"10 Reasons Why Ordinary Hard-Working Americans Are About To Really Start Feeling The Squeeze"

American families better get ready to tighten their belts again. There is every indication that we are all going to really start feeling the squeeze in the months ahead. The price of gas is starting to spike again. The price of food is moving north. Health insurance premium increases are being announced coast to coast and a whole slate of tax increases is scheduled to go into effect in 2011. Meanwhile, household incomes are down substantially all over the nation and the U.S. government is indicating that there will not be an increase in Social Security benefits for the upcoming year once again. So if the cost of most of the basic things in our monthly budgets is going up and our incomes are going down what does that mean? It means that average American families are about to be squeezed like nothing we have seen in decades.

The reality is that it is getting really hard to make it out there. Not only do most households have both parents working, but in many cases both parents are getting second or even third jobs. Things have gotten so bad that millions of Americans have felt forced to turn to the government for assistance just to survive.

It can be really disheartening to come to the end of the month and realize that despite your best efforts you have less money than you did at the beginning of the month. But that is where millions upon millions of American families now find themselves.

The economic despair in the air is almost palpable. Already hordes of Americans are truly and honestly hurting and things are only going to get worse.

The following are ten reasons why ordinary hard-working Americans are about to really start feeling the squeeze....

#1 Gas prices are going up again. AAA says that the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States was $2.80 on Sunday. That is 32.6 cents higher than it was during the same time period in 2009. As oil and gas prices continue to go up, that is also going to have a significant impact on utility bills for American families this winter.

#2 The price of food is poised to rise substantially. Bloomberg is reporting that the the cost of meat in the United States is going nowhere but up. But meat is not the only thing that you will soon be paying much more for at the supermarket. Wheat, corn, soybeans and almost every other major agricultural commodity is absolutely soaring this fall. As this continues, it is inevitable that ordinary Americans will see much higher food prices at their local grocery stores.

On a previous article, a reader named Erica left a comment in which see detailed the stunning food inflation that she is seeing where she lives....

Food inflation is real, and it is here. Just yesterday I compared my receipt from a grocery run to prices I have from the same exact store from September 15, 2009. Bacon? Up 52% to $13.69 from $8.99 for 4 lbs. Butter? Up 73% to $9.99 from $5.79 for 4 lbs. Pure vanilla extract up 14% to $6.79 from $5.95. Chopped dried onions up a mere 2% but minced garlic (wet) was up 32%.

#3 It looks like those receiving Social Security are not going to be seeing cost-of-living increases again. The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. government is expected to announce some time this week that the tens of millions of Americans that receive Social Security will go through yet another year without an increase in their monthly benefit payments. You see, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are tied to the official government inflation numbers, and according to the U.S. government there is basically very little inflation right now. Of course we all know that is a lie, but it is what it is.

#4 The cost of health care continues to soar into the stratosphere. Americans already pay more for health care than anyone else in the world, and yet costs continue to spiral out of control. The cost of health care increased a staggering 9.6% for all U.S. households from 2007 to 2009. Now, health insurance companies from coast to coast are announcing that they must raise health insurance premiums substantially due to the new health care law that Barack Obama and the Democrats have pushed through. So in 2011 it looks like the average American family is going to have to carve out an even bigger chunk of the budget for health care.

#5 American families could desperately use a recovery in the housing industry, but that is simply not going to happen. Foreclosure-Gate is getting worse by the day, and it threatens to bring the U.S. real estate industry to a complete and total standstill. If it is ultimately proven that the paperwork for millions of mortgages in the United States is seriously deficient, it could push hordes of mortgage lenders into bankruptcy and render mountains of mortgage-backed securities nearly worthless. Regardless, it is now going to be much more difficult to get a mortgage, much more difficult to buy a home and much more difficult to sell a home. We could very well be looking at the next stage of the housing crash. Ordinary Americans could end up losing trillions more in home equity.

