Canadians Panic as Food Prices Soar

I wonder how America would react if we went to the grocery store and saw a $15 box of Frosted Flakes?

"But Dennis, that could never happen!  This is America!  Food is always cheap and readily available...and it always will be."

OK....so check out what's going on just across our border in wonderful Canada!

Remember, it was just a few years ago that the Canadian dollar required about $1.30 U.S dollars to get one Canadian dollar.  Today I believe it takes about $.70 cents.

It was just yesterday when we documented the continuing slide in the loonie, which is suffering mightily in the face of oil’s inexorable decline.

As regular readers are no doubt acutely aware, Canada is struggling through a dramatic economic adjustment, especially in Alberta, the heart of the country’s oil patch. Amid the ongoing crude carnage the province has seen soaring property crime, rising food bank usage and, sadly, elevated suicide rates, as Albertans struggle to comprehend how things up north could have gone south (so to speak) so quickly.

The plunging loonie “can only serve to worsen the death of the 'Canadian Dream'" we said on Tuesday.

As it turns out, we were right.

The currency's decline is having a pronounced effect on Canadians' grocery bills.

 As Bloomberg reminds us, Canada imports around 80% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. When the loonie slides, prices for those goods soar. "With lower-income households tending to spend a larger portion of income on food, this side effect of a soft currency brings them the most acute stress" Bloomberg continues.

Of course with the layoffs piling up, you can expect more households to fall into the "lower-income" category where they will have to fight to afford things like $3 cucumbers, $8 cauliflower, and $15 Frosted Flakes.

As Bloomberg notes, James Price, director of Capital Markets Products at Richardson GMP, recently joked during an interview on BloombergTV Canada that "we're going to be paying a buck a banana pretty soon."

Have a look at the following tweets which underscore just how bad it is in Canada's grocery aisles. And no, its not just Nunavut: it from coast to coast:

No "Jack Nasty" it's not The Great Depression, but as we highlighted three weeks ago, it is Canada's depression and it's likely to get worse before it gets better. "Last year, fruits and veggies jumped in price between 9.1 and 10.1 per cent, according to an annual report by the Food Institute at the University of Guelph," CBC said on Tuesday. "The study predicts these foods will continue to increase above inflation this year, by up to 4.5 per cent for some items."

Here;  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-13/canadians-panic-food-prices-soar-collapsing-currency

Welcome to the world where nothing is for sure.  What experts were saying just a few years ago that oil would NEVER fall below $100 per barrel are now looking stupid as it just closed at $34.

The Bible hints in Revelation that during the Tribulation men will be working all day just to buy enough food to stay alive.

Are we going to see the foreshadowing of this event before The Lord returns for His bride?

With 48,000,000 Americans on food stamps it may not be too much of a stretch to imagine that day coming sooner than anyone thinks possible.