A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE stock market en estcd in what the anyone who buys or sells any thing thinks to some extent whether the price is the “right price.” Most everyone when wanting to buy or sell (a house, a farm, some land, a car, a tractor) wonders “if the time is right” to buy or sell, and, whether it might be better to wait for more favorable circumstances. When people are interested in the future it seems they really would like to know what to expect or how to adjust or control their destiny. PERSON TO WORK IN SOUTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY AS A FARM CONSULTANT IN OUR DAIRY FEED SALES DEPARTMENT. A CHALLENGING EXISTS FOR RIGHT PERSON: • FARM OR AG BACKGROUND . EXPERIENCED IN SALES, BUT WILL TRAIN THE RIGHT PERSON « HONEST . RELIABLE • SELF-STARTING •PERSONABLE IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION CALL PHIL JAQUITH AT HESS MILLS. 6 S. Vintage Rd. Paradise, PA 17562 (717)442-4183 # (717)768-3301 Registered trademark of Ralston Purina Company Control Is Slipping Away Agriculture, when compared with nonagriculture, never really had much control over its destiny. In addition to the uncertainties of weather, insects, disease, and crop and livestock peculiarities, agri culture has always been faced the specter of overproduction. And with only a little overproduction, prices can really drop drastically... unless the government gets into the act to help farmers with propped up prices by buying and storing or some other manipulations. All of this really hasn’t changed much. The government is still involved to a much larger extent and even though farm subsidies are monstrous, it seems unlikely that our politicians will significantly reduce farm program assistance. In all likelihood, efforts will be WANTED kssMuis iBJBj* | PURINA [HDWiT] made to gradually try to wean far mers away from expensive, inef fective and unfair programs. At least one hopes so. But, then, in this regard, how successful have our politicians been in the past? We’d have to ‘second’ a col league’s observation that we are entering the “funny season” earlier than usual because next year is a big election year. So the chances are that political parties and candidates will have Christ mas for everyone. So? So, the farm, segment of our economy finds that much of their market control and influence exists in Washington. (Gee, no wonder economists have a hard time plying their trade. How does one figure-out what the politi cans will or won’t do?) A new congressional report released in mid-July indicates the recent rise in inflation is a warning signal. The proper response in dampening inflation is with tighter monetary policy but tightening is becoming more difficult because of the huge federal deficit. With a falling dollar and rising oil prices some additional inflation was inevitable. Now incidentally, most every one probably knows that the Fed eral Reserve Board Chairman has been Paul Volcker who recently CAREER THE Rt. 82 Unionville, PA 18375 (215)347-2377 Inflation Ahead? (wrn*dm) ItafDoe Don’t Just think of what it eliminates, but what it creates. m ntwi iumiMii«.iuiin»(i»—aaiiiii»i»minit<»wkm. i» faMmuimtw IM7MIC Ik turn, «Jm w U >«KinanM in-7-MM-Ul irj-7 IW« til ‘kMMIIIaMIMIk resigned. Designated to succeed Volcker is Alan Greenspan. Both individuals are top-notch econom ists. Volcker and his Fed crew were responsible for getting infla tion under control, and watching to see that inflation stays in its cage. (The inflation rate was 11.3% in 1979 when Volcker became chair man of the Fed. Last year inflation was 1.9% and this year it’s expected to be about 4%) Volcker guided our economy back to mod erate inflation after three years of double-digit inflation and he restored a sense of control after a period of rampant price specula tion and economic uncertainty. The Fed, in our humble estima tion, has been the major steadying influence for our economy. (In fact we wouldn’t mind at all if Con gress would expand the Fed’s influence, to include fiscal policy (spending and taxing) as well as its monetary policy (money supply) role. Then, the Fed could, for instance, say to Congress and the President that government spend ing will be x amount of dollars no more and allocate it as you will but x amount is all you can have.) So? Even though Alan Greenspan has similar views as Volcker, keep an eye on the Fed because if the Fed has less latitude with the big, and getting bigger, federal deficit, the Fed may not be able to slow inflation by tightening money growth. The major threat, without reductions in the budget deficit, is that the Fed will have a narrower path to travel in attempt ing to avoid either a recession or inflatin. Be a Fed watcher. 500150 50 ML 26.80 500151 200 ML 107.25 500152 500 ML 268.00 Order 30.00 Or More And The Freight Is On Us. Key-Aid Distributors ~ 225 Wood Cornered., Lititz, PA 17543 717-738-4241 Call Us Toll Free! 1-800-453-9243 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October to, 1967-Al9 Except a boring outlook. Only modest gains in GNP are expected in the second half of 1987. No boom but no bust Just steady unin teresting growth. Most forecasters are saying that the economy is sure to continue to expand for the next three months. If that happens our boring outlook will have become the longest peacetime period of recession-free growth in U.S. his tory. (The longest peacetime expansion went from early 1975 to early 1980 - 58 months; this was still short of the 106-month expan sion of 1961-1969 which included much of the Vietnam War. The average expansion is 33 months long for business cycle upswings, peacetime and wartime). Blue Chip Economic Indicators, a Sedona, Arizona newsletter, reg ularly polls 51 analysts on what’s ahead for business. The latest survey shows Blue Chip econom ists, in general, expecting a pro longed period of unexciting growth., predicting real GNP (adjusted for price measures) to be 2.6% in the third quarter, 2.8% in the fourth quarter and 3.1% in the first quarter of 1988 with smaller gains during the rest of 1988. Blue Chip also expects unem ployment to remain a triffle above 6%, where it’s recently been. Inter est rates are expected to rise but only slightly. And a slight pickup is also forseen in the inflation rate. Yep, dull and uninteresting but we’ll take a dull expansion any time over a less-welcome alternative. HDmn or nuuarm contbollid ivdhic* MATBII WMIS nymu worms MOB UNGI And, the Economic Outlook? Interest Rate? VJUUII* TIAMBOL*
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers