Logbook: Economy
The Price of Coffee and You.
In the last couple of years you may have noticed that a cup of coffee is not exactly cheap anymore. What used to be under $2.00$ is now over $2.50 or higher.
This is a many part problem, on the one hand you have weather and whatnot but that does not affect the longterm supplies as there is always next year and so on. On the other hand you have the stock market which is now played like the worlds largest and most expensive slot machine. In the end Both hands play together and effect you.
When a crop of coffee is destroyed and mass media picks it up they generally don’t play the news in a way that is helpful to the average person . instead they go on a just about myspace approach and say “OMG COFFEE GOT BLOWN UP ZOMG THERES NO MORE COFFEE OMG PRICES RISE!!!” well the problem with that is its one crop in some place in the world. But, if you take the news at stock you’d be going “shit… thats going to hurt.” Coffee is grown world wide. From the National coffee association of USA Coffee is grown in about 50 countries . In the last year coffee commodities has have rose about 70% due to speculators looking for a pay-off with any commodity. The problem with that is speculators tend to buy up the coffee at unheard of rates than force the price up , the problem is that people that don’t even sell coffee have the ability to buy up coffee in the stock market, I could see if they had a limit cap on this but they don’t many other foods fall into this trap where they get bought up and sold and resold to the point of insanity.
Soon the only way to get a good cup of coffee is bleeding your self to death at a blood donation center, Giving blood is not a half bad idea but.. the price of coffee should not require you to give a damn kidney.
I’ve never liked the idea of speculators, because of the control they can assert over a market. Commodities should have some limit cap to outside buyers that have no reason to purchase coffee. to lock speculators out would be a bad thing but, limiting the damage they can do in the whole scale of things.
the reason i say limits is it makes the market much harder to game and force the prices way the fuck up .
Even dunkin donuts knows a bad thing when they see it
“Something as simple as a good cup of coffee at a fair price is under threat today because of intense pressure by hedge funds and other speculators,” said Ed O’Rourke, chief procurement officer for Dunkin’ Donuts National DCP LLC, a franchise-owned cooperative that handles purchasing and distribution to more than 6,000 Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins outletsnationwide, in a Dec. 14 letter to the CFTC.
Honestly, it seems like the stock markets are based in fantasy as far as the “Recovery”, and speculators are NOT helping things .
Drowning…
I’ve had a Crazy last couple of months and I’ve been working to save my house and Its just been one sacrifice after another and its getting to the point I’m burying myself in debt.
After having surgery and working to keep the house afloat its just been to the point where I do not know which way is up, currently my debt is shooting up past $4000 . I wish i could get myself out of this hole and be done with it but right now my focus is trying to get the house back to normal.
Its part of the reason i’ve not really posted in the last couple of months. its hard enough to retain sanity trying to Stop skidding down the road and being not able to pay creditors. as much as i don’t want to I’m going to put a donation button up in the random case that someone out there can help. I just don’t know what to do anymore.
Do you want some water with that Oil?
If you look at the focus of this GoM oil spill BP is only focused on sweeping this oil spill under the rug.
BP vows to ‘clear every drop of oil off the shore’
Nice out of sight out of mind maneuver, they have been dumping dispersants on the surface to make the oil sink… the thing is the oil is still there. The Gulf of mexico is not a rug.
Media.. A bit late for halloween and early on april fools about the economy.
<!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } –>I’ve been following the economy for awhile. Yes, we are in a bad downturn but, what gets me is the media.. Rather than being somewhat neutral to the issue they are betting on the apocalypse. There aim has me confused. rather than trying to see both sides of an issue they are aiming for getting average Joe into a clustfuck frenzy. Take Time Magazine for an example.
The 171 banks on the FDIC’s “problem list” encompass only about 2 percent of the nearly 8,500 FDIC-insured institutions. Still, the increase from 117 in the second quarter is sharp, and the current tally is the highest since late 1995. (See pictures of the stock market crash of 1929.)
OK.. first off 171 banks out of 8500 A whole 2% (2.011%).. WOW… but look at the eye-catcher here. “See Pictures of the Stock market Crash of 1928” what the fuck? stock market.. ? yet the article is speaking about FDIC insured banks? Why not just throw in some pictures of nukes while we are at it .
Reading further into the article you will also see.
The FDIC said total assets held by troubled institutions climbed from $78.3 billion to $115.6 billion — a figure that suggests that the nation’s top 20 banks aren’t on the list, even though they are getting slammed, too, by the growing credit crisis. The FDIC does not reveal the names of the institutions it deems troubled. (See pictures of the recession of 1958.)
Nice even though the top 20 banks are not on the list we would like to remind you something that happened 50 years ago k thx. Sure the economy is in a downturn but due to deregulation and other things the market to my belief is overinflated the fuck outta. Big businesses have been having a field day trying to break down things and increasing the cost of everything , Im surprised they have not added a device to count your farts for some sort of health diet. The way the banks have gone I saw it coming but I was never sure when this was going to hit , Back about 2 years ago i was getting credit card applications on a daily basis and when i saw this I only thought to myself “this is going to end well”. The banks got themselves into this situation and now they are screaming for help when what they did came back to bite them in the ass like a bear chasing a man coated in beef and Honey.
What is Ironic to me is rather than help the people who are directly affected by this the banks got bailed out and the people who have lost there houses have not, So what the hell. I mean thats like helping out a drunk driver rather than the person he hit. Honestly this 700billion dollar bailout stinks like hell and more and more companies and businesses are jumping on the ME TOO bandwagon even though they have caused these issues on there own, Car makers… Rather than make fuel efficient cars they kept coming out with beastly huge ass cars that got 0.1 mile to the gallon, when oil peaked this year they did not adjust there strategy to cope with the situation.
If you follow crude oil prices they had at least 5 years of forewarning. Other car makers adjusted around the time oil started spiking, and they are not nearly as bad off as US car makers. Oil companies keep posting these all time record profits and yet every time they say it has nothing to do with them ripping off people by gouging them which makes no sense.
My opinion here.. Sure it sounds bad but, Let these companies fail. its a hard lesson but rather than propping them up Every time they decide to have drunken bender of loaning out billions to people who honestly could not afford it, i think the banks should have some responsibility here. Same with the Car companies. Every time i hear bailout these days I cringe because, these bailouts are not working as intended. Bail out the average Joe rather than these companies. Don’t even put the money in there hands just say hey your mortgage is payed for x months, and give them a contract that says they have to either straighten up finances or get out of dodge.
StarSucks Closings
Been too long since i’ve last updated but i caught this little bit in the new, From the boston globe that Starbucks isn’t doing so well.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – One coffee drinker’s bad news is another coffee drinker’s good news, it seems.
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp <SBUX.O>, which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.
Its sad to see coffee places close but as far as starbucks goes.. I cant really give any sympathy myself for this. There expansion was at breakneck speed and in the end it was there own fault. I’ve been in Starbucks on Occasion , When theres no other coffee within miles. But you can see why Starbucks fucked up, google maps shows it perfectly.
Like why the hell are there 3 starbucks within 2000 feet of each other. Its like someone went on a bombing run of Providence with Starbucks all in a straight line.
seriously there cant be that many uppity people in providence that need there starbucks that bad. but there way of putting up stores is just bad.
I’d hate to say it but if you look at dunkin donuts its much more logical than starbucks…



