Electricity posts its highest semiannual average price ever in 1H2025, under Mad King Ludwig

 The average price hit a record 19-cents per kWhr in June.

 

 

Chicken eggs in the United States post their highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

Natural gas in the United States posts its second highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

 

The average price of gasoline under Biden-Harris remains Obama-like, not Trump-like, costing 44% more on average than under Trump

Gasoline averaged $2.488 per gallon under Trump, 2017-2020 inclusive.

Obama told Gingrich in 2012 that $2.50/gal was a phony promise.

Har-dee-har-har.

Under Biden-Harris gasoline has averaged $3.583 per gallon to date (using three quarters of 2024 at $3.531 as if it were a full year).

 

The average vehicle on the road got older again as of May 2024, 12.6 years, and the average passenger vehicle is a record 14 years old

The average price of a new vehicle 2021-2024 is about $48,436 vs. $38,948 in 2019, an increase of 24%.

 

The average price of electricity in the United States remains at the all time high in September 2024, 31% higher than under Trump on average

 

Food prices making new all-time-highs in August 2024: Beef, beer, yogurt, ice cream, rice

 Many other basic foods, not shown, are still near their all-time-highs, like dried beans for example, or potatoes, sugar, and flour, but you knew that if you've been grocery shopping recently.

Eggs, at $3.204/dozen on average nationally in August 2024, are higher right now than their average annual price EVER: $2.857 in 2022, $2.796 in 2023, and $2.469 in 2015. Eggs averaged $2.798 in the first half of 2024.

Why you pay more for natural gas AND electricity: The utility mark-up of natural gas average prices over Henry Hub spot prices has never been higher than in 2024, 40% of electricity is generated by natural gas in the US, the largest source

 

A record 672% in the first half of 2024

675% in the first quarter of 2024, a new record

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

669% in the second quarter of 2024: "Energy prices are coming down" lol

The average price of beef round roast hit a new all-time high in May 2024

 

The average price of electricity hit a new record high in the USA in May

 

CNBC shills for price-gouging "worst offender" McDonalds, NYPost tells the truth

 CNBC May 10th: McDonald’s is working to introduce a $5 value meal

But the next to last paragraph indicates they ain't got one yet lol:

An initial proposal by McDonald’s for the $5 value meal did not clear necessary hurdles.

Yeah, no kidding. That's cause your $5 value meal was ten years ago.

The New York Post April 3rd: McDonald’s menu prices have increased by over 100% during the last decade: study 

McDonald’s has jacked up its menu prices by more than 100% over the course of the last decade — more than three times the rate of US inflation, according to a research report. ... Now, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal goes for $11.99 — more than double the $5.39 it cost in 2014, according to a study by FinanceBuzz, which cited average prices nationwide. ...

The analysis by FinanceBuzz found that McDonald’s was one of 13 restaurants that have raised menu prices in the last decade by 60% on average between 2014 and 2024 — or nearly double the cumulative national rate of inflation of 31% over that period.

While McDonald’s was the worst offender — tripling the rate of inflation, according to FinanceBuzz — Popeyes, Taco Bell, Chipotle and Jimmy John’s raised the prices of their menu items at more than double the actual inflation rate, the study found.     

It's like Obamacare.

Jerome "Arthur Burns" Powell ignites gold fever

The London PM gold fix soared 437% between 1970 and 1978 using average prices.

Gold is up about 60% since Powell became Fed Chair in February 2018. Gold has risen from about $1333 to $2142 on an average basis.

Gold hits fifth record high in March on Fed rate-cut view :

Gold prices on Thursday hit record highs for the fifth time this month after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it would press ahead with three rate cuts in 2024 despite elevated inflation.

Spot gold was up 1.1% at $2,209.65 per ounce at after hitting an all-time high of $2,222.39 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures soared 2.4% to $2,212.40. ...

Despite recent high inflation readings, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is still likely to reduce interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of 2024, but that it also depends on further economic data. ...

Lower interest rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion . . ..

 

Contact your utility commission and complain about natural gas and electricity prices not coming down

 Utilities Get an Inflation Shock

Electricity and gas providers are encountering a pushback on rate increases:

 

Utilities get to pass through fuel prices, which means customers have been bearing the burden of higher natural-gas prices that surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On average, monthly electricity prices rose 13% in 2022 from a year earlier and 6% in the first 11 months of 2023, according to data from the Labor Department. ... Utility commissioners are either appointed by elected officials or elected themselves, which means they are sensitive to the financial pressures that ratepayers face. ... utilities were quick to ask for an increase on the allowed return on equity when market measures of capital cost rose yet slow to adjust rates when those measures declined.     

