12/15/2024
Which came first?
The chicken laying the egg or MAGA lying about it?
Towards the end of the election Dear Leader spent a lot of time campaigning on groceries. Before the election he said, “So when I win, I will immediately bring prices down.” After the election he said, “Look they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.” It’s within the realm of possibility that he doesn’t know what the word immediately means. Let’s be optimistic and hope that he’s up for the hard thing.
Will tariffs on imports drive up the price of groceries? Well, since we import a couple of hundred billion dollars’ worth of agricultural products I’m going to say yes. Rounding up all the illegal immigrant agricultural workers isn’t going to help prices any either.
But what has all this to do with the price of eggs?
Nothing.
But avian bird flu does. Poultry houses have lost a few million egg laying chickens to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). It’s highly contagious and spreads quickly where chickens are all packed together. The amount of eggs being produced dropped. Less supply. Higher prices. MAGA Republicans campaigned on the price of eggs. You could hardly be blamed for not realizing that MAGA knew what was actually causing the hike in egg prices, since they lied about it constantly.
Oh yes, there’s one other thing. It’s turning up in the milk of dairy cows and humans can get it as well. The milk can’t go to market and dairy farmers are getting hit financially. Dogs and cats are also vulnerable but that shouldn’t impact the cost of food unless you’re a MAGA believer.
An incoming president inherits the economy of the outgoing president. President Biden inherited not only a crashed economy but a pandemic as well. He got us out of both and turned our economy around. The serial sexual predator and convicted felon inherited one of the best economies in the world. Will he build on it? Or will he destroy it?
Time will tell.
NOTES
Trump will bring prices down, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p2aTGNQ7XYHe
Not so fast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1uxBwjw3c
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/agricultural-trade/
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/27/nx-s1-5126581/egg-prices-bird-flu
Copyright © 2025 Keith Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please avoid name calling, personal and/or abusive language. In other words be civil. We need a lot more of that these days. Try and confine your comments to the topic of the post.