As food costs rise, retailers keep prices stable by shrinking package sizes, quantities

Household brands ranging from Ivory soap to Kraft cheese singles have seen their packages downsized up to 20% over the last few years - even though shoppers are paying just as much, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2011/01/05/2011-01-05_as_food_costs_rise_retailers_keep_prices_stable_by_shrinking_package_sizes_quant.html

Forecasters’ prediction for oil prices in 2011: Up, up, up

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., whose estimate last January was within 1 percent of 2010’s mean price of $79.60 a barrel, says crude will average $90 this year. Natixis Bleichroeder Inc., which tied with Bernstein, sees $100 a barrel, 26 percent higher than in 2010. Global oil use will increase 1.7 percent to a record 87.8 million barrels a day this year, and output will rise 0.9 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/01/03/forecasters-prediction-for-oil-prices-in-2011-up-up-up/

29% Of Americans Say It's Difficult To Afford Food

Affording basic necessities remains a struggle.
51% say it is difficult to afford health care.
48% say the same about their home heating and electric bills.
29% say it is difficult to afford food.

http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2011/01/29-of-americans-say-its-difficult-to-afford-food.html

30 Reasons Why 2011 Is Going To Be Another Crappy Year For America’s Middle Class

Do you think that 2011 will be a good year for America’s middle class? Well, you might not be so optimistic after you read the 30 statistics posted below. The truth is that 2011 is going to be another crappy year for America’s middle class, and there is not a whole lot that you or I can do about it.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/index.php?news_id=12149

Barron's: US Will See Run on Treasurys, Hyperinflation

Investors in U.S. debt around the world are worryingly near a "psychological breaking point" that could force a "run on the bank" against Treasurys.

http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/US-Run-Treasurys-Hyperinflation/2011/01/05/id/381925?s=al&promo_code=B684-1

World Food Prices Surge to Record

World food prices rose to a record in December on higher sugar, grain and oilseed costs, the United Nations said, exceeding levels reached in 2008 that sparked deadly riots from Haiti to Egypt.

An index of 55 food commodities tracked by the Food and Agriculture Organization gained for a sixth month to 214.7 points, above the previous all-time high of 213.5 in June 2008, the Rome-based UN agency said in a monthly report. The gauges for sugar and meat prices advanced to records.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-05/global-food-prices-climb-to-record-on-cereal-sugar-costs-un-agency-says.html

It's Not Your Imagination: Your Juice Has Been Downsized

According to research from Consumer Reports, many companies have been shrinking the size of the products you buy, while charging the same amount for the product.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40909380/

TARP deadbeats pose major problems

http://www.fiercefinance.com/story/tarp-deadbeats-pose-major-problems/2011-01-01?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

European nations begin seizing private pensions

The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-Blog/2011/0102/European-nations-begin-seizing-private-pensions

DUDE, WHERE’S MY JOB?

The storyline being sold to the American public by the White House and the corporate mainstream media is that the economy is growing, jobs are being created, corporations are generating record profits, consumers are spending and all will be well in 2011. The 2% payroll tax cut, stolen from future generations to be spent in 2011, will jumpstart a sound economic recovery. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=8936

U.S. foreclosures jumped in the third quarter

About 470,000 homeowners received help either directly from banks or through government programs in the July-September quarter, according to a report released Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision. That's a 17 percent drop from the previous quarter and a decline of 32 percent from the same period last year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40840683/ns/business-real_estate/

Grain Prices Heading Higher In 2011 On Tight Supplies

Prices for grains other agricultural commodities will probably continue rising in 2011 as “precariously balanced” fundamentals and a La Nina phenomenon contribute to wide price swings, Rabobank analysts said.

Corn, soybeans and coffee hold the most potential upside among about 10 commodities, Rabobank Agri Commodity Markets analysts led by Luke Chandler said in a Dec. 21 report. While corn, soybean and wheat supplies appear sufficient for the time being, record crops are likely needed next year to keep inventories from tightening further.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Article.aspx?oid=1293601&publishdate=2010-12-22&urltitle=Grain-Prices-Heading-Higher-In-2011-On-Tight-Supplies--Rabobank-Says&tid=Archive

Energy, agriculture, gold and silver bullion - protectors from the coming crisis

The Gold Report: Much has happened since our last discussion in September. The election, with the Republicans taking the House and the super majority in the Senate. QE2 (quantitative easing) not only discussed but actually released. The U.S. assisting in the financing in Europe. The benefactors of the 2008 bailout money finally published. And then the hottest topic in Washington for a while, extending the Bush tax credits along with an Obama unemployment tax credit. Have any of these developments changed or firmed your opinion of the U.S. economy or the international monetary crisis?

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=117559&sn=Detail&pid=72068

Lehman 'prophet' fears second crisis if US interest rates are kept low

America is storing up a second financial crisis by keeping interest rates at record low levels, according to David Einhorn, the hedge fund manager who first publicly warned about the financial catastrophe facing Lehman Brothers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/8224338/Lehman-prophet-fears-second-crisis-if-US-interest-rates-are-kept-low.html

Outraged Yet? What if Fed Buys Munis?

California’s delay of a $10 billion municipal bond sale has only fueled existing chatter on trading floors that the Federal Reserve would take the extraordinary step of buying these securities just as it has with Treasuries.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40259606

111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100 Congresses Combined

The federal government has accumulated more new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.

That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/111th-congress-added-more-debt-first-100

Naked emperor and a conspiracy of silence

America's competitors have seen the erosion of American power as if through a time-lapse camera, and they don't like it at all. Obama's self-shrinkage of American influence may give us a civil war in Iraq, a new Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, a nuclear-armed Iran, a replay of the Cuban missile crisis in Venezuela, an unshackled rogue state in North Korea, an ungovernable Pakistan, and - worst of all - another American recession as the US Treasury struggles to fund a government deficit in excess of 12 percentage points of gross domestic product.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LL23Ak04.html

Quantitative Easing 2 as Projected and Announced

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/bud-conrad/quantitative-easing-two-as-projected-and-announced

The US Economy Is A Complete Horror

It details the depths of the crisis the U.S. economy is truly facing, including its massive debt problem, the declining value of its currency, the unemployment crisis, and the housing crisis.

http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-gundlach-doubleline-2010-12

Control Government Spending or Face 'Apocalyptic Pain'

"Apocalyptic pain" from an out-of-control debt could cause 18 percent unemployment and a massive contraction in the economy that would destroy the middle class, a leading Republican deficit hawk said in an interview that aired Sunday.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/26/coburn-control-government-spending-face-apocalyptic-pain/?test=latestnews