#6 More Americans than ever find themselves unable to pay their bills, and an increasing number of frustrated creditors are actually resorting to wage garnishment. Yes, you read the correctly. Creditors are starting to ruthlessly go after the weekly paychecks of debtors.

The following is an excerpt from a recent New York Times article that discussed the rise of wage garnishment as a weapon against debtors....

After winning, creditors can secure a court order to seize part of the debtor’s paycheck or the funds in a bank account, a procedure called garnishment. No national statistics are kept, but the pay seizures are rising fast in some areas — up 121 percent in the Phoenix area since 2005, and 55 percent in the Atlanta area since 2004. In Cleveland, garnishments jumped 30 percent between 2008 and 2009 alone.

So if you are getting behind on your debt, you better watch out - your creditors may soon decide to garnish your wages.

#7 Americans now owe more on student loans than they do on credit cards. As hard as that is to believe, that is actually true. Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record.

Student loan payments can be absolutely crippling to a household budget. This is especially true for young Americans that have just gotten out of school. Sadly, student loan debt is nearly impossible to get rid of. Once you are committed, it will follow you around for the rest of your life.

#8 Even as expenses rise, incomes are down from coast to coast. Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. There are very few areas that have not been affected. In fact, of the 52 largest metro areas in the United States, only the city of San Antonio did not see a decline in median household income during 2009.

#9 If all of this was not bad enough, now there are rumblings that the U.S. Federal Reserve is actually thinking that we need more inflation. A number of top Federal Reserve officials have come out recently and have publicly supported the notion that the Fed needs to purposely create more inflation in order to stimulate the economy. Of course what they don't tell the American people is that inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar in our wallets and in our bank accounts. More inflation would be really bad news for ordinary Americans, because they are already having a tough time getting their dollars to stretch far enough.

#10 Apparently the U.S. government (and many state and local governments) think that this is a great time to stick it to the American people by hitting them with a slew of new taxes. There are so many tax increases scheduled to go into effect in 2011 that it is hard to keep track of them all. In fact, there are many (myself included) that are calling 2011 "the year of the tax increase". But the Americans that are going to get it the worst of all are those that are going to get hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax. One out of every six American households is going to be hit with a tax increase averaging $3,900 (thanks to the AMT) and most of them don't even know that it is coming.

So did you think that 2010 was bad?

Well, you haven't seen anything yet.

2010 was a Sunday picnic compared to what is coming.

Get ready to get squeezed.

Get ready for higher food prices, higher gas prices, higher health insurance premiums and higher taxes.

Get ready to try to do a lot more with a lot less.

Inflation is already here, but it is going to get a whole lot worse. Meanwhile, the U.S. government (along with state and local governments) is going to continue to have a voracious appetite for more revenue.

Average Americans are going to be squeezed until they have nothing left to give. Then they are going to be squeezed just a little bit more.

Are you ready?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...ng-the-squeeze

I hate to see it but it may be just what the Dr ordered to light a real fire under peoples asses

I have a feeling that you are correct, it may be what is needed to get the people off their fat asses and fight for their rights.

I have been thinking that way for a while now, and I have a feeling that this coming April 15th may see demonstrations the likes of which the world has never seen.

If people thought the last DC Tea Party was huge just wait until April 15, 2011. It may also be the day of the Second Shot Heard Around The World.

And if that is what it will take to get the ball rolling then it will be worth the misery it will cause.

The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/lira7.1.1.html
True story: A retired couple I know, Brian and Ilsa, own a home in the Southwest. It’s a pretty house, right on the manicured golf course of their gated community (they’re crazy about golf).

The only problem is, they bought the house near the top of the market in 2005, and now find themselves underwater.

They’ve never missed a mortgage payment – Brian and Ilsa are the kind upright, not to say uptight 60-ish white semi-upper-middle-class couple who follow every rule, fill out every form, comply with every norm. In short, they are the backbone of America.

