Over the weekend while on an extended walk with the 16 year old’s dog, a new Podcast Series from Grant Williams had an interesting guest with an even more interesting theory…
The theory from the guest was that food prices and the increase and decrease there of acts as and inflationary or deflationary force on economies.
His logic was that we must all eat and if you watch food prices around the world you can see a big correlation to not only the afore mentioned economic forces but also government interaction to help offset bad side effects of these movements….
Hmmmmm….
Meet the USDA Economic Research Department
Being HUGE fans of government research sites, (no copyright problems) the USDA Economic Research Department of Agriculture is a new one on our radar…not only that, but this huge page of Interactive Graphs will be watched more closely with important ones likely finding a place here for all of our collective review….
Our favorite starting point graphs to follow … note food is third on the expenditure list … lending credence to Grants podcast guest view:
How about food price movement as it relates to Economic Cycles?
There were certainly spikes prior to these three recessions….
Here is a more detailed chart of expenditures of food at the personal level:
On the margin, food has cost less out of pocket over time.
Ya, ya we are nerds, but this is very interesting stuff to us, especially such a new and interesting Theory worth watching!
As you may know we have found several interesting items to follow this year….
First was the TSA throughput, measuring the upward trend in traffic passing through TSA security … here, here and here
Then we stumbled upon the Kastle back to work index, showing commercial office vacancy rates of the ten largest cities – interesting Kastle is a security monitoring company among other things, but hence the ability to share the data.
Used Auto Prices
Recently through the grapevine we heard stories of used auto purchase increases, which make sense as folks exit the larger metro areas and possibly avoid crowded public transportation …
So here is a longer dated chart …
Let’s look a little closer …magnifying the most recent activity
So this is the Price Index for Used Cars and Trucks from the St. Louis Fed (FRED) database….
Surprising at first, but upon second thought…. not surprising at all !
We will keep track, and hope you find it maybe just a little bit as interesting as we do!
Have a Great “Used Car and Truck Flying off the shelf” Day!
About one week ago, both kiddos asked me if I knew that TikTok was scheduled to be banned in the United State – Much to their surprise, I did …. What I did not know, was exactly what TikTok did at the time….
Thankfully with a little help from the kids, I now understand what this social media app does…. not really sure of the popularity … but ok
Had no idea, just how big this app was….
With multiple recent office conversations on the subject, timely chart!
Social Media Platforms Size and Analysis
Thanks once again to our friends at Visual Capitalist, here is an excellent chart of the platforms…
Hope there are fellow parents that are better at anticipating where the kids next hot app will be … for monitoring purposes …
Just got familiar with Instagram, kids gone… all about snapshat and the afore mentioned TikTok …
Talk Facebook to a teenager and they will look at you like you have three eyes…. not kidding!
Good Luck Fellow Parent App Chasers….may the force be with you in finding the next hot app they gravitate to!
The Fancy Wall Street Name for this information is High Frequency data…. just so you know, we are not really sure where that comes from or what it means in this context… we even checked Wilkipedia and it went into different directions — yaya digressing… too much Java at this writing…
Our Term – Consumer Spending – Winners and Losers
We have been tracking the TSA through put (Air Travel) with great enthusiasm our selves, here and here … Remember this fancy chart we made?
Our Friends at JPMorgan have one upped us and included some really interesting stats, including the afore mentioned TSA throughput..
For those with eyes like ours, first the tiny legend blown up –
And here is the actual chart showing the growth (with the tiny legend) – told ya it was hard to read!
The most resilient number MBA Purchase applications, were discovered and reviewed by us here and here, but this is a neat chart/update – and continues with our original thoughts that Housing will likely be insulated, greatly different from the 07-09 crisis.
Things are coming back, slowly but surely and some much faster than others!
There you have it, some really neat Consumer Winner and loser numbers!
As we mentioned in our Newsletter and again in our monthly summary, the world has a Unified effort for a cure for Covid with some of the top brass of very powerful companies leading the collaborative charge….
Great Vaccine Tracker
In this Bloomberg Article from about a week ago…authors Cristin Flanagan, Riley Griffin, Robert Langreth pull together one of the best trackers we have seen with easy to read explanations on the progress of the various companies in finding a Vaccine…
It’s worth a read, especially if you have not been following the various results ….
