Thinking Citizen Blog — “Forget Pandemic Puppies. Meet the Inflation Chicken!” (NYT)

Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day

Today’s Topic: “Forget Pandemic Puppies. Meet the Inflation Chicken!” (NYT)

So what is with the price of eggs? Supply and demand of course. In this case it’s the supply side. “But which shortage came first: the chicks or the eggs?” (NYT). More importantly, is it time to raise your own chicks? Is it time to take matters into your own hands (claws)? This morning a few excerpts from a New York Times article that caught my eye plus a few notes from pecking around the web. Experts — please chime (cluck) in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

EGG PRICES WERE UP 60% YOU IN DECEMBER: “Just one thing after another” (from the pandemic to the war in the Ukraine to Avian Flu)

1. “Prices on a wide variety of products have popped in recent years as unusually strong demand for good — spurred by pandemic lifestyle changes and savings amassed from stimulus checks — choked global shipping routes and overwhelmd factories and other producers. Those problems have only been compounded by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has disrupted global food and energy supplies.”

2. “Grocery inflation inflation has been particularly acute as grain supplies contracted and costs for fuel, fertilizer, and animal feed have soared.”

3. “Compounding the situation, avian flu began sweeping through commercial chicken flocks early last year, pushing egg prices sharply higher.”

NB: “Highly pathogenic avian flu had been found at farms raising 58 million birds in 47 states as of January, according to the US Department of Agriculture.”

THE RATIONING AND THE SPILLOVER — And the 2015 Avian Flu analogy

1. Just one or two cartons per customer.

2. And eggs are a major ingredient in other products — eg. baked goods and mayonnaise.

3. “People are snapping up chickens that are ‘heavy layers’ in response to egg inflation.”

NB — Have you ever seriously considered buying your own chickens? Have you taken the plunge? Why or why not?

THE LABOR SHORTAGE

1. “Demand is up, but we’ve not expanded for the last three years because we don’t have the work force.” (hatchery owner)

2. “He’s paying more to lure workers, he said, but he thinks that there just aren’t applicants in his area.”

3. “Nationally, unemployment is at a 50-year low, and there are 1.9 positions open for every jobless applicant.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/business/economy/inflation-chickens-egg-prices.html

‘Eggflation’ hammering New York, southwest states the hardest

Eggflation: Top Ten Cartoons of the Week!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“In my walks, every man I meet is in some way my superior and in that I can learn of him.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

ATTACHMENTS BELOW:

#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).

#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN — Please share:

a.) the coolest thing you learned this week related to business, economics, finance.

b.) the coolest thing you learned in your life related to business, economics, finance.

c.) anything at all related to business, economics, finance.

d.) anything at all