The DOJ and the FTC will each launch a witch hunt on high food prices.
Food is now a national security concern.
Please note a Trump Executive Order Addressing Security Risks from Price Fixing and Anti-Competitive Behavior in the Food Supply Chain.
Section 1. Background. An affordable and secure food supply is vital to America’s national and economic security. However, anti-competitive behavior, especially when carried out by foreign-controlled corporations, threatens the stability and affordability of America’s food supply.
Sec. 2. Food Supply Chain Security Task Forces to Protect Competition. (a) The Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission shall each establish a Food Supply Chain Security Task Force within the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, respectively, that will take all necessary and appropriate actions to investigate food-related industries within their established areas of expertise and determine whether anti-competitive behavior exists in food supply chains in the United States, as well as whether control of food-related industries by foreign entities is increasing the cost of food products in the United States or creating a national or economic security threat to Americans.
(b) The Task Forces shall, as permitted by law, jointly brief the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader of the Senate, and the chairs of congressional committees of jurisdiction with a summary of their progress pursuant to this order once within 180 days following the date of this order, and again within 365 days following the date of this order, including, if relevant after consulting with the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs, any recommended congressional actions.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. …
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Justice.
Elizabeth Warren Would Be Proud
I can only imagine the howls if a Democrat president did this.
Please recall Warren proposed a Price Gouging Prevention Act and called for stronger FTC enforcement. She urged the Biden administration to use executive power to increase competition and lower costs for consumers.
Warrenesque Witch Hunt Begins
Don’t you just love it when Elizabeth Warren and President Trump are on the same page witch hunt?
There’s hundreds of responses on X all calling Warren an idiot. And she is.
Expect silence this time.
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Q&A Addendum
Q: Will the witch hunt find a witch?
A: Of course
Q: Why?
A: Trump demands a witch, so the investigations will find at least one witch. If Trump demanded evidence of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster investigations would find that too.
Q: What if there is no evidence?
A: I don’t think you are following my answers. But on the off chance there is no witch, the investigations will end with no report to Congress. They will just quietly disappear with no mention.
Q: Is there any irony to this?
A: Yes, there is frequently irony to Trump’s announcements?
Q: So, what’s the irony?
A: Trump says there is no inflation, but he launched two investigation to prove himself wrong.
I criticized Warren when she made her statement and I will criticize Trump now. Look at the profit margin for most grocery stores. It is very low. The reason is that there is still competition. Preventing more mergers (like the Kroger/Albertsons merger) keeps competition alive. This needs to be done in healthcare. Any city with two hospitals needs them to be different companies. Any city with four hospitals needs three different companies. No company should have more than 25% of the market. Both parties haven’t been aggressive in antitrust enforcement.
Mish think what food prices would be if gas was not so cheap
LOL under $60/bbl and lots of domestic fracking is sidelined. Saudi’s know this, and will let crude linger around here for as long as their annual budget can tolerate it to kill off as much US production as they can. Hello acquiring proven reserves that once belonged to Venezuela, do you see how this all fits together?
Be careful what you wish for
Indeed! What happens if China and Russia keep their word and defend Venezuela? Proxy drone war in the Gulf?
Future Mish headline – Is Trump Turning Communist?
And I still stand by my prediction – price controls before the midterms.
The Trump initiative had damn well better find evidence of price collusion and outright greed because if they don’t then they will face the same kickback that the Biden admin suffered from consumers when they tried to tell us that inflation was tamed and food prices hadn’t become outrageously high!
Upset at McDonald’s prices? I guess there’s no possible solution to that problem LOL /s
I can hear what this new .gov branches are going to come up with, we are going to get explanation on the cracks of biscuits maybe why crabs walk backwards are the reasons for high prices or just a figment the poloi minds….
Weren’t there some claims that “we” were bailing our Argentine farmers? Which would maybe mean, feeding our competitors? Pogo-like, the hunters could perhaps say, “we have met our witch, and it us ‘us,’ or rather, our own golden idol.”
The answer Trump wants to hear from the task force:
“The best way to combat high food prices is to lower interest rates. This will allow Americans to take out low interest loans to pay for food.”
… with extra free money left over for Trump-affiliated crypto and sports bets. Which is the way anyone might lobby for favors.
