Mar 7 2025 - Eggs Alert

 

Our egg prices have not been affected so far.  We have been affected by the avian flu outbreak. It started in 2022 and there were flock culls then. How bad is the price spike in the U.S.?  The prices have gone to $8.17 in March 2025.  Don't ask me about the seventeen cents - the price has gone up around 100%.  In November 2024 the price was $3.65.  You'd notice that increase.   We've had avian flu outbreaks in Canada.  But we don't have the agribusiness size - they are called mega-producers. A farm can have six million birds.  In Canada, egg farms average 25,000 laying hens per farm.   The U.S. industry is considered more competitive - the name the CBC article gave it was "go big or go home"-  egg production is cheaper.  But then these are the risks.  Avian flue kills 90% of the flock eventually.  They have to cull 100% of the flock, and the facilities have to be disinfected before reuse.  Then they can start over.   You can imagine if U.S.. consumers went this berserk over egg prices, what will happen over price increases due to tariffs.  Everything from "blame the president - the past president" to blame the producers for price "gouging".  I am sure there's more suffering to come for consumers.   For the moment, there is still some humour. Here is an excellent egg price joke.  And doesn't a picture of eggs take on new meaning.

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July 18 2023 - Ticket Prices of Live Show

 

PBS had a fund-raising show on the other night and advertised tickets for the next live concert at $400.  I was aghast.  But then I shouldn’t be as prices have been going up for years.   Post-pandemic prices are higher as well.  The average ticket price is now $146.51 - I don’t know what they averaged, but it seems that anything “live” is expensive.  People point to Ticketmaster as having a monopoly on pricing.  That was most apparent during the Taylor Swift  ticket release in November 2022.  The criicism is over dynamic pricing.  Prices go up and down according to demand and competition.  That’s how Ticketmaster works - it sets price based on demand - the more people waiting in line for tickets, the higher the prices go. So it is more about ticket prices going up rather than coming back down.  Live Nation continues to buy up venues and centralize control.  Toronto’s Opera House is now under their control.  That was just a few days ago.  Do you want to see the list of venues that they manage the tickets to or own?  It is a long, long list. Here it is on their website:   https://www.livenation.com/venues How quickly corporations grow to gargantuan size and reach.  Captalism reigns supreme.

Here’s one of the Painted Ladies Houses decorations.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Don't Rain on My Decade

The sound of rain is a signal of spring.  It contrasts with the silence of snow.  After visiting the temples of consumerism this week, I noticed in the news that the consumer price index has been released today.  I didn't look at it initially as inflation is very low now - the month over month increase was 0.1 percent in February. From 1970 to 1980 a basket of goods doubled in price. It almost doubled in price from 1980 to 1990 as well.  We consider it stable now at levels around 2.5 or so.  However, there is a cautionary tale in these low levels.  One article says: "Looking at the average inflation rates often gives us the impression that "low" inflation rates like 2% aren't so bad. For instance: You may think that 7% inflation in the 1970's is terrible but 2% or 3% per year since 1990 isn't so bad right? Well, the total cumulative inflation for the almost 22 years from January 1990 through December 2014 is 86.2%. In other words, something that cost $100 in January of 1990 would cost $186.20 in December of 2014 in other words prices almost doubled (i.e. purchasing power fell almost by half) and that is what happens at "low" inflation rates." Each decade has a name in the commentary at InflationData.com.   WW I - The  beginning of the CPI The "Roaring Twenties"The Great Depression WW II - the volatile 1940's The 1950's "Happy Days" The 1960's the age of possibility The Inflationary 1970's The Reagan Era The commentary doesn't go beyond 1989 - the Reagan Era - so I searched around to find names for the next decades - it has been difficult to 'find a name that sticks.  2000-09 is referred to as the "noughties". The 1990's have some candidate names the Dot-com Decade[1] — yeah, well, that was only part of the nineties, though I might be able to live with “Internet Decade”, or rather “WWW Decade”. the Busy Decade — for, apparently, “whenever you asked people how they were, they answered, ‘busy!’ with a verbal exclamation point as if it were a dangerous state of health” [2] the Nasty Decade was proposed in 1998,[3] but those people hadn’t met the 2000s yet; other proposals included “the Gray 90s” and the "Popular Culture Decade" — many years before YouTube fractured traditional media consumption Today we see some of the floral tributes to Canada's 150th birthday at Canada Blooms.  The third image is one off the floral displays - these are the highlight of the Flower Show each year.