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Producer Prices Plunge Joe WeisenthalOct. 20, 2009, 9:15 AM Today's PPI for October showed deeper deflation than anyone expected. The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods declined 0.6 percent in September, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This decrease followed a 1.7-percent rise in August and a 0.9-percent decline in July. In September, at the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 0.2 percent and the crude goods index fell 2.1 percent. On an unadjusted basis, from September 2008 to September 2009, prices for finished...

PPI: Freezing ("Below Zero" Deflation Alert)y Karl DenningerOctober 20,2009 But I thought Bennie And The Feds programs were working? The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods declined 0.6 percent in September, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This decrease followed a 1.7-percent rise in August and a 0.9-percent decline in July. In September, at the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 0.2 percent and the crude goods index fell 2.1 percent. On an unadjusted basis, from September 2008 to September 2009, prices for finished...

Three Asset Classes That Can Actually Outpace Coming Inflationary Price Increases by: Paco Ahlgren October 19, 2009 This “Excess capacity is temporarily suppressing global prices. But I see inflation as the greater future challenge." - Alan Greenspan, June 25, 2009 "The US economy may witness double-digit inflation in a few years unless the central bank tightens up its monetary policy… Unless we roll in this whole degree of expansion, we will be in trouble… I am not talking 3-5 per cent inflation, I am talking double-digit inflation in the US.” - Alan Greenspan, September 9, 2009 -- Man, the Dow...

At the time of writing, when practically every country is inflating, though most of them are at peace, price controls are always hinted at, even when they are not imposed. Though they are always economically harmful, if not destructive, they have at least a political advantage from the standpoint of the officeholders.By implication they put the blame for higher prices on the greed and rapacity of businessmen, instead of on the inflationary monetary policies of the officeholders themselves. Let us first see what happens when the government tries to keep the price of a single commodity, or a small group...

It is on the fallacy of isolation, at bottom, that the “productionfor-use-and-not-for-profit” school is based, with its attack on the allegedly vicious “price system.” The problem of production, say the adherents of this school, is solved. (This resounding error, as we shall see, is also the starting point of most currency cranks and share-the-wealth charlatans.) The scientists, the efficiency experts, the engineers, the technicians, have solved it. They could turn out almost anything you cared to mention in huge and practically unlimited amounts. But, alas, the world is not ruled by the engineers, thinking only of production, but by the...

Cocoa Prices At Highest For Two Decades Cocoa prices have been quietly but steadily rising in London, this week reaching their highest point in the last two decades. Published: 7:40PM BST 11 Oct 2009[snip]

...Milk dumped on roads and farmland to protest drastically lower prices... European milk farmers have dumped three million litres of fresh milk onto pastures and roads in a massive, organized protest against lowered dairy prices. In Belgium, farmers spread milk across roads near the southern town of Ciney. Elsewhere, about 300 tractors dragged milk containers through plowed fields in southern Belgium, dumping a day's worth of milk production in that region. "It is a scandal to dump this, but we have to realize what the situation is," said Belgian farm leader Erwin Schoepges. "We need a farm revolt." Milk farmers...

In America today, prices are just as likely to be falling as rising. For the first time since the 1950s, consumer prices are actually lower than they were a year earlier. The Labor Department reported Friday that the consumer price index was unchanged in July. In the past year, the CPI has fallen 2.1%, the largest drop since 1950. See full story. It's mostly energy prices that have fallen over the past year, but it's not entirely a story about oil. Non-energy prices have risen just 1.8% in the past year, one of the slowest gains since the 1960s. The...

Putin criticizes prices at Moscow supermarket MOSCOW (AP) -- For the second time this month, Vladimir Putin has stood up for the common man, at a carefully staged media event.

Japanese consumer prices fell a record 1.1 per cent in the year to May, with falling demand increasingly blamed as the country’s second bout of deflation in less than two years deepens. The slide may make the Bank of Japan less willing to end unconventional policies due to expire in September. But the central bank will likely stop short of a return to full-blown quantitative easing as the world’s second largest economy is expected to resume growing after contracting for a full year, analysts say. “Deflation is getting worse and underscores that the BOJ cannot move for a considerable time,”...

NEW YORK -- Oil prices rose above $65 per barrel Thursday as OPEC maintained crude production levels as expected and a pair of economic reports suggested an economic rebound may push energy prices higher. Benchmark crude for July delivery added $1.56 to reach $65.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a six-month high. In London, Brent prices gained $1.80 to $64.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Retail gas prices have shadowed oil prices, ticking higher every day this month. Gas prices are not only rising because of crude. Refiners, stung by falling demand for gasoline, have...

There's is a lot of activity out on the coast that may indicate a reawakening of the housing market there - and across the country. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- No state has been harder hit by the housing bust than California. It has piled up more foreclosures and has endured among the worst home-price declines. The median price of a single-family home sold in February was $247,590, down 41% from 12 months earlier, according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR). And home construction in the Golden State has nearly vanished: December housing permits shrank to about a quarter of...