Even after the Global Financial Crisis had seriously hurt their retirement nest egg – and therefore their monthly income – and even fully aware that they would probably not live to see their house regain the value it has lost since they bought it, they kept up the mortgage payments. The idea of them strategically defaulting is as absurd as them sprouting wings.

When HAMP – the Home Affordable Modification Program – was unveiled, they applied, because they qualified: Every single one of the conditions applied to them, so there was no question that they would be approved – at least in theory.

Applying for HAMP was quite a struggle: Go here, go there, talk to this person, that person, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. “It’s like they didn’t want us to qualify,” Ilsa told me, as she recounted their mind-numbing travails.

It was a months-long struggle – but finally, they were approved for HAMP: Their mortgage period was extended, and the interest rate was lowered. Even though their home was still underwater, and even though they still owed the same principal to their bank, Brian and Ilsa were very happy: Their mortgage payments had gone down by 40%. This was equivalent to about 15% of their retirement income. So of course they were happy.

However, three months later, out of the blue, they got a letter from their bank, Wells Fargo: It said that, after further review, Brian and Ilsa had in fact not qualified for HAMP. Therefore, their mortgage would go back to the old rate. Not only that, they now owed the difference for the three months when they had paid the lowered mortgage – and to add insult to injury, they were assessed a “penalty for non-payment”.

Brian and Ilsa were furious – a fury which soon turned to dour depression: They tried contacting Wells Fargo, to straighten this out. Of course, they were given the run-around once again.

They kept insisting that they qualified – they qualified! But of course, that didn’t help at all – like a football, they were punted around the inner working of the Mortgage Mess, with no answers and no accountability.

Finally, exhausted, Brian and Ilsa sat down, looked at the last letter – which had no signature, and no contact name or number – and wondered what to do.

On television, the news was talking about “robo-signatures” and “foreclosure mills”, and rank illegalities – illegalities which it seemed everyone was getting away with. To top it off, foreclosures have been suspended by the largest of the banks for 90 days – which to Brian and Ilsa meant that people who weren’t paying their mortgages got to live rent free for another quarter, while they were being squeezed out of a stimulus program that had been designed – tailor made – precisely for them.

Brian and Ilsa are salt-of-the-earth people: They put four kids through college, they always paid their taxes. The last time Brian broke the law was in 1998: An illegal U-turn on a suburban street.

“We’ve done everything right, we’ve always paid on time, and this program is supposed to help us,” said Brian. “We follow the rules – but people who bought homes they couldn’t afford get to squat in those McMansions rent free. It would have been smarter if we’d been crooks.”

Now, up to this point, this is just another sob story of the Mortgage Mess – and as sob stories go, up to this point, it’s no big deal.

But here’s where the story gets ominous – here’s where the Jaws soundtrack kicks in:

Brian and Ilsa – the nice upper-middle-class retired couple, who always follow the rules, and never ever break the law – who don’t even cheat on their golf scores – even when they’re playing alone (“Because if you cheat at golf, you’re only cheating yourself”) – have decided to give their bank the middle finger.

They have essentially said, Fuckit.

They haven’t defaulted – not yet. They’re paying the lower mortgage rate. That they’re making payments is because of Brian: He is insisting that they pay something – Ilsa is of the opinion that they should forget about paying the mortgage at all.

“We follow the rules, and look where that’s gotten us?” she says, furious and depressed. “Nowhere. They run us around, like lab rats in a cage. This HAMP business was supposed to help us. I bet the bank went along with the program for three months, so that they could tell the government that they had complied – and when the government got off their backs, they turned around and raised the mortgage back up again!”

“And charged us a penalty,” Brian chimes in. The non-payment penalty was only $84 – but it might as well been $84 million, for all the outrage they feel. “A penalty for non-payment!”

Nevertheless, Brian is insisting that they continue paying the mortgage – albeit the lower monthly payment – because he’s still under the atavistic sway of his law-abiding-ness.

