Must See Charts – Gold Hedges USD Devaluation, Rise in Oil, Food and Cost of Living Since Nixon Ended Gold Standard

http://www.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog/must-see-charts-gold-hedges-usd-devaluation-rise-oil-food-cost-living-since-nixon-ended-gold-standard/

Trumpocalypse? Suddenly Liberals Are The Ones Stockpiling Food, Guns And Emergency Supplies

So liberals called preppers "far-right, extreme, domestic terrorists."  And now that Trump won the presidential elections, liberals are now prepping for the apocalypse?  The hypocrisy from the left continues to astound.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/trumpocalypse-suddenly-liberals-are-the-ones-stockpiling-food-guns-and-emergency-supplies

America's Poor Spend 60% Of Their Income On Food & Housing Proving CPI Is Meaningless

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-06/americas-poor-spend-60-their-income-food-housing-proving-cpi-meaningless

For many Americans, the rise in food and housing prices is a tough squeeze. That’s because—even in an era with low overall inflation—low-income Americans spend a disproportionate share of their money on food and housing.

New data from the Labor Department show the extent of the discrepancy. The bottom 10% of Americans, by income, devote 42% of their spending to housing and an additional 17% to food–nearly 60% of their total spending, according to the Consumer Expenditures Survey. By contrast, the wealthiest 10% of Americans dedicate only 31% of their spending to housing and 11% to food–closer to 40% of total spending…

Those Soaring Food And Gas Prices? The Fed Has A Name For Them: "Noise"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-18/those-soaring-food-and-gas-prices-fed-has-name-them-noise

Up Against Hard Limits: Food and Finance

In my words: Peak Everything.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug13/hard-limits8-13.html

iNflation: Americans Spend Less On Food, Movies To Pay For Soaring Cell Phone Obsession

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-26/inflation-americans-spend-less-food-movies-pay-soaring-cell-phone-obsession

Consumer Price Index Summary

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased
 0.5 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau
 of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all
 items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.

 The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 percent in
 March, a smaller increase than in the previous two months.

 The index for all items less food and energy
 has increased 1.2 percent with the shelter index up 0.9 percent.

The US government must think its citizens are fools to believe this inflation data.  Sure, I cherry-picked some data, and more detailed data does show rising prices in food and energy, but to suggest our cost of living has only increased 2.7% year-over-year is insulting at best.

Food and gas costs push consumer prices higher

Who here still believes inflation is only 2.7%?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110415/ap_on_bi_ge/us_consumer_prices

QE in Europe

http://www.guildinvestment.com/2010/11/23/just-a-few-points-before-this-holiday-week/

QE in Europe— the European sovereign debt situation

It is not surprising that Europe’s short embrace of austerity has been unsuccessful.  There is never a choice for austerity until all other alternatives have been exhausted.  History is replete with examples.  Why don’t some of these stock market commentators read some global economic history?  It is obvious now and has always been obvious that Europe will go for QE.  It does not matter what they say about austerity.  We have been advising investors to watch what they do.  They are bailing out Ireland; Portugal is right behind and will be followed by Spain, Italy, and even France in the future.  There is no solution that politicians will embrace other than QE [money printing] because a program of austerity means the end of their political careers.  They will put their careers above the national interest.

It is absurd to believe that the U.S. dollar will be a safe haven over the intermediate term

An even more absurd belief is the one that puts U.S. dollar and U.S. debt as a safe haven.  There is not any convincing economic evidence that the U.S. dollar is well managed, and there is no reason to believe that the dollar will rise in value.  In fact, it is the U.S. governments’ intention to devalue the dollar and to print money to avoid a deflation in the U.S.  Why do some global commentators see the dollar as a safe haven?  In our opinion, the only safe haven is precious metals, energy, food and other assets which will hedge against the inevitable inflation that the above policies create.

Food prices soaring

http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Inflation-Group-Food-Prices/2010/05/17/id/359272

Inflation rises

Thanks to my friend Dick for this article. The headline says inflation rose 2% last month, but when you peel back the onion, you'll see a different picture.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f4ca4a183df2102e9ad9338f1c9b7c75.171&show_article=1

Energy and food costs rose 18.7 percent against March 2009, up almost four percentage points compared with February.

I guess they believe items like food, gas, home heating, and electricity bills are immaterial. In their defense, the US government excludes food and energy in their Consumer Price Index (cpi) due to high volatility, but the omissions don't reflect reality in determining purchasing power.

The secret deaths of bees

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/02/food-fear-mystery-beehives-collapse

If true, this could cause the next dust bowl.

Food prices soar

Food and energy prices soared last month, but since the Labor Department doesn't consider these items important in a household budget (sarcasm intended), it conveniently ignores these items when calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The official reason for the omissions is price volatility. I'm thinking there are other reasons.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_producer_prices_2

Hee Haw

Barton Biggs recommends moving to the country, buying some seed, growing your own food, and buying some ammo. Barton Biggs is not a wild-eyed survivalist, but he's starting to sound like one. He has an impressive track record for financial forecasts as a former Morgan Stanley chief economist.

http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=79027