This morning, I was eating breakfast and almost spit my coffee out in my plate.

Scott Bessent (our treasury secretary) told Maria Bartiromo after being asked why our beef prices are high and expected to increase.

"Bessent went on to make the claim, without evidence, that migrants were bringing diseased cattle with them across the border, and that was somehow contributing to the rising cost of beef.

"And there's also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been — we've been rid of in North America made its way up through South America, you know, as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them ," Bessent said."

He was stuttering and stammering so I am not sure if he was ill, clueless or lying thru his teeth. He did not even try to correct his statement. He also said we were going to grow our way out of debt, demographically impossible.

It is this type of behavior that worries the heck out of me.

I think they know the jig is up.

they never understand what is going on.

Beef prices (on the hoof) are through the roof. It is unsustainable, plumb silly as a matter of fact. However, I will enjoy it as long as I can. The bottom will fall out. It always does. And it will not be a gradual decrease, it will be from one sale weekend to the next.

As far as what is keeping the prices high?
From what I have read, numbers are down in the US.
Also, New World Screw Worm has been found in cattle south of our border. Latest I read (from a couple months ago) was that a couple cases of NWSW were found about 70 miles south of the border. So we are importing very few, if any, beef cattle.
This is a pest that we had considered eradicated in the US from about the late 1960s, I think.
Basically, you know how maggots (fly larvae) eat dead flesh?
NWSW larvae eat live flesh. Up to and including bone if my sources are to be believed.They will eventually kill the animal.
They were eradicated before by releasing sterile male flies. I am not sure what effect (if any) anti parasitic meds have on them (Ivermectin, Cydectin, etc.)
But the flies lay eggs in any open would on any warm blooded animal. It could turn into a bad deal pretty quickly, according to what few old timers we have around here that still remember them.

So, while the Treasury Secretary did not have any of the facts, he was sort of right, kinda, in a way....

I remember watching all those migrant columns marching north and crossing, cannot remember seeing them driving cattle at any time.

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:


"Bessent went on to make the claim, without evidence, that migrants were bringing diseased cattle with them across the border, and that was somehow contributing to the rising cost of beef.

"And there's also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been — we've been rid of in North America made its way up through South America, you know, as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them ,"

What article did this come from?

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:


"Bessent went on to make the claim, without evidence, that migrants were bringing diseased cattle with them across the border, and that was somehow contributing to the rising cost of beef.

"And there's also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been — we've been rid of in North America made its way up through South America, you know, as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them ,"

What article did this come from?

Drudge Report/. The Mirror. I watched it live on Maria Bartiromo Fox News this Morning.

There are no links to what OP said. But, I’ll assume that it’s true what Bessent said, so what the hell happened to this guy who always spits out facts and take them leftist news people to school? Was he having a stroke or something? And Bartiromo didn’t even push back on his claim and just let it slide?

Here is your link.

Besssent

My dad said the same thing when he said it, why the hell did Maria let that slide.

Starts at about the 6 minute mark.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and Mexican beef has been restricted for a while now so I think he might have misspoken but it sure does not help financial markets when it sounds that stupid.

Would have loved to see him on CBS with Margaret Brennan on this topic. Because we know she would have never let that slide. Yeah, I despise her, but him saying shit like that without being challenged is inexcusable.

With the elimination of the tariffs on beef, I'm excited to see Argentine beef come in. They've been cowboying just as long as we have, and they per capita eat more beef than we do anyhow.

The worse part is that this AH actually expected people to believe that crap.

Bessent should've stayed in his lane:

Flat out state that is a question for the Sec of Ag not the Sec of Treasury

His background is Wall Street not Chicago Mercantile Exchange

If he wanted to hit a Trump Admin talking point, he should've hit the fact that 2 out of 4 largest beef producers in US are owned by foreign companies (Brazilian corps own both #2 JBS USA and #4 National Beef Packing). Brazil is #2 meat producer in World, and they own a good share of the #1 meat producing country (i.e. USA).

For US food security and affordability, the consolidation and foreign ownership is quite scary to me. The Big 4 companies control 70% of all beef produced in US as of 2021, but that number was 25% in 1977. It's even worse for pork as it's the Big 3 and one of them is Chinese.

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:
With the elimination of the tariffs on beef, I'm excited to see Argentine beef come in. They've been cowboying just as long as we have, and they per capita eat more beef than we do anyhow.

And it is very high quality, Argentinian beef meets EU health standards, so it allowed to be imported into Europe.