Hardly a day goes by for us now that we don't hear some very disturbing economic news here in the USA. While you are accustom to high gasoline and diesel prices, we are not, and are setting all time highs now with alarming regularity. Warren Buffet, the Berkshire Hathaway guru predicts today that the recession will be much harsher than anyone believes, that isn't too hard for me to believe. We are told the average US household has $8000 in credit card debt, the worst kind of debt you can have as far as I am concerned. Along with higher fuel prices, almost everything else seems to be going up as well. I was getting what is left of my hair cut the other day and the woman who cuts it informed me she had to take a second job to make ends meet, as her husband had taken a pay cut when he changed jobs(he was affected by the meat packing plant closure here). At our local eatery the prices have gone up 10%.
I bought another load of hay today from one of my best friends, an excellent farmer who also is an oil producer. His feeling was that oil is now too high, and the side effects will be more detrimental to him than any benefit he is going to receive. He also must buy higher priced diesel, but his worry is what it will do to the economy as a whole. We talked for well over an hour, one would think being around farmers now you would hear nothing but positives, but our talk was mostly negative. We are both quite fearful of the high priced inputs we must deal with now, and our main concern(I have shared this before, but he echoes it) is grain prices will not stay high enough to compensate for soaring input costs. We both have sizeable cowherds, that is another worry, two fold actually, rising feed costs will damper the beef industry, and less money in the pockets of consumers will lead to decreased beef consumption.
By no means am I an old man, I will turn 40 in a few days, I just feel old. But in my short life, I have never been as apprehensive as I am now about the future of the USA. While my opinion by itself is not much to talk about, I am hardly the only person who shares it. There is a growing feeling among the people I know that an economic storm is coming the likes of which has not been seen for many years, probably since the 1930s. The most unsettling part of it all is, our politicians seem oblivious to all of it, they seem to think if you ignore the problem it will go away. We are assured today our economic stimulus checks are in the mail, I am no economist but I do believe this is the dumbest thing I have ever seen our government do, borrow money to give to consumers who have already spent too much in hopes they will spend more. I stick with my opinion this is meant only to stave off disaster until after our elections, then Katy bar the door, all hell is going to break loose.
Mrs. KF and I are preparing for the worst, we had wanted to build onto the house but have put that on hold for the forseeable future. We have planted a big garden, and saved a little money. Hope it will be enough. Just thought you ought to know all kidding aside, your cousins on this side of the ocean are nervous, and many of us believe we are in for several years of really bad times.