But Ilsa is quietly, constantly insisting that they stop paying the mortgage altogether: “Everybody else is doing it – so why shouldn’t we?”

A terrible sentence, when a law-abiding citizen speaks it: Everybody else is doing it – so why don’t we?

I’m like Wayne Gretsky: I don’t concern myself with where the puck has been – I look for where the puck is going to be.

Right now, people are having a little hissy-fit over the robo-signing scandal, and the double-booking scandal (where the same mortgage was signed over to two different bonds), and the little fights between junior tranches and senior tranches and the servicer, in the MBS mess.

But none of that shit is important.

What’s really important is Brian and Ilsa: What’s really important is that law-abiding middle-class citizens are deciding that playing by the rules is nothing but a sucker’s game.

Just like the poker player who’s been fleeced by all the other players, and gets one mean attitude once he finally wakes up to the con? I’m betting that more and more of the solid American middle-class will begin saying what Brian and Ilsa said: Fuckit.

Fuck the rules. Fuck playing the game the banksters want you to play. Fuck being the good citizen. Fuck filling out every form, fuck paying every tax. Fuck the government, fuck the banks who own them. Fuck the free-loaders, living rent-free while we pay. Fuck the legal process, a game which only works if you’ve got the money to pay for the parasite lawyers. Fuck being a chump. Fuck being a stooge. Fuck trying to do the right thing – what good does that get you? What good is coming your way?

Fuckit.

When the backbone of a country starts thinking that laws and rules are not worth following, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to anarchy.

TV has given us the illusion that anarchy is people rioting in the streets, smashing car windows and looting every store in sight. But there’s also the polite, quiet, far deadlier anarchy of the core citizenry – the upright citizenry – throwing in the towel and deciding it’s just not worth it anymore.

If a big enough proportion of the populace – not even a majority, just a largish chunk – decides that it’s just not worth following the rules anymore, then that society’s days are numbered: Not even a police-state with an armed Marine at every corner with Shoot-to-Kill orders can stop such middle-class anarchy.

Brian and Ilsa are such anarchists – grey-haired, well-dressed, golf-loving, well-to-do, exceedingly polite anarchists: But anarchists nevertheless. They are not important, or powerful, or influential: They are average – that’s why they’re so deadly: Their numbers are millions. And they are slowly, painfully coming to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it anymore.

Once enough of these J. Crew Anarchists decide they no longer give a fuck, it’s over for America – because they are America.

Maybe this is what is needed. When the people find themselves forced to grow backyard gardens, and perhaps have a second job they may give up the TV and start talking to each other in their neighborhood.
When Gas climbs to level where they will be forced to walk to work or take a bus they will start trying to figure out why.
When the neighborhoods are forced to set up armed neighborhood watches to keep their homes and families safe from the thugs and eaters they will see the benefits of mutual assistance.
Instead of spending hours watching mind dribble television programs the people will get together and learn how to can food, and use weapons.

The best thing that could and should happen, is what occurred over 200 hundred years ago when the colonists told the government "hell no" and refused to pay their taxes. Rather than mumble and grumble we should be doing everything possible to monkey wrench their system and bring it down. Stop paying the plantation owners to enslave you. Pull all your money out of their system so they can not confiscate it.

Remember too...when the original tyrants began their reprisals against the colonists for their refusal to "pay their fair share"; the colonists returned the favor by dragging judges and tax collectors into the street and beating the shit out of them. A few court houses and government buildings burned to the ground as well.

Gents, its rough out there. I have owned and operated a once thriving family business. Yearly receipts would be on average of 280,00 to 425,000 annually. With discretionary spending at an all time low, I have averaged about 50,000 for the year. With a family of 5 and a mortgage and a terrible loss in income. Lets just say, I used have A1 golden credit. Always paid my debts way earlier than expected. Rapid debt reduction was the order of the day. Not anymore, just trying to house, feed the family and be a responsible Father and husband.

