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Do You REALLY Think The Official Inflation Numbers Are Even CLOSE To Accurate?
Last week we noted that inflation has already entered the economy. It isn’t showing up in nominal price hikes because it never does at first… As we noted last week…
Let’s be clear here… inflation does NOT mean prices have to move higher in nominal terms. The reason for this is because companies cannot and will not simply raise prices overnight. Consumers will not simply put up with the cost of a good going up time and again.
So don’t look for the cost of an item to necessarily go straight up in nominal terms. This can happen, but more often than not, corporations engage in a number of different strategies to maintain profit margins without raising prices.
These strategies include:
1) Shrinking the box/package of the good, thereby selling less for the same amount.
2) Not filling the package all the way; again selling less for the same amount.
3) Changing what’s considered a “serving size” or the quantity of good being sold.
4) Swapping in lower quality ingredients, thereby selling a lower quality good for the same amount.
Companies have been doing all of these since 2008. Most recently however, costs have risen to the point that these strategies won’t cut it anymore. Consequently, we’re starting to see prices going up across the board.
Regarding #4, Burger King was caught putting wood pulp in its burgers.
There may be more fiber in your food than you realized. Burger King, McDonald’s and other fast food companies list in the ingredients of several of their foods, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or “powdered cellulose” as components of their menu items. Or, in plain English, wood pulp.
The emulsion-stabilizing, cling-improving, anti-caking substance operates under multiple aliases, ranging from powdered cellulose to cellulose powder to methylcellulose to cellulose gum. The entrance of this non-absorbable fiber into fast food ingredients has been stealthy, yet widespread: The compound can now be found in buns, cheeses, sauces, cakes, shakes, rolls, fries, onion rings, smoothies, meats—basically everything.
The cost effectiveness of this filler has pushed many chains to use progressively less chicken in their “chicken” and cream in their “ice cream.” McDonald’s ranks highest on the list with cellulose integrated into 14 of their menu items including their renowned fish fillets, chicken strips and biscuits, with Burger King ranking second on the list with 13 menu items containing cellulose. Moreover, many cellulose-laden ingredients (such as honey mustard, bbq sauce, and cheese blends) can be found in multiple items throughout the menu making the filler difficult to avoid.
http://qz.com/223742/there-is-a-secret-ingredient-in-your-burgers-wood-p...
One has to wonder… just how high are real costs that a food company substitutes wood pulp for meat?
One also has to wonder… just how accurate is the CPI or any government inflation metric that looks primarily at nominal pricing? The simple answer to that one is “not accurate at all.”
Inflation is a reality. Firms around the world are doing whatever they can to maintain profits while keeping costs low. Using wood pulp instead of meat in burgers is just one more trick.
We'll be seeing more stories like this in the coming months. I wouldn't be surprised if food companies everywhere have been resorting to similar strategies.
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Would be news if Morton's or even Applebee's was doing this, but these are the largest manufacturers of [technically] edible products in the world, so let's not act too surprised.
They do not put wood pulp into Soylent Green.
The Fed and BLS have done a masterful job of manipulating both the inflation numbers themselves as well as the time frame on which they want people to focus.
Who cares if PCs are cheaper, when really only the big costs in life of taxes, education, housing and healthcare matter?
Who cares what inflation is last month, quarter or year? What matters is how much more expensive things are over 5 - 20 years versus one's income.
In the last 6 months I haven't had a service bill come in with less than a 5% increase. Just was notified that property taxes will go up 5% this budget year and water-sewer another 3% or so - and that's after seeing nearly a doubling in water-sewer rates in the last three years. Groceries easily up 25% in the last year including a more recent bump. Southeast Florida...sinking in more ways than one.
Got some family in Naples, but haven't heard that from them. Have to talk to them. I've been scoping out Gasparilla Island for my land of last report.
My shit paper went from five inches wide to four inches wide. Now I have to be a lot more careful when wiping. same number of sheets but a smaller sheet.
A way to save even more on Toliet paper is too us both sides
Smelly fingers are a far more common occurence than they used to be.
Make sure and wash your hands afterwards kiddies.
Don't wnat that woodburger compromised now, do we?
Wood fiber is probably the healthiest thing in a Burger KIng or McDonalds hamburger.
Pipe cleaners.
I usually pay extra for my methylcellulose...it keeps me regular. Bullish.
I no-shit you not.
get ready for the next fucashima
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-highest-typhoon-alert-480-000-urged-shelter-...
Inflation data is shit because prices should be falling exponentially due to productivity.
And that includes far more than you Mac, TV. etc.
All that extra efficiency just filtered thru the top thanks to the Fed's printing presses.
Weyerhauser -- that's what a burger is all about.
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/Products/CelluloseFibers
It's like I keep tellin' my wife, "C'mon, babe, a little wood is good for ya."
Wooden a Hamburger be nice?
only if you have a chain saw handy to cut it.
