Things Are Getting Better and Other Popular Lies

Posted on August 27, 2013 by MN Gordon

The President says things are getting better.  The economy’s improving.  There will be prosperity for all in our time.  But if you live outside the Washington beltway, and earn your living through honest means, you know this is essentially a delusion, an ignis fatuus.

Certainly there are pockets of real economic growth.  In North Dakota, for instance, fracking technology has tapped into massive oil deposits from the Bakken Shale.  The state’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation…just 3 percent.

Yet, by and large, things are still stuck in first gear.  A new study by Sentier Research shows that Americans are worse off today than they were four years ago, at the bottom of the recession.  In fact, by Sentier Research’s estimation, household income is down 4.4 percent.  Here are some of the study’s key findings…

“Based on new estimates derived from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), real median annual household income, while recovering somewhat from the low-point reached in August 2011, has fallen by 4.4 percent since the “economic recovery” began in June 2009. Continue reading →

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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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