Thursday, July 26, 2018

Feast or Famine?

Last weekend, I was able to purchase a package of T-bone steaks for under $4/lb. It struck me as odd at the time, but yesterday I read of a meat glut, a 2.5 billion pound surplus of beef, pork, chicken, and turkey in cold storage. This meat glut (dibs on the name for my Industrial band) could be exacerbated by Trump's trade wars, which have inspired Mexico, China, and Canada to raise tariffs on 'Murrican meat. All that meat, and no markets to dump it on.

Conversely, there are reports that the United Kingdom's government has planned to stockpile food in case of a hard Brexit- thirty percent of the UK's food supply comes from the European Union, so any disruption in trade could force English people to eat past sell-by date Branstons Pickle, though eating a surfeit of lampreys may once more be viable. If there are food disruptions, this wouldn't be the first time a horrible UK government caused a famine.

Isn't conservative governance a grand thing?

2 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

The only question now is whether the Drumpf Depression starts before or after the mid-terms.

mikey said...

Bouffant asks a truly salient question. This economic expansion is now the longest in history, and there are a lot of indications that we're due for a cyclical correction. It's hard to say what exactly would trigger it - war with Iran would certainly do it, and possible an expanded trade war with China - but with inflation continuing to be low (along with wage growth) and equities booming, it clearly will take an external shock.

But my man Bouffant is right about another thing too. When the recession comes, it will almost certainly be a Trump self-inflicted wound....