EconomicPolicyJournal.com is reporting inflation now hitting turkey:
In the week ending last Friday, an 8 to 16 pound hen sold at wholesale for about $1.19 a pound and a 16 to 24 pound tom sold for about $1.17 a pound. Both price are sharply higher than the $1.03 average for hens and $1.04 average for toms in 2013. Last week. the price for fresh turkey was $1.44 a pound according to the USDA.
Whether you believe in total economic collapse, government anarchy or the climate will implode there are options out there in how to make it through tough times. Many will have to become “Daryl” in order to survive, but those with money will have another option.
Via the Wall Street Journal (I encourage to click the link for more stories of buyers)
When Tyler Allen agreed to fork over $3 million in cash for a luxury condominium near Concordia, Kan., he wasn’t attracted by the indoor swimming pool, 17-seat movie theater, or hydroponic vegetable garden.
The real selling point of the 1,820-square-foot apartment: It will be buried 174 feet underground in a decommissioned missile silo sturdy enough to withstand a nuclear attack.Mr. Allen, a 45-year-old Orlando, Fla., sports bar and nightclub owner, insists he isn’t a “tinfoil hat-wearing” type preparing for the end of the world. Rather, he cites growing security threats—such as a global health pandemic, cataclysmic weather and terror attacks. “There’s a Camp David for the president,” he says. “If you’re at a certain level where you can afford it, you can get that, too.”
The so-called Survival Condo complex boasts full and half-floor units that cost $1.5 million to $3 million each. The building can accommodate up to 75 people, and buyers include doctors, scientists and entrepreneurs, says developer Larry Hall.
Safeguarding your home is not just a niche anymore, revenue in the this type of business field is rising.
Spending on residential security rose from $7 billion in 2001 to $12 billion in 2011, and is projected to climb above $16 billion in 2016, according to Freedonia Group, a market-research firm based in Cleveland. That covers everything from routine security devices to the kind of reinforced chambers that gained widespread attention more than a decade ago and were featured in the 2002 film “Panic Room.”
Here are some photos:
In the United States, the federal government not having enough money for spending is the new normal. One thing that never gets discussed is how the government sells its debt in the form of “bonds”.
What may surprise many is that banks and other financial institutions do it for the government and they are called “Primary Dealers”. Once the government has a certain amount to sell, these dealers take it to market and sell it. Here is the list of dealers:
Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency
BMO Capital Markets Corp.
BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Barclays Capital Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
Jefferies LLC
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
RBS Securities Inc.
SG Americas Securities, LLC
TD Securities (USA) LLC
UBS Securities LLC
So next time you hear a politician claim banks or financial institutions are evil, they are the ones selling the debt to help that same politician in their spending addiction.
Bloomberg is out with a write up showing McDonald’s is facing rising costs which means prices have had to be raised. McDonald’s is a good inflation watch company since millions of people visit it everyday.
While the company still offers several items for $1, its menu is quietly getting more expensive. McDonald’s said its prices were up about 3 percent through the end of June compared with 12 months earlier. That’s more than the 2.5 percent gain in prices for food Americans purchased away from their homes in the year through August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Prices being raised across the country are not done yet.
U.S. restaurants plan to boost prices 2 percent during the next six months, more than the 1.7 percent average increase from the prior 12 months, according to an October survey by restaurant researcher MillerPulse in Atlanta.
This follows the trend repeated often on this blog. Costs of goods are rising, yet many so called “experts” are saying inflation is tamed or barely nudging up. My most recent post, Consumer Price Index Shows Inflation on Many Items shows beef is up double digits. Do not think McDonald’s is the only restaurant in the burger chain feeling it. In September I showed Five Guys Burgers are also raising prices (Inflation Hits Five Guys Burgers)
Consumer Price Index numbers were released Wednesday. Buried in the report were serious rises in year to date price increases. Here is list of price increases in the last 12 months:
Milk 8.7%
U.S. meat 13% (beef and veal prices up 18% and pork prices up 11.4%)
Butter 24%
Clothing 3.7%
Women’s Outerwear 11%
Children’s Footwear 7.8%
Prescription Drugs 3.8%
Lodging Away From Home 5%
Here is the complete article showing prices increases and decreases.
The King of Pop may be gone but his estate is still being hounded by the IRS. According to Forbes, they are going for more blood:
In a previously unreported court filing, the government says that IRS auditors originally thought the King of Pop owned only 50% of certain master recordings at his death in June 2009, when he really owned 100% of them. That 100% interest was worth $91 million by the IRS’ figuring, compared to the $11 million reported on the Jackson estate tax return.
The change brings the IRS’ valuation of Jackson’s estate and lifetime taxable gifts up to $1.178 billion, compared to the $7 million the estate reported. The IRS now wants a total of $525.6 million in tax and $205.1 million in gross valuation misstatement and negligence penalties. (Any interest owed will be on top of that.) Of course both the IRS and the estate’s values are best regarded as opening bids in what could be a long negotiation. A trial, if there is one, is far off.
Will 2014 be a jolly holiday for retailers?
The National Retail Federation says yes, projecting November and December U.S. retail sales to rise 4.1 percent, which would be the biggest increase in three years and would be above the 10-year average of 2.9 percent. The group is forecasting sales (not including autos, gas or restaurants) of $616.9 billion for the period this year.
The final 2014 fiscal year interest on debt payment was tallied.
September Interest on Debt payment $19,594,265,555.11
Fiscal YTD payments & total for 2014 $430,812,121,372.05
2014 total is $15 Billion higher then 2013 total and $70 Billion higher then 2012 interest on debt payments.
JustFactsDaily.com released some new IRS data showing in 2013 there was $159 Billion in unpaid federal taxes. Here is what they found:
Per the IRS’s Fiscal Year 2013 Financial Statement, 78% of unpaid taxes that taxpayers have agreed they owe or courts have ruled they owe are “estimated to be uncollectible due primarily because of the economic situations of the taxpayers.”
Hoosier Econ 