All this can be expected, I can live with much of it but when they start serving Soylent Green I draw the line.
Horse meat mixed with beef was found last year in Ireland, then Britain, and has now expanded steadily across the Continent. The situation in Europe created unease among American consumers over whether horse meat and other surprises might also find its way into the food supply in the United States. How good is your memory, or how far back do your reference points go, do you remember Soylent Green? More on this tasty treat in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/03/horse-meat-and-soylent-green.html
Soylent green is ok but soylent green with sawdust sucks.
It was recently I read that Burger King is putting pro homosexual rainbow flag wrappers with gay slogans on their burgers, only to reveal a regular burger no different than those in regular "non-gay" wrapping. Except this one is gay. Or something like that. Gay burgers? Or maybe just gay wrappers on a not-gay burger? Whatever that is or is not, or is supposed to be is apparently where we are in this food marketing continuum.
It is curious Burger King chose a "whopper" to be associated with something gay. Totally coincidental. The gay community must love that association. Tender buns, beef, and a bit of ketchup and mayo all slathered together in a package called a whopper. Wrapped in fabulously gay packaging. Yep, sounds about right. The lesbians? Maybe a bit more graphic in the imagery of this one...or not...but I won't go there as I know you already have. An odd campaign as I never knew I was eating a closeted burger with robust homosexual and lesbian imagery. Just like everyone else.
And for the good of the order to show I am paying attention to the subject article...something something inflation blah blah blah.
WTF this got to do with inflation?
Dude.
Pardon the cultural aside, fox. HYG on the inflationary angle...
Most gay people I know wouldnt be caught dead inside a burger king. On the topic of this whole wood pulp thing. Maybe its the reason why I ve gotten violently sick after eatin mcdonalds the last 2times Ive eaten there. My fault for eating there I know but I was late for work and couldnt grab subway.
Most gay people you know would be beat up in the public square at any other time in human history.
Perhaps your fag friends should be more tolerant.
but that says nothing of the edibility of mcdonalds, or lack thereof. last time I ate at mcdonalds I got sick. burger king too. and wendys. and fried food, sausage, etc...
that's just what happens when you have a healthy diet and then all of a sudden eat garbage. its like the difference between burning high octance gas and unprocessed biomass, there's simply no comparison.
"Special sauce"?
Oops...wrong shithole.
That's McDonalds.
Of course it's fraud.
Take a look at that communist in the WH and it's not too difficult that fraud is the new norm for a few more years.
Communist?
Barry was appointed by the same tribe that Karl Marx belonged to and that appointed Lenin (and Woody Wilson). That Tribe That Must Remain Nameless If One Is Not To Be Accused Of Anti-Semitism furnished the capital and the media to get Barry out of the swamps of Indonesia and into the swamps of Washington DC. Birds of a feather . . .
Does that mean that "communist" was just Another Giant Distraction, a way to further concentrate wealth into the hands of The Elites? Could be.
In a word, NO.
No
Damn! This box of Quaker grits I just opened is full of sheetrock. I thought "Georgia Pacific" printed on it meant the box, not the contents.
The last bag of Lays Potato chips I bought was all puffed up (with air.) When I opened it, there was only one chip. I had to buy another one.
Yesterday, I bought "1 gallon" of milk. There was only a pint in it. I read the label again: "1 Pint per 1 Gallon container."
Fuck and you didn,t even get laid. LOL
I hope its not Chinese sheetrock.
At least sheetrock is inert. They put melamine in their food too...
reminds me of the old johnny carson joke from decades ago...used to be that Mcdonalds had signs up in front of the store saying something "20 million hamburgers sold".
So johnny joked something like this: did you see the sign on the mcdonald's? "50 million hamburgers sold." That comes to almost 50 pounds of meat.
They sued him for it...
There is a way to avoid this disaster on an individual level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-qR2J2vM34&feature=youtu.be
Sounds like a diet for all those fat fucks who live off that trash.
Nothing like a double Mac to refortify my wooden dick.
The US will never default on its huge debt - that would create too many consequences. Instead, they will encourage inflation and a dollar devaluation in order to pay back that debt with future dollars that are not worth as much. There is no other way out of this == hence, we see WHY Yellen is so happy.
sorry but default is a mathematical certainty.
Wooden nickels?
"Hamburger" is now 30% pink slime, 30% soy meal, and 40% sawdust, it seems ...
Try the new Whopper: 90% Soylent Mexican, only 10% sawdust. Yum!
Now you why they really don't make those immigration hearings!
Cellulose is in the 2% or less portion of the ingredients.
Fast food beef only contains 7% real beef. Rest is fillers:
https://www.google.com/#q=fast+food+only+7%25+beef
And they are fed GMO corn and cellulose also.
Maybe it does not taste that bad, they might try to increase it up to 10% for better consistency :)