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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (44986)	2/15/2025 6:47:41 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 51093

Why record-high egg prices could get even worse At nearly $5 a dozen, we're still not feeling the full effect of egg inflation. Janna Herron · Senior Columnist Updated Sat, February 15, 2025 at 12:02 PM EST 6 min read Egg prices hit a record high and are poised to go higher, but it could be a whole lot worse. Shoppers are paying $4.95 on average for a dozen large Grade A eggs at the supermarket, according to the latest data from the government — but that's still over $3 cheaper than what grocers shell out to stock their shelves. Wholesale egg prices hit $8.15 a dozen on Wednesday, the highest level on record dating back to 1985, according to Expana, a commodity research firm. Grocery stores aren't passing on their entire costs to shoppers because they want eggs — a staple in our diets — to remain as affordable as possible so we keep coming back to their stores. Instead they're employing other devices to keep shoppers happy, or at least not as unhappy as we could be. "Retailers are doing everything they can to not only keep egg prices low relative to their costs," Richard Volpe, associate professor in agribusiness at California Polytechnic State University, told me, "but also to use those egg prices as a way to say, 'Hey, we know eggs are hard to come by and expensive. ... We've got them, and the price is reasonable.'" Their efforts provide a window into our own consumer behavior, especially after the recent run-up in grocery prices scarred us. And we're likely to see more of this from grocers since egg prices are expected to keep going up through the high-demand Easter season. Yahoo

To: Les H who wrote (44986)	2/15/2025 8:26:03 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51093

There are two certainties Russian sources in Moscow are not ready to acknowledge publicly. The first is that they do not detect in the US statements to date the readiness of the US to negotiate for withdrawal of US forces and nuclear missile bases from Poland, Romania, Germany and the Baltic states, or agree on the terms of the NATO rollback proposed by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s non-aggression pacts of December 17, 2021. The second Russian certainty is that Trump and his men are intent on escalating their war against China. That is the priority of Trump’s newly appointed Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby (right). He served at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term; he is now reported to be the brains behind Hegsteth and “the main strategist in US President Donald Trump’s administration.” Colby reportedly believes “first, China is the ultimate threat to the US. China is an urgent threat, as it is outpacing the US in many key indicators and is clearly preparing for a global war. China could win such a war against the US, whereas other countries couldn’t. Second, Colby believes the US is overstretched strategically and militarily. The US has overpromised security in many places and does not have the capacity to deliver on all its commitments. So it must prioritise. Almost everything the US will do strategically and militarily must be aimed at countering China and deterring it from launching a kinetic war… We can expect the Trump administration to focus on deterring China from taking hostile action against Taiwan. So that is where smaller central and eastern European allies should look to help. They can provide direct political support. They could put particular effort into training Taiwanese troops on US soil, and they could build many thousands of drones for a US strategy of turning the Taiwan Strait into a hellscape for a Chinese invasion force.” Colby is the grandson of William Colby, the career Russia and China hater and CIA Director between 1973 and 1976. The new Colby is named after the old Colby’s father, a US Army officer and professor. Privately, sources in Moscow express concern that Putin’s oligarch deal-making with Trump — and the enthusiasm for this which the pro-Putin US podcasters are displaying — may already have aroused Chinese suspicion of a betrayal of the strategic relationship with President Xi Jinping. According to one military source, “How do the American [podcasters] arrive at the conclusion that the US will pull forces out of the EU while remaining in NATO to provide a nuclear umbrella the Europeans don’t need – France and the UK have the bombs, warheads and delivery systems. It’s obvious the podcasters don’t understand what the American military presence in Europe is all about. As if this so-called peace they are salivating over already isn’t just the prelude to a much larger, and by magnitudes much uglier war.” A Moscow political source: “Xi has seen Putin’s inability to rein in the Central Bank and the oligarchs. He has seen how vulnerable Putin has made Russia. As a result he has placed no big bets on Moscow. Putin therefore can’t betray him because Xi has anticipated precisely this. Let’s say the relationship is not unlike that of Iran with Russia. Sometime, perhaps, maybe. Xi will watch but he will do nothing to hurt Putin because he has done nothing to help Putin.” John Heimer