http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aCw.mQs0UZlg Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pork, the fastest-growing U.S. meat export of the past decade, is sick with swine flu. Hog futures, the second-worst commodity investment of 2009, may fall 33 percent by yearend from 44.65 cents a pound on Aug. 14. U.S. exports plunged 20 percent in the first half and are heading for the first annual... [more]
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aCw.mQs0UZlg
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pork, the fastest-growing U.S. meat export of the past decade, is sick with swine flu.
Hog futures, the second-worst commodity investment of 2009, may fall 33 percent by yearend from 44.65 cents a pound on Aug. 14. U.S. exports plunged 20 percent in the first half and are heading for the first annual decline since 1990 after the H1N1 virus outbreak in April led to import restrictions in China and Russia. Tyson Foods Inc. idled slaughterhouses, and U.S. hog farmers haven’t been profitable in a year.
Swine flu will contribute to an 11 percent drop in global pork trade this year, even after scientists said the meat is safe to eat, United Nations data show. Slumping exports, the global recession and improvements in breeding methods left U.S. inventories in June at a record high level for the month.
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In the early 1990s, press reports began surfacing as to how the CPI really was significantly overstating inflation. If only the CPI inflation rate could be reduced, it was argued, then entitlements, such as social security, would not increase as much each year, and that would help to bring the budget deficit under control. Behind this movement were financial luminaries Michael Boskin, then chief economist to the first Bush Administration, and Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Shortly after Clinton took control of the White House, however, attitudes changed. The BLS initially did not institute a new CPI measurement using a variable-basket of goods that allowed substitution of hamburger for steak, but rather tried to approximate the effect by changing the weighting of goods in the CPI fixed basket. Over a period of several years, straight arithmetic weighting of the CPI components was shifted to a geometric weighting. The Boskin/Greenspan benefit of a geometric weighting was that it automatically gave a lower weighting to CPI components that were rising in price, and a higher weighting to those items dropping in price.
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/consumer_price_index
In the early 1990s, press reports began surfacing as to how the CPI really was significantly overstating inflation. If only the CPI inflation rate could be reduced, it was argued, then entitlements, such as social security, would not increase as much each year, and that would help to bring the budget deficit under control. Behind this movement were financial luminaries Michael Boskin, then chief economist to the first Bush Administration, and Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Shortly after Clinton took control of the White House, however, attitudes changed. The BLS initially did not institute a new CPI measurement using a variable-basket of goods that allowed substitution of hamburger for steak, but rather tried to approximate the effect by changing the weighting of goods in the CPI fixed basket. Over a period of several years, straight arithmetic weighting of the CPI components was shifted to a geometric weighting. The Boskin/Greenspan benefit of a geometric weighting was that it automatically gave a lower weighting to CPI components that were rising in price, and a higher weighting to those items dropping in price.