Postage, Mom, & Corn-Fed Beef

It's May!

While that means warmer weather, graduation parties, and Mother's Day for many of us, it also has become the unofficial month of postage hikes for the United States Postal Service.

Yes, once again, we will have a penny increase on first-class mail beginning on May 12th. So, make sure you get those Mother's Day cards out early this year. If you don't, Mom may just have to pay for the extra postage on that "Postage Due" greeting card, and that just wouldn't be right, would it?

Last October, I posted about the postage increase that occurred in May 2007 http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/13866/ and wrote about the new "Forever" stamp. Well, according to several news articles, they're selling at quite a rapid rate lately… and rightly so. Everything is going up in price, and people latch onto any break they can get these days.
While many are still arguing whether we're really in a recession or not, I think we're actually a step beyond that and experiencing "stagflation".

Stagflation is an economic term used to describe an economy with rapidly rising inflation, stagnant business activity, and increasing unemployment rate present all at the same time. Sound familiar?

The state of our economy is getting worse than when I posted back in early-November about it http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/14766/ Why?

A myriad of situations is occurring: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/16141/ Of course, taxes have gone up in Indiana: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/17402/ The number of mortgage foreclosures is getting worse: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/17070/ Even DirecTV bills went up: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/17342/ And lastly, if you think food prices have went up lately, you haven't seen anything yet. Increases in fuel prices haven't been completely passed on just yet. And with rising fuel, alternative fuels like ethanol have exploded in demand.

What do they make ethanol out of? Corn. What eats corn that in turn we eat ourselves? Beef.

Lately, grain has become more and more expensive, and cattle producers have been selling off their herds because they can't afford to feed them. This causes a glut of beef to be on the market right now, but it will soon end and supplies will go down. Any Economics 101 course will tell us that when supply goes down and demand remains the same, then prices go up!

So, you better take Mom out for a steak dinner while you still can afford it!

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This blog post by Chris Wathen was also published in his Linton, Indiana based Greene County Daily World blog entitled, “Riddle Me This”.