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Show v ..... - MAKING A BUCK " Food prices soar in '84 By Donald C. Bauder Copley News Service Eat, drink and be wary. Food prices should be very soft the rest of this year, but they'll be heading up next year possibly close to double-digit levels. Gulp. The last two years have been wonderful for gorging ourselves. Food prices were only rising 2 or 3 percent. And for the rest of this year, meat prices will actually be falling. But next year, look for food prices to soar by 5 to 8 percent per-cent probably closer to 8. Why? Well, the federal government instituted its "Payment in Kind" subsidy program, and that reduced crop acreage by about 25 percent. Then hot, dry ; weather decimated the : corn, sorghum and soybean crops, and could be hurting : wheat as well. : Thus, farmers are rush-: rush-: ing animals to slaughter ; now, and that's depressing prices, but next year there : will be fewer sent to mar- ket, and beef and pork pric-'- es could soar by 20 to 25 percent. Fruits and vegeta-: vegeta-: bles could go up 6 percent. Golden Parachutes Have you noticed that ; when one company tries an : unfriendly takeover of an-: an-: other company, the chief executive of the target company fights ferociously? ferocious-ly? Why? He's fighting for his job. - When one company tries g to take over another, it usually offers to buy the stock for 20 or 30 percent more than it's trading for. That should make a nice profit for the chief executive. execu-tive. But he fights the offer, and usually tries to find a friendly company to take over his company, because according to a new study by Ward Howell International, Interna-tional, only one of 10 chief executives keeps his job after his company is acquired. ac-quired. And if it's an unfriendly un-friendly takeover, his chances are zero in 10. That's why the chief executive ex-ecutive fixes himself up with a "golden parachute" a guarantee that in case the company is taken over, his salary will be as high or higher than it was before, even though he's not work- : ing. Who picks up the tab? : The shareholders. |