These days that's a tough row to hoe. I have not and will not take from the system because I will not tolerate anyone coming into my house and possibly disapprove of Lord only knows what. Yeah, I would go off. I now work two jobs and do everything I can to bring home the bacon. My wife has been a real trooper. She is truly a gift from above.

All this to say, I am practicing GREAT restraint when it comes to just about everything we talk about. It is but by the grace of God, that we are still hanging on. The American spirit lives on. The day is coming where we as citizens will have to right the wrongs in our society, till then. See you on the other side.

Leo out

Friend you are 100% correct the best thing that could happen would be for a large percentage of the People to “Just Say No” and refuse to pay their taxes. But there is a very large problem with not paying your taxes and that problem is the reason I started my Site that is in my Signature.

And that Problem is called “Withholding” the Government takes our money before we even get it in our pay check, so even if we wanted to protest by not paying Income Tax, we can't really do it. There is only one way that the regular working man or woman can protest by not paying Income Tax and that is by claiming maximum allowances on their W-4. The biggest problem with doing this is the employer may not want to let you do it.

I built USA Strike in an attempt to promote the idea of a National Strike, which I believed and still do would be the best way of peacefully fighting the Government, since if a person doesn't work they don't earn any income so they don't pay any income tax. 10% of Zero Income equals Zero and 35% of zero Income still equals zero.

Collecting Taxes in the late 18th Century was a hole lot different then collecting taxes in the beginning of the 21st Century.

So while your idea would be great if it could be accomplished it just isn't really feasible.

Actually it's very feasible. Most people are just too lazy to do it. And, it will not work if only one or two people implement the plan. It must be done by a sizable percentage of the population.

As I posted, the big problem with people not paying tax is withholding, the only way to protest by not paying your tax is to take enough Allowances on your W-4 that no tax money will be taken from your paycheck, unless you are self employed and not subject to withholding. That is the only way, other then going on strike that I can think of to accomplish this.

If you have another way I am interested in knowing what it is.

When the bread and circuses end,so will end the compliance with the illegitimate,bastardized form of government that depends on such to keep the populace docile.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north893.html
The Case for America's Future

The Federal government will default. This is not a matter of intellectual speculation. It is a matter of financial speculation.
Liberty will receive a shot in the arm when this phrase provokes universal laughter: "The full faith and credit of the United States." That day is fast approaching. The credit rating of the United States government will be marked down from AAA to AA. It will then be marked down to A. For every notch down that it falls, the national day of deliverance draws closer. American liberty is measured inversely to the credit rating of the United States government.

Will Americans Follow French Example Of Mass Civil Unrest?


Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, October 19, 2010

How will Americans react when the government begins to impose the same austerity measures that are causing riots, street battles, fuel blockades and other assorted chaos in France? Will we witness mass civil unrest or will the sleeping middle classes continue to scratch their butts and watch Dancing with the Stars?

Back in June we forecast that the imminent onset of so-called austerity measures, which in reality represent nothing more than an elevated phase of government-run looting of the taxpayer, would herald an “age of rage,” leading to “riots and even revolutions as people react with fury in response to their jobs, savings, basic public services, pensions and welfare money being seized by the financial terrorists who caused the economic collapse in the first place.”

Four months later and citizens of one of the most prosperous countries in the world with the highest standard of living have shut down France after six days of strikes and protests in response to government plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67.

Undoubtedly, there are two different protests occurring in France. The more violent scenes are the work of the rent-a-mob anarchist youths who couldn’t care less about pensions but will waste no opportunity to don black hoods and pointlessly smash up shop windows in demonstrations against “capitalism,” when in reality government seizure of pensions has all the hallmarks of command and control socialism and nothing to do with true free market capitalism.

These youths are more concerned about their welfare checks being cut, but they won’t garner the sympathy of the rest of the French people by taking baseball bats to Starbucks forecourts in mocked up media stunts. The legitimate protests and the ones that genuinely hurt the establishment and put the idiot anarchists to shame are being run by French workers, truck drivers, and union leaders, and enjoy the support of around 70% of the population.

