THANKSGIVING REPORT – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  An economic picture of the big holiday next week.  From CNBC:

Americans can thank a drop in the average price of turkey and general food deflation for bringing down the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Along with the turkey, other food items showing decreases this year are pumpkin pie mix, milk and a vegetable tray of celery and carrots, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual price survey of classic items found for the Thanksgiving feast. Among the biggest increases in holiday meal fixings this year were bread rolls, pie shells, cubed stuffing and fresh cranberries.

"The average cost of this year's feast for 10 is $49.87, a 24-cent decrease from last year's average of $50.11," the Farm Bureau said Thursday. The traditional holiday dinner's cost was down less than 1 percent this year from 2015 and it marks only the third time in a decade that the annual survey shows an overall price decline.

A 16-pound turkey — the biggest single ticket item in the meal — averaged $22.74 this year, or 1.3 percent below 2015. The survey was conducted in 40 states with price checks on roughly a dozen items.

COMMENT:  Reminds me of the true story of the old Tammany bosses in New York, in an age when there were high poverty rates in the city.  Each year they'd give families a Thanksgiving turkey so that family could have a happy holiday.  The precinct captains would make it known to the family that this might not continue if the opposition ever gained power.  Guess who won the elections?  It was one of the factors that kept people voting in the bosses year after year. 

November 17, 2016