 

Has the natural gas portion of your utility bill dropped 60% like the price of natural gas in 2023 from 2022? Mine sure as hell has not.

Here are the average prices per year for Henry Hub natural gas:

2015: 2.62

2016: 2.52

2017: 2.99

2018: 3.15

2019: 2.56

2020: 2.03

2021: 3.89 +91.6%

2022: 6.45 +65.8%

2023: 2.53 -60.7%

That 92% jump in 2021 had nothing to do with Ukraine.

We're being gouged for green energy tomfoolery.

 

COMPLAIN, not to the utility, but to the utility commission. It's the only way.

 

In Michigan, go to:

 

https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inflation adjusted average price of white potatoes in the United States

 In March 1986, potatoes were $0.21/pound.

Adjusted for inflation to August 2023, they should be $0.59/pound, according to the inflation calculator at bls.gov.

They are actually $1.09, 85% higher.

 

Child care prices rising at nearly twice the rate of inflation

The national average price of daycare and preschool services rose 6% in July from a year before, the Labor Department reported recently. That was nearly double the overall inflation rate of 3.2%, which was down from its recent peak of 9.1% in June last year. ... a mother of three living in Blaine, Minn. ... said she is paying about $2,500 a month for child care this summer.

More.

Permanently higher prices for the basics looks to be the future

 The simple egg is now 25% more expensive at Sam's Club compared with pre-Covid. I used to pay routinely $3.98 for two dozen like those shown below. Prices nationally have fallen only to the unusually high levels of 2015.

Whole chicken is up 23%, electricity 18%, and both appear to be stable or rising.

Avian flu is now only sporadic.

 

Gold looks good compared to negative-yielding bonds because its 0% yield plus the cost of holding it can still be less

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The gold break-out began in May with an average price of about $1284 the ounce. Yesterday's London PM Fix was nearly $1526, to put gold up almost 19% over the last three months.

The inflation-adjusted price of the average prime slave from 1860 is $44,100, very close to the 2014 raw average US wage of $44,569

The average price of a prime slave from 1860 was about $1,500. Using the consumer price index, that's the equivalent of about $44,100 in 2014. The raw US average wage in 2014 was $44,569 according to the Social Security Administration.

The annual mean price of the labor of a slave from 1860 brought a return on investment of about 12%, and on a month to month basis about 14%.  In 2014, corporate profits before taxes came to 12.7% of GDP.

Total slave population in 1860 is estimated to be 3.95 million,  14.7% of the total white population.

See The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert Evans Jr. of MIT (1962), here.

At $2.53/gallon, the national average price of gasoline now officially represents a "sale"

The very long-term average price of a gallon of gasoline in June 2013 dollars going back to 1918, as reported here, is $2.60.

Using all items CPI since then to date, up 1.682%, $2.60 a gallon would come to about $2.64 today.

So this morning's national average of $2.532/gallon, if not officially CHEAP, is at least ON SALE at a discount of about 4%.

Sustained for a year, and hopefully longer, that would definitely mean something helpful to the American consumer's bottom line. Republican control of both chambers of Congress means it is more likely to continue than not, but you never know about these things. After all, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were for the ridiculously expensive ethanol fuel program and subsidizing it with your tax dollars, which has only driven up the price of animal feed, fuel itself, and food.

Stay tuned.

Flashback to Feb. 2012: Newt Gingrich was mocked and worse by Obama and company for saying $2.50 gas was possible, but it's happening right now

Newt, deservedly doin' The Mussolini

Obama called Gingrich's promise of $2.50/gallon gas a "phony election-year promise" in 2012 here. The White House spokesman lying shill Jay Carney chimed in calling it a lie, here. Pure projection syndrome.

Two and a half years later and everywhere across this country the price of gasoline is plummeting toward an average of $2.50 and lower because of the success of drill-baby-drill-fracking on private lands, and the Feds haven't had one damn thing to do with it.

The average price in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tonight is $2.539 with prices falling. Smart shoppers at Sam's Club here tonight can get gas for $2.469. Prices in many southern tier states of this great country are already paying well below $2.50, for example $2.20 in Texas City, TX, $2.25 in Memphis, TN, and $2.30 in West Monroe, LA. Go duck men, go.

Newt Gingrich was right. Obama and company are idiots.