Over a thousand gas stations have now run out of fuel across France, with strategic reserves set to last just a few weeks. Flights and trains have been disrupted, organized slowdowns have snarled highway traffic. The French are showing Americans how it should be done, by uniting peacefully to shut down an entire country. This is genuine people power – the French are sending a message to the establishment that they will no longer play ball until the looting stops.

Will the rent-a-mob anarchists stage similar violent riots in America or will the middle classes embrace a much more legitimate backlash in the same vein as the union protesters in France?

With the Obama administration set to seize private 401(k) pensions and turn them over to the Social Security Administration, how long will it be before Americans stir from their slumber and realize that their economic future and also that of their children is in immediate peril?

When will Americans begin to understand that the onset of another government bailout in the form of QE2 represents the biggest bank robbery in history?

Just how distracted, dumbed-down, fat and lazy has the American middle class become to prevent them from realizing a threat when they see it?

British historian Simon Schama predicts not only widespread civil unrest in America, but even a potential revolution if the elite allow the situation to spiral out of their control. Schama notes that Obama will have to ditch “misplaced obligations of civility” and become an authoritarian enforcer in order to emerge successful against the rising tide of Constitutionalist rage that will be directed against the coming austerity fascism.

As we documented in our article, the kind of public spending cuts, tax increases, salary caps, and retirement crackdowns that are now about to be implemented outstrip anything we’ve witnessed before in modern history.

If the American middle class reacts to this total banker takeover by collectively scratching their butts and flipping the TV channel, the country as we know it is probably gone for good.

However, if Americans follow the example of the French and send a clear signal to the elite that they will refuse to participate in a rigged game, then a true revolution that will restore both political and economic freedom and prosperity will be set in motion.

With Americans buying silver to protect their savings and guns to protect themselves in record numbers, it seems that the message is at least getting through to some of the people, but until we see mass walk-outs, blockades and other acts of non-violent mass civil disobedience, the establishment will continue to move forward with onslaught after onslaught of financial pillaging.

Watch Alex Jones and Max Keiser discuss the French riots and the sleepwalking American middle class.


http://www.prisonplanet.com/will-americans-follow-french-example-of-mass-civil-unrest.html

The French have every right to call U.S. citizens pussies, France has a high standard of living with low work hours, yes the gov takes a lot from the people in taxes but at least the people riot and get some of it back, in the U.S. the people just sit and take.

The Price Of Oil Is Going Up, The Price Of Food Is Going Up And Now Here Comes Quantitative Easing


The American Dream
Nov 5, 2010

Millions of American families are about to be broadsided by rising gas and food prices and most of them don’t even realize it. You see, most Americans stop listening when terms such as “quantitative easing” and “agricultural commodities” are brought up, but when millions more Americans are faced with a choice of either feeding their families or heating their homes this winter, maybe then they will start listening. Even before the Federal Reserve announced the latest round of quantitative easing, the price of oil has been going up and the price of food has been going up. Now that the Federal Reserve has announced plans to flood the economy with hundreds of billions more dollars, the inflation monster is going to get even hungrier. The household budgets of scores of American families are going to be stretched beyond the breaking point as prices rise. Meanwhile, the vast majority of U.S. employers will not be giving their workers raises to keep up with inflation. After all, why should they? If someone wants to quit there are hordes of unemployed Americans out there who would just love to take that job in a second.

Quantitative easing is being heralded as the solution to America’s economic problems, but for hard working middle class Americans it is only going to make things worse. Inflation is going to soar while wages are going to stagnate at best. This will mean a lower standard of living for average Americans.

The kind of “trickle down” economics that the Federal Reserve is trying to play does not work in 2010. The advocates of quantitative easing believe that by flooding the financial system with massive amounts of new money, banks will eventually start lending it out to average Americans and that will spark an increase in economic activity.

