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Rising
Prices
Brian
Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com
Let's take a brief look at food prices,
courtesy of the good folks at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the Economic Research Service.
[ers.usda.gov.]
In
the "all food" category, including 'food away from
home' and 'food at home,' prices rose 4.0 percent
in 2007, following price increases of 2.4 to 3.4 percent
for the previous three years.
In
the 'food at home' category, "meats, poultry, and
fish" collectively rose 3.8 percent in 2007, with
poultry, specifically, up 5.2 percent and fish and
seafood up 4.6 percent.
"Dairy
products" rose 7.4 percent in 2007, while "fruits
and vegetables" rose 3.8 percent.
Eggs?
Try up a whopping 29.2 percent last year.
In
2008, though, all food is projected to increase 3.0
to 4.0 percent, but if you're thinking that some prices
today are really rising faster than the pace listed
above for 2007, well, you're right.
In
January, poultry rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier,
and eggs are now up 34.7 percent over January 2007.
Dairy prices are suddenly up 12.8 percent from last
year at this time, with milk up 17.7 percent vs. January
'07. It shouldn't be a real surprise, given the preceding,
that cheese is also up 14.0 percent over the past
year.
I
think you'd agree these are all substantial increases;
far greater than any increase in your paycheck, I
imagine.
Now
let's look at the average price of gasoline at the
pump (nationwide, all grades), utilizing data culled
from the Energy Information Administration [eia.doe.gov].
12/31/01?$1.13
12/30/02?$1.48
12/29/03?$1.52
12/27/04?$1.83
12/26/05?$2.24
12/25/06?$2.38
12/31/07?$3.10
As
of 3/3/08?the nationwide average price was up to $3.21
and on the West Coast it hit exactly $3.50. Yikes!
As
recently as 2/22/99, the average nationwide price
of gasoline at the pump was just $0.94. Back in 1999,
the average price for a barrel of oil was about $18.
As I write (3/5/08), I see oil is trading at around
$103.
One
more?gold. As recently as 3/8/02, or six years ago,
gold was at $290 an ounce. Today, $988.
What
does it all spell? Inflation.
Wall
Street History returns next week.
Brian
Trumbore
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