The American people have no idea they are paying the bill.  They know that someone is stealing their hubcaps, but they think it is the greedy businessman who raises prices or the selfish laborer who demands higher wages or the unworthy farmer who demands too much for his crop or the wealthy foreigner who bids up our prices.  They do not realize that these groups also are victimized by a monetary system which is constantly being eroded in value by and through the Federal Reserve System." -- G. Edward Griffin, The Creature From Jekyll Island, pg. 33.

Find more of G. Edward Griffin's work at the RealityZone.com or a Freedom-Force.org.

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Fed Ready to Print More Funny Money on QE3 Rumors

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Kurt Nimmo
Infowars

Simon Maughn, co-head of European equities at MF Global, has told CNBC that a third round of so-called quantitative easing is in the works. The private Federal Reserve will again become the marginal buyer of bonds.

The latest effort by the Fed to finance the government’s staggering deficit will end in June.

If the private Federal Reserve owned by offshore banksters stops this lending scheme, interest rates will rise significantly which in turn will exert tremendous pressure on the American public. If interest rates surge anytime soon, millions of indebted Americans may default on their debt, thereby bankrupting the American financial institutions, as Puru Saxena, founder of Puru Saxena Wealth Management, notes.

Global food inflation hits hemp seed, coconut oil and other superfoods: Here's why it's happening

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Mike Adams
Natural News

Food inflation is hitting the superfood industry right where it hurts -- in the wallet. Thanks to several factors you'll read about here, prices on hemp seeds, hemp oils, coconut oil and other superfoods are set to skyrocket beginning in just a few days. One of the largest superfood suppliers in the USA, Nutiva, has announced an 11% price increase coming May 27th, and that may be just the beginning of an accelerating trend in steady increases.

In anticipation of this price increase, we've taken on a huge inventory of Nutiva's Certified Organic Hemp Seed and Hemp Oil at the old prices, and we have a generous supply available to NaturalNews readers who want to beat the price increase (see below).

Why hemp and coconut oil prices are heading into the stratosphere
In a letter sent to us by Nutiva, founder John Roulac explains that the price of coconut oil has doubled in the last six months. While coconut oil suppliers are able to absorb some of this cost in the short term, they cannot do so on a permanent basis. This means that the prices consumers pay for coconut oil are headed sharply higher.

Is America Going Back to a Gold Standard Someday?

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Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog

America went off the gold standard in 1971 when Richard Nixon closed the “gold window.” That meant the U.S. didn’t have to pay foreigners with gold, only dollars.  President Nixon created the first world reserve currency that was officially backed by nothing.  The U.S. has gotten to print money at will until this very day, but nothing lasts forever.   Recently, Steve Forbes (President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine) predicted that a return to a gold standard is likely “in the next five years.” A recent Humanevents.com story said, “Such a move would help to stabilize the value of the dollar, restore confidence among foreign investors in U.S. government bonds, and discourage reckless federal spending, the media mogul and former presidential candidate said.” (Click here for the complete Humanevents.com story.)

Forbes is not some fringe player.  He is wealthy, well connected and knows his way around all types of media.  His thoughts are probably reflecting what other people in his sphere (meaning other wealthy and connected people) are contemplating.  And speaking of Forbes, in an article in the online publication of the same name, Forbes.com said, “. . . unless an inflationary boom is fed with more and more inflationary credit a deflationary bust we will quickly get.  And with the first signs of an ensuing bust, a massive QE III effort courtesy of deflation hawk extraordinaire Ben Bernanke is sure to follow.  In other words, if the private banks don’t inflate, a deflationary scare first than another Federal Reserve orchestrated inflationary cycle.  In the end, QE III one way or another.” (Click here for the complete Forbes.com story.)That’s just what the world wants, more money printing from the U.S. to pay its bills.  Foreigners will be increasingly shunning the dollar as the money creation continues.

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Fed sees 'transitory' higher inflation: minutes

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke
© AFP/Getty Images/File Alex Wong

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Federal Reserve still views higher inflation as only temporary as the economy muddles through a weak recovery from recession, the central bank reported Wednesday.

According to the minutes of the April 26-27 meeting of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, the participants "generally anticipated that the higher level of overall inflation would be transitory."

While there had been "significant increases" in energy and other commodity prices that had boosted overall inflation, FOMC members expected price increases would ease once commodity prices stabilized.

Double Digit Inflation has Arrived

Dees Illustration

Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog

New inflation figures were released by the government last week, and the news was not good.  The headline inflation number was 3.2% in the 12 months that ended in April.  That is more than a percent above the Federal Reserve’s “target”rate of 2% and the first time it has been more than 3% in over than 2 ½ years.  Of course, the accounting gimmicks used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) understate true inflation, so things look better than reality. Nonetheless, in the latest report from economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com, even the government’s own “official” numbers will likely showdouble digit inflation in the next three months or so.  The reason is continued money printing in the form of another round of Quantitative Easing (QE) by the Fed to prop up the struggling economy.  Williams said, “The underlying pace of official inflation is accelerating, and could move into double-digits in third-quarter 2011.  Preceding or coincident with that likely will have been some move to QE3 by the Fed and intense—if not panicked—selling of the U.S. dollar and dollar-denominated assets.  Such a circumstance could be a base from which a hyperinflation might begin to unfold with some rapidity.”

And get this, inflation is already in double digits, according to Williams, if it was calculated the way BLS did it more than 30 years ago.  Williams said, “. . . based on reporting of 1980, the April 2011 annual inflation rate would have been about 10.7%.” But, the double digit inflation story is not the one the mainstream media likes to tell.  Instead, it usually focuses on what the government calls “core” inflation that excludes food and energy.   The “core” inflation rate is .2%.  Who lives in a world where the core of existence is not food and energy?  A .2% core inflation rate is both preposterous and insulting to anyone living in the real world.

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Rising food costs spur massive US theft of produce, meat

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Ethan A. Huff
Natural News

Forget diamonds and cash. Rapid inflation and the tanking US economy have birthed a whole new wave of organized crime involving food. The New York Times (NYT) reports that a group of highly-sophisticated scam artists recently pulled off a massive food heist involving eight tractor-trailer loads full of produce and meat, all worth roughly $300,000.

The food theft was no ordinary theft, either. According to reports, the mystery thieves carefully planned the hijacking to coincide with high-priced tomatoes and other produce items that have seen heavy inflation in recent months. And instead of merely stealing the truckloads, the masterminds actually sent their own imposter trucks to pick up the loads, and pretended to deliver them to various intended destinations.

"I've never experienced people targeting produce loads before," said Shaun Leiker, an assistant manager at Allen Lund, a trucking broker from Florida who has seen numerous cargo thefts, to NYT. "It's a little different than selling TVs off the back of your truck."

Keiser Report: You Can't Negotiate with Financial Terrorists (Video)

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US deficit up 15.7% in first half of fiscal 2011

US deficit up 15.7 % in the first 6 months of fiscal 2011
US Treasury Building © AFP/File Karen Bleier

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US budget deficit shot up 15.7 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2011, the Treasury Department said Wednesday as political knives were being sharpened for a new budget battle.

The Treasury reported a deficit of $829 billion for the October-March period, compared with $717 billion a year earlier, as revenue rose a sluggish 6.9 percent as the economic recovery slowly gained pace.

The Treasury argued that the pace of increase in the deficit was deceptive because of large one-off reductions in expenditures made during the first half of fiscal 2010, compared with previous and subsequent periods.