Phase III is the last phase before mass production … there are MULTIPLE vaccines and medicines about to go into this Phase.
Hey, maybe there is not a pure, total fix, but if we get a couple of helpful medicines to go along with the vast increase in knowledge on how to treat this, the Future is Bright!
Ahhhh …. today is a Friday heading into a summer weekend…. enjoy your day and talk to you on the other side !
Was going to try and stay more with the Medical Advancements … but this is just too neat to pass up AND you will get a full Video coming soon with the Newsletter of the Medical Advances…. some of this has Medical implications/conversation….
Again from Peter Diamantis recent investor Virtual Summit…
So let’s go!
Robots of Old
Looks like something out of a cartoon or movie
Modern Day Robot
Several years ago, asked an elder family member if they would be up for having a robot in their home?
“Absolutely not! No Way!”
With a little framing, a different answer …
What if you either had to move to an assisted living facility or the like OR had a friendly robot caretaker?
Hmmmm
With a nights sleep and more inquiries…
“Yea, I would do that if it was safe and reasonably priced!”
3 D Built Home is Austin Texas for the Homeless
Actual home being built completely by 3 D Printer!
Think of the possibilities.
Thanks Peter… good stuff…just too good!
As professional investors…. watching with great interest!
Have a Great “Robot Caretaker and 3D Printed Home” Day!
Way back in 2015, just after a conference on the West Coast after first meeting Peter Diamandis, we wrote about our fantastic encounter here,here and here …..
(It’s really neat to have a living Diary of sorts that we can look back on these prior writings… digressing!)
Fast Forward to today and our coming Q 3 Newsletter …
Not only that, but he has founded 22 companies and counting….. not sure when he sleeps…
Here is a taste of what to expect next week…
The Human Race has a singular enemy- Never Before has there been unity across the globe to find a cure – Between 100-200 million professionals are working on a cure. Peter estimates that not only will a cure be discovered, but many multiple cures will be discovered due to the collective minds across the globe.
Tease… tease… but rest assured good stuff!
Maybe should have called it Positive Friday…… but you get the gist…
Ahhhhh… but it is a Friday and that means … a few days of rest, make the best of them, stay safe and be well!
More details from Peter next week, likely even a multi part series.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, please consult your financial advisor prior to investing!
Background
The is the vocal portion of J.K. Financial, Inc. a Dallas Texas Based Fee Only Total Wealth Financial Planning Firm. Founded by John Kvale, a Dallas Texas Fee only Financial Planner and Total Wealth Manager.
Interesting Research From a Podcast – Food Price Correlation to Inflation, Assets and Other Linkage
Over the weekend while on an extended walk with the 16 year old’s dog, a new Podcast Series from Grant Williams had an interesting guest with an even more interesting theory…
The theory from the guest was that food prices and the increase and decrease there of acts as and inflationary or deflationary force on economies.
His logic was that we must all eat and if you watch food prices around the world you can see a big correlation to not only the afore mentioned economic forces but also government interaction to help offset bad side effects of these movements….
Hmmmmm….
Meet the USDA Economic Research Department
Being HUGE fans of government research sites, (no copyright problems) the USDA Economic Research Department of Agriculture is a new one on our radar…not only that, but this huge page of Interactive Graphs will be watched more closely with important ones likely finding a place here for all of our collective review….
Our favorite starting point graphs to follow … note food is third on the expenditure list … lending credence to Grants podcast guest view:
How about food price movement as it relates to Economic Cycles?
There were certainly spikes prior to these three recessions….
Here is a more detailed chart of expenditures of food at the personal level:
On the margin, food has cost less out of pocket over time.
Ya, ya we are nerds, but this is very interesting stuff to us, especially such a new and interesting Theory worth watching!
Have a Great “Watching Food Price” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
jkfinancialinc
street-cents
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Posted in Annual Reviewed, Economy, Education, Forecast, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments
Tagged Food Inflation, Food Prices, Food Research, Grant Williams, USDA, USDA Economic Research