“Food is now a national security concern.”
Food has always been a national security issue since the beginning, Mish. I can confidently say that food security is the base from what all other securities flow.
we produce so much food in pax dumbfucikstan we export about another 1/3. there is no security problem with food. i think covid years proved that. plenty of food on the shelves.
Yes and we have to keep it that way. The Department of Agriculture was set up early for that problem. The land grant colleges were built specifically to teach and research better ways to grow food. The famine cycle was only broken recently because we took steps to master production. It didn’t just happen.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon implemented wage and price controls as part of his New Economic Policy to combat inflation and a currency crisis. The plan, announced on August 15, 1971, included a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, a 10% import surcharge, and the suspension of the dollar’s convertibility to gold. While the initial freeze temporarily lowered inflation, subsequent phases and controls failed to effectively control long-term inflation, which surged again after the controls were lifted.
I was under the impression he closed the gold window to keep our gold going to oil producing countries
He did it to keep gold from outflowing. To anyone. We had as much as 20,000 tons of gold at one point. But when we started destroying the purchasing power in the 1960s for guns and butter, countries like France started turning in the worthless script for real money – gold. We got down to 8,000 tons, and that is when Nixon slammed the gold window shut.
Sigh. Political Theater of the Absurd.
My wife an I own about 2000 acres of wheat land. At $5 USD a bushel, it’s a losing proposition – after labor, chemicals, machine maintenance and other costs, there ain’t enough left to live on. And forget about health insurance. I’m sure we are doing something wrong and the price should be lower… We may be witches but can’t even afford broomsticks.
These taskforces are straight from the Clinton playbook – political hot potatoes are best handled by big sprawling committees where problems go to fade away.
Just making food for thousands of people… not anywhere near as important as making popular tictocks.
Get your priorities straight man!
nixon playbook old sport. all the r/e properties i’ve owned, i live by one rule. cap rates. sell when cap rates are bad. buy when good. simple. works for farms and tenements.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play. Do whatever farmers do to introduce nitrogen to your fallow fields. When prices rise, your barriers to re-entry will be tiny.
DM for more solutions. /s
[Sniff] Then grow something more profitable.
Yeah, would if we could. However, it’s looking like farming kilowatt hours might be more profitable. People bearing contracts are circling as we speak.
Yes. Farming is just another form of energy production. It doesn’t have to be food energy. It can be electric energy.
Wheat? Ouch, you are competing against Russia and Trump might actually be on their side? Most people do not realize that Russia is the largest wheat producer and exporter on the planet.
Do you remember when China imported our wheat? Thank Trump for ending that, but the cost of food is not in the basic foodstuff, it is in the processing and insanely expensive packaging.
At least we don’t grow soybeans…
Or Corn!
Best of luck to you, it is a tough business.
Do you get locusts? (Just watched “Days of Heaven”).
Don’t the Trump tariffs have a lot to do with the food price increases faced by US consumers in the past year?
Perhaps a small part is from tariffs. We import 15% of our food. Tariffs of 10%-30% raise prices on that 15%. So maybe 1% – 4% overall.
But even domestic farm production costs are affected by tariffs. Factor that in as well.
Just between 1-2% of the total rise and they impacted those who buy avocados, bananas and tomatoes more than those who don’t
It is not just the tariffs on food, but aluminum used in packaging, perhaps other packaging. Also food relies on immigrants from the field work to the processing so it may be that they are paying higher wages. (Although I suspect few immigrants are being picked up from the farms in Fl – helps to have an in with Trump) And probably some good old fashioned capitalism. If I can get away with higher prices I will try.
All good points.
Also farm machinery. Any input to a modern mechanized farm or food processing facility – be-it equipment, manpower, or raw materials are impacted by tariffs.
These two new taskforces are make work projects to help lower unemployment.
So not only will Trump find his ‘witch’ as Mish suggests, he will simultaneously lower unemployment.
It’s a win-win for everyone but us poor taxpayers 🙁
Aldi, one of the lowest-priced grocers in the U.S., is German-owned.
Which means what in the scope of this discussion?
