Word: beefing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...make a bundle because they are holding back an unusually large proportion of their crop until prices are forced up still higher. Worst off are the cattle raisers, who overproduced in recent years in hopes of making plump profits, only to be thwarted by consumers, who sharply reduced their beef purchases rather than pay high prices...
...with supplies of livestock feed likely to be tightened, ranchers are cutting back production of new calves and sending more of their breeding stock to market. That will probably bring down beef prices in the next month or so, but they will probably soar again in the fall as cattle shipments dwindle...
...protest, farmers throughout the country have been creating havoc. On the major highway to Spain, a thousand fruit growers dumped tons of pears onto the roadway, creating a twelve-mile traffic jam. In Le Havre, Norman peasants stopped dockers from unloading beef from an Argentine ship and, in a variation of the old Boston Tea Party, threw tons of the meat into the Channel. In other areas farmers hung dead chickens in front of local officials' homes, let pigs and cattle loose in village streets, and even halted the sacrosanct Tour de France bicycle race by covering the road...
...also monitor the Government's own price behavior. As economists tirelessly point out, Government departments and regulatory agencies, in an effort to please narrow constituencies, often adopt policies that spur rather than slow inflation. For example, the Agriculture Department is now buying up $100 million worth of "excess" beef and pork in a deliberate effort to keep prices paid to farmers and feed-lot operators from dropping. Federal regulatory agencies often set railroad, truck and barge freight rates high enough to protect the most inefficient carriers from competitive damage. A separate federal agency should be empowered specifically to watch...
Taxes, fees and rates all went up abruptly. Property taxes leaped as much as $80 per room. Public transport and electricity rates were increased, and the price of gasoline rose sharply to $1.81 a gallon. Added taxes were put on "luxury" goods, including imported beef as well as cameras and alcohol. The most unexpected and resented increase was the surtax on automobiles. Italy's 12 million automobile owners will now have to pay a one-time surtax ranging from $10 on a Honda to $50 on a family-size Fiat 124, to $400 on a Lamborghini...