Spam sales are up while 2 Trill goes missing

AUSTIN, Minn., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- One factory in the United States has been busy for months as the rest of the economy slows down -- the Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) plant that makes Spam. The factory in Austin, Minn., has been operating two shifts a day seven days a week producing the canned lunch meat, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported. Workers, with all the overtime they can handle, have been told the long hours are likely to continue indefinitely. Dan Bartel, a business agent for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 9, told the Times that Spam "seems to do well when hard times hit." The lunch meat is reasonably priced protein, if not gourmet food. Other budget food items are doing well. A spokeswoman for Safeway said sales of rice and beans are up and surveys found that pancake mix and beer sold well in October. "We'll probably see Spam lines instead of soup lines," Bartel said. http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/11/16/Spam_sales_up_as_economy_heads_down/UPI-56931226817394/ Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return. ``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.'' Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure. The Fed made the loans under terms of 11 programs, eight of them created in the past 15 months, in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. ``It's your money; it's not the Fed's money,'' said billionaire Ted Forstmann, senior partner of Forstmann Little & Co. in New York. ``Of course there should be transparency.'' Treasury, Fed, Obama Federal Reserve spokeswoman Michelle Smith declined to comment on the loans or the Bloomberg lawsuit. Treasury spokeswoman Michele Davis didn't respond to a phone call and an e-mail seeking comment. President-elect Barack Obama's economic adviser, Jason Furman, also didn't respond to an e-mail and a phone call seeking comment from Obama. In a Sept. 22 campaign speech, Obama promised to ``make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people's business.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide, getorphan322, News video

LiveVideo | December 4, 2008

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