If this lawsuit is successful, it’ll drive up food prices even further. It’s no big secret food companies not only have been raising prices, but also adulterating their products with cheaper ingredients.
https://www.lawcommentary.com/articles/san-francisco-sues-kraft-pepsico-kelloggs-and-others-over-alleged-ultra-processed-food-health-risks
Well, the tax force at least has something to investigate now
will the investigation include the over 100 processing plants destroyed under Biden?
Oh piglet, you haven’t been paying attention, have you?
Wow! Biden destroyed over 100 US food processing plants? What types of missiles did he use? Which plants? Which companies? How many were killed? Got a list maybe? Showing the dates of destruction would be helpful. Strange that I never heard a Republican politician ever mention this.
PD the irony is staggering.
Trump’s ICE attack of meat processing plants nearly shut down meat packing.
So true. Typical politics. Do something really stupid. Then blame the other side for being responsible.
Like when Trump blamed Biden for appointing Jay Powell as Fed Chairman.
Or when Trump said whoever signed the USMCA trade deal was an idiot.
The best part is that the MAGA cult doesn’t get it.
Very wealthy people are not used to being told no.
But Trump said “There is no inflation, we fixed it, we fixed everything!” Then turns around with we need to investigate high food prices…..can’t make this crap up.
He was gonna release the Epstein files. Then there were no files. Then the files were a democrat hoax. Then only democrats were in the files.
It’s lies lies lies all the way down, and the piglets squeal with glee as they swallow every one.
at least they swallow. like good little whores.
He also reversed a pile of tariffs after saying tariffs did not cause inflation, so that he could show he was reducing inflation.
“Grocery prices are high because giant food corporations spent years price gouging, raising prices far beyond inflation.”
Because Of The ‘Forever Wars’ Since The CIA Assassinated
The Last Peace Group – JFK/RFK/MLK – In The 1960s.!
Increasing ‘War’ Budget By 13.4% to $1.01 trillion – No One Is Attacking Us. So There Is No ‘Defense’ To It – While Gutting Social Programs For The Poor.
CIA’s USAID = Media Propaganda (Ruse of Terrorism/Drugs to Invade Countries) For Coups – Color Revolutions – Regime Change.!
“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.” Timely when Solzhenitsyn was quoted in The Observer in 1974. And timely now.
dick cheney and rummy, ran the price control board for none other than the socialist trickie dick NIXON. long live pax dumbfuckistan.
“There’s hundreds of responses on X all calling Warren an idiot. And she is.”
You may disagree with her but an idiot? Shows your own intelligence maybe or at least your respect for others to have an opinion different from your own? Enough stupidity from everywhere to go around.
At 75 I’ve come to realize, some ideas have merit some from Republicans, some from Democrats, some from Libertarians and some from people with no affiliations at all. However there are many more from all parties that have no merit what so ever. Blindly supporting one group or another without thinking their ideas through and without weighing one idea against another reveals the truly stupidest person.
Economic Idiot
Not according to her stockbrokers and bankers.
Large agribusinesses are major donors to the Republican Party. I am a 100% sure the Trump investigations will focus on why lobbying suppresses effective competition in the US food market. OK, make that 0%.
Hard to reconcile this with Trump’s previous comments that prices are going down and affordability is a scam.
Is the task force investigating whether food prices are too low?
I agree that there can be no expectation that prices are going to go down. However, the rate of increase needs to decrease substantially. More and more people are having to choose between food, shelter, and health care. Note that education is not even among the choices anymore. This is not a recipe for greatness in a country or in a society.
Millions of people are about to be priced out of health insurance/health care.
President PedoPig lied?
Post World Wide BioWeapon Plandemic Medical Tyranny (Ongoing) – Almost Everything Has Doubled.!
I hope they look into unions and their governance. They are money launderers for Democrats, at least in California.
This “task force” will spend millions of dollars and conclude whatever and achieve nothing. Kinda like dropping million dollar missiles/bombs on $500 “drug” boats and achieving nothing on the drug war. The same for all the billions flowing out to countries all over the world.
More government waste, nothing achieved, Americans grow poorer and poorer.
Got exit strategy?
They’ll demonize and persecute a few random entities along the way to give the piglets a show.
of course that is the planned outcome. please think of the C suites of MIC and big ag and the top of the pyramid, the pharoahs who own the NYFED. the nyc bankers. good luck with exit. i put exit strategy in place decades ago. smart folks do. just be ready to always bug out. stuff changes. wars, and coups……..
