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Tag / Inflation
Graph: Insane College Tuition Inflation
Photo via Carpe Diem Blog
Inflation Alert: Chipotle Restaurant
Chipotle Mexcican Grill recently made headlines by going “GMO Free” on certain ingredients. I believe this announcement was more of a marketing ploy against the news in their recent financial statements. I’m not a big investor of restaurants in this day and age of the Federal Reserve printing money at a high rate and American beef in demand world wide. (Some investment advice, put your money not in the restaurant but with the beef farmer) Chipotle is hiking prices again on its customers. Within a one year time period prices on certain items will have increased 11-13%.
This write up came from TheStreet.com a week before their GMO announcement –
Chipotle stands to receive another jolt to the top line from another round of price increases. The company, which has historically been reluctant to lift prices, confirmed it will hike prices on steak and barbacoa in the third quarter by 4% to 6% in order to compensate for persistent beef inflation.
In the second quarter last year, Chipotle implemented an across-the-board menu price increase of about 7%, as it dealt with beef, dairy and avocado inflation. Same-restaurant sales growth accelerated soon after the menu price increases went into effect — after rising by 13.1% in the first quarter of last year, same-restaurant sales increased averaged 17.7% in the remaining three quarters.
Venezuela Inflation Rate: 252%
Via Steve Hanke, Cato Institute –
Venezuela has the dubious honor of registering the world’s highest inflation rate. According to my estimate, the annual implied inflation rate in Venezuela is 252%.
The only other country in which this rate is in triple digits is Ukraine, where the inflation rate is 111%. The only encouraging thing to say about Ukraine’s shocking figure is that it’s an improvement over my February 24th estimate of 272%
Inflation Alert: College Textbooks
Recent data compiled is showing college textbooks are rising at a double digit rate. The National Association of College Stores has price comparisons on new textbooks college students buy.
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Average Price of New Books
2007: $56
2015: $72
Price increase of 22%
Here are some other stats concerning college students and textbooks
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Average student spending for a semester of course materials
$509
Average college bookstore profit margin for a new book
21.1%
Percent of students who buy their books at their college bookstore
47%
Percent of students who say they have skipped buying a textbook because it was too expensive
65%
Inflation Alert: Beef Prices Hit Record High
Via CNSNEWS.COM –
The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high in February, hitting $4.238 per pound, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In August 2014, the average price for a pound of all types of ground beef topped $4 for the first time, hitting $4.013, according to the BLS.
In September, the average price jumped to $4.096 per pound; in October, the average price climbed to $4.154 per pound; and in November, the average price climbed to $4.201 per pound.
In December, the price declined slightly to $4.156 per pound. In January 2015, ground beef hit $4.235 per pound and in February 2015, according to the latest data from the BLS, the price of ground beef hit the highest level ever recorded of $4.238.
A year ago, in February 2014, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.555 per pound. Since then, the average price has increased 19.2 percent in one year.
Five years ago, in February 2010, the average price of a pound of ground beef was $2.277, according to the BLS. The price has since climbed by $1.961 per pound, or an increase of 86.1 percent.
Read the rest here.
Inflation Alert: Toilet Paper
Inflation is not just prices going up, but also the size of a product shrinking while staying the same price as before. Clark Howard who is a consumer watchdog on many levels in trying to save you money put out this alert for consumers:
When I talked about this a couple of years ago, there were a few companies reducing the size of packages by doing tricks like making the tubes fatter and putting less paper on the roll.
Now The Dallas Morning News reports the average square of toilet tissue has been reduced by 26%. So you’ve got 26% less paper in that square when you’re doing your business.
I was at Costco the other day and I wanted to see if this downgrade was universal. Turns out it is. It seems everybody has reduced their sheets to a 4.5 x 4 inch rectangle — down from a perfect 4.5 inch square just a few years ago.
Inflation Alert: Chicken Wings
According to the Daily Northeast Broiler/Fryer Report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Marketing Service the price for retailers purchasing chicken wings to sell at their business has jumped by 35% compared to last year. This was reported in PRNewswire:
The average price (wholesale, not retail) of whole wings is currently $1.71/lb, up from $1.35/lb at the same time last year.
This is not the highest ever seen:
This is down significantly from when wing prices hit a record high of $2.11/lb in January, 2013.
Inflation Alert: Food Prices
My niche in my blog posts is inflation tracking. I do it because of how I position my investments and watching the unethical approach by MSM in not tracking it. Inflation hurts a lot of people and sucks money out of the economy that can be used for savings or other purchases. This update of increases comes from the Wall Street Journal:
Food prices rose 0.3% in December and 3.4% from a year earlier, the largest 12-month increase since February 2012, the Labor Department said Friday.
You can read the rest here.
Dutch Central Bank to US: Pound Sand
The United States Federal Reserve is not trusted and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. In plain speak, the Dutch just told them they didn’t either. Also take this news as a great investment tip to start buying gold and silver as a precautionary investment.
The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, has repatriated in utmost secrecy 122.5 tonnes of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to its vaults in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, according to a press release from DNB published today.
“It is no longer wise to keep half of our gold in one part of the world,” a DNB spokesman said. WOW.
Hoosier Econ 