Food Prices, Shortages & Inflation - The Trash Index

[Wifezilla]

I have 3 cats. The squirrels are about the same size and they wont bother them. Zeus will get mice and birds, but no way is he going after the fat squirrels!

I do have a sling shot and have used it on the squirrels. Same with a bb gun. It makes them run off, but it can't kill them. They are well protected by a layer of fat and lots of fur.

The only squirrel chasing critter I had was a khaki campbell duck, but she passed away after a mating injury. I sure miss Janet. She would NOT let squirrels in HER yard!

 

[k0xxx]

Give the gift that keeps on giving: A female cat.


Wouldn't that take care of thinning the squirrels? I have a mouser that takes on anything.

I wish. The squirrels raid the cats' food.

The only squirrel chasing critter I had was a khaki campbell duck, but she passed away after a mating injury.

I've had a few of those, but I never knew them to be FATAL!

OUCH!

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[Denim Deb]

Oh, yeah, did I tell ya I just got Gene Logsdon's book on raising grains from the library? I think I need to buy it. I have an overpowering urge to underline and notate it, and there are far too many gems in it to copy them all out of the book.

He makes it seem possible to grow your own grains in a small space. I plan on starting the learning curve this year, but won't do it on a bigger scale until I can get my pasture completely cross-fenced. Then I can devote a section to grain. Meanwhile, I'll use grains to rotate my veg gardens. This year, it will be just a few wide beds to learn the processes involved in growing, harvesting, threshing, drying, etc.

Free, I'm planning on doing the same. While I may not be able to grow enough for the whole year, I figure it's a start. And, I'm wanting to get that book too.

 

[k0xxx]

Here's an interesting article from the Financial Times website.

Traders short dollar as currency loses attraction

Recently there has been a rather large increase in hedge funds and other big investors shorting the dollar. Basically what that means is that they feel that the economic outlook for the dollar is bleak, and that it will continue to decline in value. The decline of the dollar's value will mean even higher prices for anything imported into the country.

We may be seeing a turn in the longer-term outlook for the dollar for the worse.

If the trend continues it will be even harder for the Treasury to sell bonds to finance our debt, but hey, the Federal Reserve is currently buying 70% of all the Treasury bonds issued so what's the big deal. Of course, that dollar "note" in you pocket is nothing more than a loan from the Federal Reserve. Now they're just loaning us the money to pay the interest on money that they have loaned us, which makes the amount that we owe them larger so we will have to borrow even more money to pay the loan to cover the loan that... STOP IT! My head hurts...

 

[AnnaRaven]

Here's a group at MIT trying to track "real" inflation by tracking a billion prices rather than a tiny "basket" of goods: the billion prices project.

It's run by a couple of argentinians - folks who know something about economic meltdowns.

 

[Dunkopf]

Looks like the US has one of the lowest rates of inflation of the countries on the graph. Looks like Argentina is having a lot worse problems than we are.

 

[k0xxx]

"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall

An article about the views of one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, Bill Gross of PIMCO, regarding the US national debt.

 

[patandchickens]

Looks like the US has one of the lowest rates of inflation of the countries on the graph.

Yes, but it seems like an awfully large proportion of Americans judge "how things are" according to the standards of a) 1990 yuppie prosperity and b) Hollywood/tv depictions, as compared to their own present lifestyles. As opposed to finding any relevance in how well or poorly off OTHER people are in the world.

She said cynically.


Pat (note, actually a US citizen myself)

 

[Dunkopf]

"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall

An article about the views of one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, Bill Gross of PIMCO, regarding the US national debt.

I agree. The standard of living is going to drop for a lot of people.

He only gave 2 options to correct the problem. The one he missed is to raise taxes on wealthy people. Just raising their tax by 3% would take us a long way out of the hole created when those taxes were dropped from the Clinton era taxes.

People like that guy expect people that have to live on so called entitlement programs to live on less. Lets see, my MIL gets right around 800.00 a month from SS. The guy that wrote the article probably makes that much in 15 minutes or less.

Cutting entitlements will do nothing but help widen the gap and put more people on the street. You're going to feel pretty bad about shooting the old guy with his walker for stealing some food from your garden so someone worth a billion dollars doesn't have to give a few thousand extra to the gov.

They need to break out that scalpel that Obama keeps talking about and make some realistic cuts.