No gentle humor this morning, folks. Outrage is how we’re ending the week.
Here’s the headline, top of fold, in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Food Giants Race to Pass Rising Costs To Shoppers”
Like this is an Olympic sport?!? And Big Aggie is sponsoring a team?
You’ll have to pay to get this article online because that’s just the way Mr. Murdoch is. So let me give you a couple of paragraphs from Scott Kilman’s informative, albeit scary, article.
… “Companies throughout the food chain are changing the way they do business in response to soaring grain costs, and consumers are likely to bear the brunt in the form of rising food prices.
Farmers are making the broadest cuts to their livestock herds in decades, meaning meat at the supermarket will likely cost more in coming years. Middlemen are trying to shorten the duration of supply contracts to 90 days from one year so they can pass on higher costs more quickly. And food brands are shrinking the contents of their packages, from ice-cream cartons to beverage containers.
“Everyone’s adjusting,” Brenda C. Barnes, chief executive of Sara Lee Corp., said Thursday after the company reported a $695 million loss for the quarter ended June 28. That included an $850 million after-tax charge, mostly for writing down the value of bakery businesses hit by soaring wheat costs.”…
ADJUSTING?!?! Is that what we’re calling it now? Should I rush out to buy a cheesecake to help out?
Casaubon’s Book asks what we’re going to do for a living in post-peak oil. To date she's had 93 comments discussing getting down to basic jobs in a depressed economy.
Pity the poor money managers. With no money, what will they manage?
Crunchy Chicken posted on The Economist’s debate on whether rising food prices are good or bad, followed by a thoughtful group of comments.
I say, if rising prices for everything wakes up anyone who could even think of voting for McCain, then the oncoming tsunami of pain will have served its purpose.
We are crumbling, people, and we can’t stand another 4 years of McBush.
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2 comments:
I heard this unfortunate news on NPR on Friday: Sales at McDonald's are UP - by 8% globally and 6% (or there about) domestically. Analysts cited a weakening US economy, and increased wealth and desire to be Americanized in developing countries as reasons for the increase. Ugh. Economically, environmentally, socially, physiologically and psychologically it sounds like bad news to me.
Natalie: thanks for the factoid. People need to fill their bellies somehow. But to think the developing countries are following our lead when we now realize we're going in the wrong direction, I want to yell, "No, turn back! Danger, monster ahead!"
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