US Food Banks Warn Soaring Prices Will Affect Distribution
Soaring food prices aren’t just impacting financially strapped families and the working poor. They’re also affecting the mission of US food banks who are spending a lot more on food than ever before.
“We’re already spending a lot more on food than we have in years past,” said Greg Trotter, a spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a large food bank, who spoke with VOA News. “Our food purchasing budget has doubled this year.”
In the coming weeks and or months, food banks across the country may experience a surge in food demand from millions of folks who are set to have their stimmy checks expire. At least 25 states are ending federal unemployment benefits.
US Food Banks Warn Soaring Prices Will Affect Distributions
…due to "out-of-control prices at grocery stores."
Inflation is everywhere.
— David Brady (@GlobalProTrader) June 27, 2021
Blackouts Loom In California As Electricity Prices Are “Absolutely Exploding”
Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability – and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.
Last week, the state’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, issued a “flex alert” that asked the state’s consumers to reduce their power use “to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages.”
CAISO’s warning of impending electricity shortages heralds another blackout-riddled summer at the same time California’s electricity prices are skyrocketing.
In 2020, California’s electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last year and nearly seven times the increase that was seen in the United States as a whole. According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the all-sector price of electricity in California last year jumped to 18.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which means that Californians are now paying about 70% more for their electricity than the U.S. average all-sector rate of 10.66 cents per kWh. Even more worrisome: California’s electricity rates are expected to soar over the next decade. (More on that in a moment.)
According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, a repeat of 1970’s style inflation is “very, very unlikely.” #inflation #prices #federalreserver pic.twitter.com/LnDu2wwbMi
— Michael A. Gayed, CFA (@leadlagreport) June 26, 2021
#debt! (chart via Tilo Marotz) pic.twitter.com/42cmyAbng2
— jeroen blokland (@jsblokland) June 26, 2021
New definition of transitory: An adverse permanent change in conditions that if fully appreciated by the public or investors would accelerate both the impact on an economy or financial markets, and the damage done to the reputations of incumbent administrations or central banks.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) June 27, 2021
May consumer spending flat; incomes fall and prices jump
WASHINGTON — Consumer spending was flat in May with incomes dropping for a second month as the impact of the government’s pandemic stimulus payments waned. Inflation, however, posted a sizable gain with prices excluding food and energy jumping by the largest amount in nearly three decades.
The flat reading for consumer spending in May represented a marked slowdown following gains of 0.9% in April and a 5% surge in March, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The spending surge in March had been fueled by distribution of payments of up to $1,400 per individual from a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
BREAKING: The Fed's "transitory inflation" tapering plan revealed:pic.twitter.com/OTNjWSds7j
— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) June 27, 2021