Easy

People are always looking for somebody easy to blame for thier problems. I guess this way they don't have to use that lump that sits on thier shoulder for anything other than holding thier hair up but I am really getting tired of <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/10/14/build/local/40-nile.inc" target="_blank">this specious claim</a>. I admit that some of the recent increase in prices has something to due with the border situation with Canada but not all of it and anybody that claims it is not thinking right. The price increase has more to do with the total number of cattle in the US being at the lowest levels since the government began tracking these numbers in 1973. <br />n<br />nSupply and demand. That's the answer. Fewer cattle, higher prices. Tough concept for people to handle. This would mean the poor prices we experienced for a while were our own fault. Naw, I guess blaming the Canadians is easier.<br />n<br />n<b>The people here are idiots-idiots! There's not an hour I don't think of it. Maurice Utrillo</b><br />n<!–more–><br />n<b>UPDATE</b> <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=164262&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312" target="_blank"> This</a> , right or wrong, is a perfect example of supply and demand in action.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>In Wichita, Kan., officials at Wesley Medical Center needed 2,800 flu shots, but their supplier couldn't provide them. Plenty of other distributors were ready to meet his needs, though for a price: as much as $600 for a vial of 10 flu shots that normally costs around $80. </blockquote><br />n<br />nNow I am not defending this runup in prices on a humanitarian level but it does clearly show, for those without a brain, that when supply of a product goes down, prices for the remainder go up. Even I, a dumb cowboy, can understand this.