But that is not the way the game is played in 2010. What happened with the bailouts and what happened with the last round of quantitative easing is that the big financial institutions took most of that cash and used it to pump up speculative bubbles all over the globe.

For example, Brazil’s stock market has more than doubled since the beginning of 2009. Needless to say, it was foreign speculation that drove most of that activity.

Another place where we are seeing bubbles develop is in the commodities markets.

On Thursday, the price of oil topped 86 dollars a barrel. In fact, the price of oil has gained more than 6 percent just this week.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that believe that the price of oil is going to go a lot higher.

Lawrence Eagles, a top analyst at JP Morgan, recently caused waves when he speculated that oil could hit 100 dollars a barrel “much sooner than we expect”.

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri recently said that oil at $90 a barrel would not be a bad thing for the world economy.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation chairman Shokri Ghanem recently declared that his nation “would love to see $100 a barrel”. In fact, there are quite a few OPEC officials that are publicly discussing the possibility of 100 dollar oil.

As the price of oil goes up, the price of thousands of other products will also go up.

Why?

Well, anything that must be transported is affected by the price of oil. So a significant rise in the price of oil will have a cascading impact throughout the economy.

But it is not just oil that is moving up in price. As the dollar has declined in 2010, prices for many important agricultural commodities have soared into the stratosphere.

A recent article on the Forbes website noted just a few of the key agricultural commodities that have absolutely skyrocketed this year….

Here’s what’s happened to some key farm commodities so far in 2010…

•Corn: Up 63%
•Wheat: Up 84%
•Soybeans: Up 24%
•Sugar: Up 55%

Anyone who believes that these commodity price increases are not going to be passed on to U.S. consumers is delusional. Literally thousands of food products are about to go up in price.

The rapid rise of some of these commodities has been nothing less than shocking. For example, the price of wheat soared from 158 dollars per ton in June to 271 dollars per ton in September.

That was a 71 percent increase in just a couple of months.

Just think about how many food products contain wheat.

This is quickly becoming very serious.

Now the Federal Reserve is going to be swamping the economy with hundreds of billions of dollars of new money.

So how much of that money do you think is going to end up in your hands?

When new dollars are introduced into the financial system, the value of all existing dollars goes down.

Soon your dollars are not going to go nearly as far as they did before.

Already we are starting to see some very troubling signs of inflation in the economy. For example, UPS has just announced that they are raising shipping rates by 4.9 percent.

Expect hordes of companies to announce price increases over the coming months. But with millions of Americans still unemployed, don’t expect wage increases to follow. In fact, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States in 2009.

We are entering a time that is going to be very difficult on most American families. Many are going to really have to tighten their belts to make it through this. Many others are simply not going to make it and will need our help.

The “good times” that we have been experiencing in America for decades are about to come to an end. All of the debt and all of the greed are catching up with us. A devastating financial collapse is coming and you had better get ready.

For decades the United States has had a printing press where it should have had a Treasury, and somebody finally noticed?

Now that the GOP has control of the purse strings again, we'll get to see just how serious they really are about fixing the economy. I suspect the answer is "not very," but I could be wrong.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Food Sellers Grit Teeth, Raise Prices

Packagers and Supermarkets Pressured to Pass Along Rising Costs, Even as Consumers Pinch Pennies

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/10_Food_Water/101104.foodsellers.grit.teeth.html

Everything is more expensive in my small town, Chicken Scratch just went up to over $9 a bag, and the feed store is giving us $2.60 a dozen for our eggs, that's up from $2.30 last month. So far the plan for our chickens to pay for themselves is working and I am no longer buying eggs at the store. I give all credit to GOD! Gas recently is down from $3.15 to $3.05 but I'm not holding my breath. SEMPER FI (new)> As of today 11/19/11 Gas is 3.89 and were getting 3.00 a doz on eggs