Yeah. But he needs all the breaks he can get.

I doubt it. I think any potentail inflation due to inceased money supply will be offset by decreasing demand.

The Big Four own such a gigantic amount of the market share they can actually manipulate meat prices and have been doing so for years. The whole supply and demand situation has just brought more attention to the issue.

I agree at least not this year.

First we need some deflation.

X2

From Barron's this morning;

Consumer Prices Dropped Sharply in April. You Wouldn’t Know It if You Were Buying Food.


By Lisa Beilfuss
May 12, 2020 9:36 am ET


Prices consumers pay for everything from apparel and automobiles dropped at the fastest pace since the end of 2008 as the coronavirus pandemic has frozen demand for all but essential purchases.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that total consumer prices slid 0.8% in April from a month earlier. That’s as massive declines in energy prices—gasoline fell 21%—offset surging food prices. The index for food at home posted its biggest monthly increase since February 1974, as the price of eggs jumped 16%, chicken increased 6% and apples rose 5%.

Backing out the impact of falling energy and rising food, the core consumer-price index declined 0.4% in April from March, the largest monthly decline in the history of the CPI series, which dates to 1957.

Results were worse than expected; economists polled by FactSet predicted a 0.7% decline in total prices and a 0.1% fall in core prices.

The CPI report highlights how the coronavirus and efforts to cap its spread have ground the U.S. economy to a virtual halt. Some price declines, like energy and airline fares, reflect the limited ability by businesses and consumers to operate like normal, with many companies shut down and would-be travelers staying home.

But there were signs that consumers were already becoming more cautious going into the crisis, reining in spending and upping savings, and the key question is how long it takes for the American consumer to regain normalcy and feel confident to spend enough to spark a recovery. Much of that is tied to a recovery in the labor market , where 1 in 5 are now out of work.

For all the debate among market observers over whether we’re heading into a period of deflation, a potentially damaging and self-reinforcing cycle of declining prices, or inflation sparked by tremendous fiscal and monetary intervention, economic data continue to suggest that for now investors should be more worried about falling prices .

“The April consumer price data continue to underscore that the fallout from the coronavirus has a large disinflationary effect on prices due to the large demand shock, plunge in oil prices, and strong dollar,” says Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “The disinflationary impulse, along with the great disruption in economic and financial market activity, is a key reason why the Fed has unleashed vast new monetary policy stimulus. A surge in inflation is the least of our worries,” he says.

Eventually, inflationary pressure will kick in as demand snaps back. That’s limited now to food, where supply-chain issues are pushing prices higher. Such supply-chain issues may become more evident as the economy rebounds, driving prices higher more broadly.

Gas is up 60 cents a gal. here

Gas here is at it's low at 1.71. 8 miles north across the state line on the rez it is 1.27

Meat and Poultry!

I've always tried to understand why deflation is considered such an evil. Isn't it a part of the free market?

It is. But it inhibits growth so the pie gets smaller. Might be tolerable if the population was decreasing at a proportional rate

There is only so much money around or being printed and thus as sectors go up other items will need to drop or will drop. We have seen a bout 60-70 cents increase in gas prices over the last 10 days so that means that much less available for other purchases. How long owners of rentals, or mortgage holders will tolerate, no, partial or late payments will also impact the liquidity in the economy.
One of the longer term issues regarding government funding to keep the economy going is the vast, vast majority of those funds will be used on consumables and thus little to know wealth generation. We will be paying off or living with a lot of increased very bad debt. Even all the monies that have been invested the last month into the market is really paper and if those firms don't actually use the funds for generating product(s) that too will not be long term wealth down the road.

Bryce