Coming soon, we need to lower shelter prices. Perhaps build five million new housing units and ask 10% of the people who were invited to cross the border 2021 - 2025 to go home.*
From Barron's, November 25:
....MUCH MORETight cattle supply has pushed beef prices to a record high over the past few years. As signs of herd recovery start to emerge, investors are getting optimistic about lower cattle costs in the future. Meatpackers like JBS and Tyson Foods could benefit from the turn of cycle.
Meatpackers are losing millions of dollars processing beef amid record high prices. Drought and rising costs on everything from labor to equipment have pushed American ranchers to scale back the size of their herd, leading to tight cattle supplies.
Meatpacking companies buy cows and sell beef to make profit from the price difference. Although they have been raising beef prices sharply, it isn’t enough to cover the soaring costs of cattle. Consumers tend to switch to chicken or pork if beef becomes too expensive.
In the first nine months of 2025, the North American beef business of Brazilian meat processor JBS posted $566 million in adjusted operating loss, at a 2.8% loss margin. The beef segment of Tyson lost $426 million for the 12 months ended in September, at a 1.9% loss margin.
Tyson announced last week that it plans to close a major beef-processing plant in Nebraska. The closure could hurt beef production and drive up prices even more.
But there are signs of a turn of cycle. Tyson CEO Donnie King said on an earnings call this month that in some regions like the Upper Midwest, an increasing share of young female cows are being retained for future breeding rather than sent to slaughter.
A JBS executive also noted on the company’s recent earnings call that there was a significant decline in cow slaughter in the third quarter, indicating a retention of female cattle to rebuild the herd.
With herd rebuilding, the supply of cattle for slaughter will fall before it increases in future years. That means beef supplies will remain tight and prices stay high in the near-term.
Still, traders have already started pricing for a future with more abundant supply. As of Thursday, live cattle futures are trading around $2.08 per pound, down 15% from their recent peak in mid-October, according to data from Trading Economics....
*Some previous posts:
"Redefining the Working Class Beyond white men in hard hats"
There
seems to be something akin to an actual plan to charge the plebs
everything they earn to cover food, shelter, and basic necessities and
further, to drive them into debt servitude to the tune of 5% - 10% of
annual income per year....
Unless You Deeply Understand How Inflation Hits Different Groups, You Don't Understand Inflation
When I say 'deeply' I mean having the empathy and imagination to actually 'feel' the emotions that result from having to comparison-shop food prices and then food prices vs other necessities."Evidence – And an Explanation – For the Recent Surge in Inflation Inequality"
It all comes down to financial assets and whether a person benefits from rising asset prices.
Lower income households feeling pressure: Campbell Soup CEO
Canned soup.
The laptop warriors who treat inflation as some sort of political game of 'gotcha' and one-upmanship are a bunch of sick mofos.
Is More Or Less Income Inequality Better For Market Returns?
Mesdames et Messieurs, welcome to Le Théâtre de l'Absurde...
"The Fed’s 2% inflation target is a source of growing liberal discontent"
This seems odd. The people most damaged by inflation are those without
assets, the poor and working classes, traditional Democrat
constituencies. If interested see Fed Vice-Chair (now director of the
National Economic Council) Lael Brainard after the jump.
Class War: Fed Governor Lael Brainard On "Variation in the Inflation Experiences of Households"
We've been observing this dynamic for many years:
As Commended To Our Attention By The World Economic Forum: Pods For Poor Plebs To Live In
One of the things that stands out about price increases is their disparate impact on various income levels and wealth classes. Some of our comments on this brutal reality:
December 2011
...One way to foment social unrest and even violence is to promote policy's that contribute to the rising costs of necessities, food, fuel etc.
I'm looking at you Professor Krugman.
It doesn't matter to people who are getting squeezed that the iPhone 4's price is dropping or that the BLS's hedonics say they're getting better quality in new cars when the price of gas refuses to go below $3.00.
June 2022
There seems to be something akin to an actual plan to charge the plebs everything they earn to cover food, shelter, and basic necessities and further, to drive them into debt servitude to the tune of 5% - 10% of annual income per year.
September 2022
The laptop class and above are impervious to price hikes for food, it just doesn't register.
Whereas for the working class this winter there will be no spending beyond food, fuel and housing.
With maybe a shared subscription to Better Huts and Gardens for some survival tips.*
And not to put too fine a point on it:
Understanding The Practical And Political Effects Of Inflation
with these back-links:
"The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We’re Financing the Financiers"
....As noted earlier today in the outro from "The Cantillon Effect and Populism":
There are currently no pure-play pitchfork manufacturers and it has been a long-cherished dream (since 2008!) to fill the void and/or live up to my junior high school personal file description: the instigator was....October 10, 2023
"China Considers Stimulus, Higher Deficit Spending To Counter Property Bust"
I smell
OscarCantillon.In which case the thing to do is determine who will get the money first and be that person. If it is not possible for you to quickly become a member of the Chinese nomenklatura determine how to make a portfolio bet on those who are already members of the privileged class. As noted a few years ago:
One of the rules of politics is "if your country goes communist you want to be as far up the apparatchik totem pole as you can get."
Preferably a commissar or above, putting you and yours closer to the commissary.
In a socialist paradise all pigs are equal but Hugo Chavez's daughter is a billionaire.
(actually $4.2 billion)
March 2021: If interested see also any number of posts on Mr. Cantillon's revelation*:
Cantillon Effect: Why Wall Street Loves Fiscal Stimulus (and you should too)
That is, you should if you have financial assets.
If not, you're doomed to a life of poverty at whatever level the powers-that-be think they can get away with....
*****
*...The key episode in Cantillon's life was his involvement with John Law and his monetary schemes. Cantillon was opposed to the inflationist theories of Law, but he understood how the schemes worked and what their fatal flaws were. Thus, he was able to create a large fortune from the Mississippi System and South Sea Bubble. In the aftermath of these financial debacles, Cantillon wrote his famous Essai, breaking out of the muddleheaded mercantilist thinking of his day to make a pathbreaking contribution to our knowledge of method, theory, and policy. Shortly after writing the Essai, Cantillon was murdered under mysterious conditions, and his Essai remained unpublished for more than 20 years....
