Something Big is Coming

Posted on August 23, 2013 by MN Gordon

How things change.  A year ago the Midwest and Mississippi Basin were suffering the worst drought since 1956.  Corn stalks were rapidly going brown and corn prices were rapidly going up.  The next food crisis was imminent.

We even wrote an article on how to capitalize on it.  What do we know?

Today the exact opposite is happening.  Mother earth is yielding an abundance of corn and corn prices are sagging like a half empty flour sack.  A complete reversal has occurred.

“The 2013 corn crop is expected to come in at a record 13.8 billion bushels, up 28 percent from last year,” explains Reuters.  “If that happens, supplies will build to an eight-year high, making the famine-to-feast reversal the largest annual swing in more than half a century.”

The price action is obvious.  Corn prices have fallen from $7 a bushel a year ago to about $4.80 today.  What’s more, corn prices are expected to fall even more… Continue reading →

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Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant Inflation Instruction

Posted on August 20, 2013 by MN Gordon

Sometime in the 1920s Walter Knott, an unsuccessful farmer, nursed several dying berry vines back to life at his Buena Park, California, farm.  Little did he know, his fortunes were about to change.

These unique vines were created by Rudolph Boysen, a horticulturalist, by crossing a blackberry, red raspberry and a loganberry.  The hybrid boysenberry, named after Boysen, turned out to be a huge hit, and the Knott family began selling massive quantities of the exclusive berries, preserves and pies, from a roadside stand along State Route 39.

About a decade later, Knott’s wife Cordelia began serving fried chicken dinners.  Who would have thought, but within a few years her chicken dinners had turned into a popular restaurant, with lines often several hours long.

Knott must have known the saying, ‘if you can get them to stop, you can get them to shop.’  For, before long, he’d added several specialty shops to entertain visitors while waiting for dinner.  Soon these became a major tourist draw. Continue reading →

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The Illusion of Safe Investing

Posted on August 16, 2013 by MN Gordon

The Illusion of Safe InvestingThe Illusion of Safe Investing
By Dennis Miller, Editor, Money Forever

Retirees are often more concerned with the return of their money than the return on their money.  It’s understandable; after our peak earning years have passed financial safety becomes our primary concern since the opportunity to earn back investment losses is essentially over.

My high school graduating class celebrated its 50th reunion in 2008.  Since then I’ve noticed more and more friends losing their spouses, many after fifty or so years of marriage.  As expected, the widows club is growing at a faster pace than the widowers group.  Biology and the plain fact that women often marry men a few years older than they are mean that’s unlikely to change.

It is hard enough to lose your spouse, but when the more financially savvy partner passes away, whether it’s the husband or wife, stress on the survivor compounds quickly.  Widows and widowers often feel helpless and vulnerable when forced to handle tasks their spouse had usually managed. Continue reading →

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Beardless Ben and Bad Bet Summers

Posted on August 13, 2013 by MN Gordon

Plenty of ink has been spilled lately brooding over who’ll be the next Fed Chairman when Ben Bernanke’s term concludes on January 31, 2014.  Here at the Economic Prism we really don’t give a rip who the next monetary Caesar is.  Still, there’s intrigue in the unknown…

We find delight in the spectacle of it all much like a child finds delight watching a circus performer balance a grocery cart on his chin.  We watch in awe of the popular madness over a job that shouldn’t exist to begin with.  Why do we need a bureaucrat fixing the price of money anyway?

Certainly, the world would be a much better place without all the distortions their rate suppression schemes produce.  But we don’t live in a world of what should or what ought to be…we live in what is.  So, thus, in the spirit of constructive mischief, we’ll pause to add some of our own scribbles to the voluminous body of cogitations.

The burden of today’s missive will likely fall squarely on one of two sets of round and droopy shoulders. Continue reading →

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