Hi Joe,
 
After reading your 4/11 post called "My Chief Tribulation Road Signs" at http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/apr2008/jhoyle411.htm, I have a few questions. Since Rev. 6:6 says, "a measure of wheat for a penny and 3 measures of barley for a penny," wouldn't this mean that 1 penny buys one measure of wheat or it buys 3 measures of barley for the same price of 1 penny?  Therefore, using the price in your 1975 Bible footnotes that buys 1 bushel of wheat for $41.80, shouldn't $41.80 also buy 1 bushel of barley rather than the $32.50 you mentioned?  Even though it would take more smaller barley kernels to make a bushel than it would larger wheat kernels to make a bushel, when each bushel container is filled, they both contain a bushel, and both would cost that penny or in modern terms the same price of $41.80 or am I missing something?  If a measure of wheat and 3 measures of barley both cost a "penny," it looks like wheat and barley prices in modern times are both going to rise so that they equal each other.
 
Also in our Lord Jesus' time, a "penny" (Greek word for "denarion or denarius") was equivalent to the laborer in the vineyard's daily wage according to Matthew 20:2, 9, & 10.  What is a laborer's daily wage in the U.S.?  The Federal minimum wage in the U.S. is currently $5.85 an hr. according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S.A._minimum_wages and if the laborer works 8 hrs., then his daily wage would be $46.80 a day before taxes which would be $5 above that $41.80 a bushel for wheat that you mentioned.  However, here is the problem.  The word "measure" and "measures" in Rev. 6:6 is the Greek word "choenix," in my Strong's Concordance.  I then looked in my Greek Lexicon for the meaning of the word "choenix."  It said, "choenix -- a dry measure often used for grain almost equivalent to a quart; a choenix of grain was a daily ration for one man." According to my Merriam-Webster dictionary,  1 bushel equals 4 pecks, and 1 peck is 8 quarts which means 1 bushel contains 32 quarts, or 1/32 of a bushel is a quart which that "choenix" is almost equivalent to.  So if that is the case, doesn't  it looks like a laborer's daily wage is going to buy a lot less than 1 bushel of wheat or 1 bushel of barley?  Therefore, wouldn't a laborer's daily wage (1 denarius or 1 penny) only buy almost 1 quart of wheat or almost 1 quart of barley for the same price?  For example, if the laborer's daily wage was only $46.80 a day that buys almost 1 quart of wheat or almost 1 quart of barley which is a man's daily ration, that means at $46.80 a quart x 32 quarts in a bushel = $1497.60 for 1 bushel of wheat or 1 bushel of barley.  Who could afford $46.80 a day for almost a quart of wheat or barley x 365 days = $17,082 a year?
 
As for the $41.80 for a bushel of wheat in the footnotes of your 1975 Bible, I wonder how they arrived at that figure, and if it matched the daily wages of a man in 1975.  According to the chart at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html the minimum federal wage in the U.S. in 1975 was $2.10  an hr. x 8 hr.s = $16.80 a day in wages, but in the 2nd column it looks like $2.10 an hr. was worth $6.12 an hr. x 8 hrs. = $48.96.  The current minimum wage of $5.85 an hr. in 2007 is only worth $4.41 an hr. according to the same chart.$5.85 an hr. x 8 hrs = $46.80 a day versus $4.41 an hr. x 8 hrs = $35.28 a day.
 
The other problem is the difference between the wholesale price for what companies buy wheat or barley for on the market, and the retail price that the consumer pays for it at the supermarket.  I don't know what the markup is.  The average consumer in the U.S. today doesn't buy wheat or barley wholesale; they buy it at retail prices so which wheat and barley prices should we be watching -- wholesale or retail? Or does Rev. 6:6 mean that it will take all of the laborer's daily wages to buy his daily ration of food whatever it is?
 
You mentioned one type of wheat soaring to $22 a bushel, and then all 3 wheats pulling back to lower levels.  What are the prices of the 3 wheats right now?  You gave us the current price of barley per bushel but not for wheat. Can you give us a website link where to watch both the wheat and barley prices, or does the website you use require a paid subscription?   Thanks!
 
It is interesting to note that the article called "The World Food Crisis" at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10thu1.html?_r=4&ex=1365566400&en=bc450107267f357e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
states, "Most Americans take food for granted. Even the poorest fifth of households in the United States spend only 16 percent of their budget on food. In many other countries, it is less of a given. Nigerian families spend 73 percent of their budgets to eat, Vietnamese 65 percent, Indonesians half."  I wonder how long it would take in the U.S. for all of a man's daily wage to buy his daily food, but if the U.S. economy collapses and he has no daily wage coming in and the dollar becomes worthless and he has no money, it looks like he would starve unless super astronomical inflation sets in first where the value of his dollar becomes less and less until it takes all of his daily wages to buy his daily food for the day with nothing left over for anything else.  That would certainly be a great tribulation to go through..
 
Here's one more thing to think about.  Does Rev. 6:6 represent worldwide famine and food shortages all over the world with "a measure of  wheat for a penny and 3 measures of barley for a penny," or does it represent all of a man's daily wages paying for his daily food in just the fourth part of the earth that dies from hunger, and the other things described in Rev. 6:8?  In regard to the 4th horseman of the Apocalypse, Rev. 6:8 states, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.  And power was given him unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."  As you can see in the paragraph above, the third world countries are spending much more on their food than the U.S. and are having food riots so I wonder if it is the third world countries are the fourth part of the earth that are described in Rev. 6:8 where all the daily wages of third world country laborers will eventually be needed to buy their daily ration of food so that they either die from hunger when they can't afford food any more or where they might be killed in food riots or killed by beasts who are also looking for food; or is it some other part of the earth that is the fourth part of the earth in Rev. 6:8?  I'm not saying that it couldn't happen here in the U.S. because it possibly could if our economy collapsed or if the U.S. was hit by one or more nuclear bombs.  However, I don't know if the U.S. is the fourth part of the earth in Rev. 6:8 or not.  Anyway it's all sour or bitter food for thought.  In another news article that I am posting separately, it shows that overall food prices have risen 83% in the last 3 years, and I assume we can expect things to get worse as time goes by.