Not to excuse him, but part of Trump’s problem is that people don’t just expect inflation to abate, they expect prices to go back down. If they’re still paying $7 for hamburger, 0% inflation isn’t good enough. I’m continually shocked by how consumers will just pay whatever. I went into a new giant Hispanic grocery store yesterday and the prices were higher than the normal grocery store and a lot higher than Aldi. We’ll see how it does.
People wouldn’t be complaining about the cost of anything if wages were surging and jobs were plentiful but we have the exact opposite happening under Trump. The longer the Trump admin continues, the worse things are becoming.
Midterms coming right up.
Trump said over and over again, while campaigning, that he would make prices go down. His followers believed him, and he couldn’t fulfill that promise.
Bought gas or eggs lately?
i never pay attention to little expenses like that. best not to be penny wise…….pound foolish. i concentrate on my stock and r/e portfolio. that’s my business.
Perhaps the cliental use food stamps thuds to them price is not really a concern.
The change of the change, otherwise known as that second derivative thingy.
Is it really that bad???
a contrarian take
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/vibecession-much-more-than-you-wanted
Trump has big problems like overreach in his flawed drug enforcement, his moral character being exposed, his ICE enforcement catching way too many legal folks in its overzealous deportation program, an economy that is anything but good, a tariff program that is working just like tariff programs work, as a punitive tax on the country’s folks that impose the tariffs, relations with nearly every other country on earth that is sour at best, boasting that he obviously cannot live up to. His only defense at this point without admitting he is wrong is to deflect. It is why he wants these investigations, why he is taking on Venezuela, why he attacks the press: he cannot take the heat for his poor performance.
I find it hard to believe the US economy will be in good shape as this year progresses. That being the case, expect more intense unhinged behavior from TACO as he cannot sign an executive order to fix the economy and errant economic reporting for whatever reasons is becoming ever more obvious.
Turn off the TV.
what’s a teeeeveeeee, grandma? is it like rotary phone?
It’s a man that likes to dress as a woman, and I’m not upset at turning one off.
like klinger in the old idiot box sitcom, mash show of my youth.
Today Denninger noted that on that early afternoon of December 7, 1941 when news broke about 99% of the population did not have a television at their home.
aye aye. the idiot box sure did help us become idiocracy. also that film is the greatest documentary of our generation. like orwell and 1984.
Turn off the TV.
‘Boob Tube’ – CIA ‘Operation Mockingbird’ TV Programming.!
Hard to Break Out of Decades of Programming – Most Don’t Want To.!
Lol! I look forward to Trump claiming “mission accomplished” because his administration dropped food prices by 1500%. Just like he claimed for pharmaceutical prices. Welcome to the Golden Age.
And don’t forget border arrests are down 1500%
I know you hate Elizabeth Warren, but she has a point here. When food prices go through the roof and food companies make record profits, the suspicion of price gouging is natural. Add to that that the industry is extremely concentrated, and it is obvious that monopolistic pricing is going on. It is pretty obvious.
It will be funny to see what happens when Trump finds out that part of the problem is his billionaire friends.
If you don’t eat branded, packaged foods, there’s little concentration. The exception is in meat packing. Beef is expensive now, but chicken and pork not so much. Americans eat too much meat for their own good.
They have a harder time manipulating produce prices because of the short shelf life. You can’t screw around creating artificial shortages if your product self destructs over time.
BS. Even store brands and off-brands have all jumped significantly in price.
The report will be written in a way that agrees with TFG’s beliefs. To do otherwise would have unpleasant consequences.
He won’t read it. He will have forgotten about the whole kerfluffle before the ink is dry. They could put a script from the Mr. Ed Show in and it would not matter.
This is performative.
Mr Ed doesn’t sound anything like Trump. Perhaps he wasn’t from New York City.
Trump will try to forget it but politically this is something that the Dems will continue to trumpet and will keep visible through the midterm elections.
Meanwhile, consumers are not going to stop talking about and complaining about what they see with their eyes everytime they go grocery shopping.
This is an issue that will not be swept under the table.