Tag: #food

Hey Joe! Food Inflation Is Not Yet Dead (Cocoa, Beef, Coffee Prices Soaring As Deutsche Bank Cuts 3,500 Jobs)

Hey Joe! Food inflation isn’t dead yet!

The Biden Administration which motto should be “Make Crime Great Again!” with awful crime in big cities, and millions pouring over the border, not to mention providing jobs for foreign workers and not native born Americans, is likely breathing a sigh of relief as food inflation falling to 2.7% year-over-year, still higher than pre-Covid levels under Trump. But at least food price inflation is slowing as The Fed’s money stimulus recedes.

But food inflation may not be dead. 

Cocoa prices climbed to a 46-year high this week in New York as concerns about dry conditions across West Africa could reduce yields for the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans, ahead of the mid-crop in April. 

In the US, a rapidly shrinking cattle herd, now at the lowest levels in seven decades, has pushed the supermarket price of beef to a record of $5.21 per pound. Rising food prices are the central bank’s worst enemy. 

To end the week, breakfast lovers will be disappointed to learn robusta bean prices in Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of the bean, are absolutely out of control. 

Local robusta prices in Vietnam hit a record on Thursday, topping nearly 80,000 per kilogram. 

“That’s threatening to push prices in London up further, even after the benchmark capped its own all-time high this week at $3,336 a ton,” Bloomberg said, adding the surge in prices was primarily due to farmers “hoarding” the bean. 

To recap this week, cocoa bean, beef, and robusta bean prices have been marching higher. 

More bad news for Biden. Even though overall food inflation has receded, voters have long memories. 

Speaking of bad news, The Teutonic Titanic (aka, Deutsche Bank) just annouced that it is cutting 3.500 jobs over the next two years.

US Treasury Yield Curve Now Back Where It Stated With Biden At The Helm (Inflation Crushing America And The Yield Curve)

It has been almost a year since Joe Biden has been President of the United States and a Democrat majority took control of The House and Senate. And what has happened to the US Treasury yield curve slope over the past year?

The yield curve is back where it started. There was the “honeymoon effect” where the curve slope rose. After all, Biden was Obama’s Vice President for 8 years and The Democrats has promised so much in the 2020 election. But by early April, the reality of the massive Federal spending (combined with Fed Stimulypto) began showing what was feared: inflation (blue line) started to grow at a rapid rate of speed. With inflation now at 6.8% YoY,

In fairness to Biden, The Federal Reserve has been overstimulating the economy since The Federal Reserve since Ben Bernanke and the Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) dropped the hammer on The Fed Funds Target Rate once the rate hit 5.25% in September 2007. They kept cutting it reached 25 basis points (or 0.25%) in December 2008. In August 2008, Bernanke and Company began their “Quantitative Easing” or asset purchasing programs. Between The Fed’s Target Rate and QE, The Fed has continued to overstimulate markets ever since. Under Biden, The Fed Funds Target Rate remains at 0.25% and The Fed’s Balance sheet has grown to $8.79 Trillion (bigger than the entire economies of Japan and Germany put together!).

How about housing? Home prices are growing at 19% YoY while rents are growing at 12.65% YoY.

Energy prices have risen dramatically under Biden. Gasoline is up 46% despite a slight reprieve recently. WTI crude prices are up 64%.

How about food? Beef prices are up 20% and chicken prices are up 10%.

On a positive note, the S&P 500 index has soared … thanks has soared during Biden’s term thanks to Fed stimulus and Federal spending on COVID.

The Build Back Better Act if passed (in its entirety or on a piecemeal basis) will lead to even MORE inflation.

Perhaps Biden’s spokesperson Jen Psaki can recreate the Biden Administration as a lovable, hilarious family like the comic strip Gasoline Alley with old Joe Biden as Skeezix. And insider-trading star, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the family matriarch.