Will They Have To Start Putting Armed Guards On Food Trucks?

The basic necessities in life just keep getting more expensive. According to the latest data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year-over-year gains in some food products at the producer level have been truly spectacular.

● Eggs for fresh use are up 33.9%.

● Pork is up 28%.

● Processed turkeys are up 20.4%.

● Dairy products are up 10.7%.

● Fresh and dry vegetables are up 8.4%.

● Fresh fruits and melons are up 7.5%.

So why is all of this happening?

(1) The Fed has been on an unprecedented money printing spree, which has dramatically pushed up the prices of stocks, commodities and just about everything else.

(2) The endless drought in the western half of the country is severely hurting food production.

(3) The worst pork virus to ever hit the US.

(4) Citrus growers are facing a horrific outbreak of citrus greening disease.

(5) The TR4 fungus has hit banana production and may eventually completely wipe out the variety of bananas that we eat today

Right now, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity, and that number will only get worse as food prices go even higher.

Read the complete article by Michael Snyder at -- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/if-this-keeps-up-they-will-have-to-start-putting-armed-guards-on-food-trucks

You should be aware of one other factor, a major reason that the prices of not only food, but oil, electricity, natural gas, and many other basic commodities have been skyrocketing since 2000 – speculators.

Speculators are traders that buy and sell pieces of paper, contracts, guarantees – they don’t make or take deliveries of any products. They only need to have the necessary cash or credit to participate in the betting process.

The reason they are involved in the process is to bet solely for a profit. They stand between the natural buyer and the natural seller of the products they bet on. This is a multitrillion-dollar, largely unmonitored trading realm existing outside the regulated exchanges. The prices you are paying at the store or gas pump are based on the artificial prices created by the betting process, not on supply and demand. Haven’t you noticed that when you hear a news story about something that might happen and could affect the oil supply – gasoline prices immediate go up – even though nothing has happened and the supply of oil hasn’t changed? The only thing that has changed are the bets the speculators are making about the price. The prices the public is paying for basic necessities of life are linked to the prices set by speculators on unregulated markets -- not at actual markets where real suppliers deliver real products to purchasers.

Haven’t you wondered why when news reports about good things are released – prices do not immediately drop down?

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, in his book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets makes some very important points:

The reach of markets and market-oriented thinking, into aspects of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms is one of the most significant developments of our time. . . Before we can decide whether market relations are appropriate to a domain, we have to figure out what norms should govern it. . . Markets reflect and promote certain norms, certain ways of valuing the goods they exchange. . . We must ask whether market norms will crowd out nonmarket norms, and if so, whether this represents a loss worth caring about.

The only way to change this situation is by passing laws that regulate and monitor these markets – and free basic requirements for life from the grasp of the speculators.  The next time you hear someone shouting “we need less government regulation” consider the possibility that they may just be reacting to propaganda that some people who don’t want to be controlled have been spreading. Inmates at prisons would probably also like fewer regulations and regulators!

Jim Myers

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