What is the price of ammo in your ammo (caliber, qty., price)? My info is below:

Housing values in nearly two-thirds of more than 2,000 Houston-area neighborhoods declined or stood still last year, according to an annual home price analysis commissioned by the Houston Chronicle. .... Overall, the median price per square foot of a single-family home fell 2 percent in 2008 to $72.71, marking the first time it has dropped into negative territory in 14 years. ....

NEW YORK (AP) -- A widely watched index shows home prices tumbled by the sharpest annual rate on record in the fourth quarter and in December.

California Rep. Henry Waxman said Thursday the environment and U.S. economy depend on congressional action to confront the threat of climate change. Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, spoke as he opened Congress' first hearing on climate legislation. A group of 14 corporate

(AFP) – The price of Brent crude oil slumped to 39.77 dollars a barrel in trading here on Friday --

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices dipped again Tuesday and gas prices hit their lowest levels since January 2005 with the United States officially in a recession. Analysts say prices at the pump may be bottoming out, though demand could fall even further in January with job losses reducing the number of people who drive to work. Gas prices fell for the 20th week since the July 4th holiday and hit $1.811 per gallon, according to the government's Energy Information Agency. Auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express said prices fell 0.8 cents overnight to $1.812, down...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it hoped to raise oil prices to $75 a barrel, but indicated that no measures would probably be taken until an OPEC meeting next month in Algeria. OPEC countries will have to cut oil production by 3 million barrels a day to hike price to $75, group says. OPEC countries will have to cut oil production by 3 million barrels a day to hike price to $75, group says. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that OPEC will "do what needs to be done" to shore up falling oil prices when...

Crude oil prices could possibly fall to as low as $40/barrel, and as crude continues to lose value it may soon be oversold, Deutsche Bank chief energy analyst Adam Sieminski told an audience at a Washington think-tank Monday. "Just as we overshot with $140/b oil, we could undershoot with oil at $40/b," Sieminski told attendees at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Global Energy and Environment Initiative. Crude oil prices are down more than 50% since reaching an intraday record high of $147.27/b on July 11. NYMEX December oil futures Monday fell as low as $61.30/b earlier in the day, before rebounding...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Crude prices tumbled Friday and a gallon of gasoline fell below year-ago levels for the first time in 2008, even as OPEC announced a huge production cut in an attempt to halt the declines. --snip-- Gathered in Vienna, Austria, on Friday to stanch plunging oil prices, OPEC announced it would slash oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day. Oil prices plunged more than 5 percent. --snip-- Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $3.69 to settle at $64.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had fallen as low as $62.85 earlier in the...

Michael Zielinski at the Mint News Blog sent me a note the other day regarding this item he recently published, an item that seems to be making the rounds on the internet over the last 24 hours and for good reason. Michael wrote: There’s one aspect to this entire situation that many people haven’t been discussing. The Mint is always citing “unprecedented demand” as the reason for suspensions, production halts, and allocation programs, but in 1999 gold sales were more than 4 times higher and none of these measures were necessary. The story is not that the Mint is unable...

OPEC ruins another romantic evening.Have a watch.

Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel. The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico. Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do. Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours Discussion Updated every 6 hours Buoy...

Dated Brent Spot 98.52/bblWTI Cushing Spot 103.26/bblNymex Crude Future 103.26 Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future 265.26 cents/galNymex Heating Oil Future 292.47 cents/gal

Barack Obama's tax advisers recently posted a piece in the Wall Street Journal about their candidate's tax plans. Their article was designed to triangulate, painting their candidate as a tax cutter and the Republican opposition as a secret tax raiser. It was well written and well argued — not that you can really trust anything you read about what candidates will or will not do once in office. In any case, I was discussing the piece with a person whose politics are certainly left of center. She said to me something along the following lines: I'm really not sure I...

EIA estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned $671 billion in net oil export revenues in 2007, a 10 percent increase from 2006. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $194 billion, representing 29 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $1,137, a 8 percent increase from 2006. Through July, OPEC had earned an estimated $642 billion in net oil export earnings in 2008. Based on projections from the EIA August 2008 Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), OPEC net oil export revenues could be...

At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food? Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009. But, as a safety valve, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if...

LONDON (AFP) - Crude prices continued their dizzying spiral down on Friday, shedding nearly four dollars to trade below 114 dollars a barrel as the US currency strengthened amid concerns about energy demand, dealers said. Brent North Sea crude for September delivery hit an intra-day low of 113.55 dollars a barrel. It recovered slightly to stand at 114.06 dollars, down 3.80 dollars, at about 1420 GMT New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September stood at 116.28 dollars a barrel, down 3.74. Oil futures have shed more than 20 percent in value since hitting record highs above 147 dollars...

Call Congress back to have an up-or-down vote on a comprehensive energy bill which includes expanded drilling for oil. There is a petition here: http://www.callbackcongress.com/

Charging for checked luggage and legroom isn’t enough for some carriers — starting today, coach passengers flying aboard US Airways Inc. must pay for a drink of water. This morning, US Airways began charging fliers $2 for bottled water and sodas and $1 for teas and coffees. First class members, trans-Atlantic passengers and a select group of others are exempt from the extra fees. “This is another clever way to masquerade airfare increases without increasing airfares,” says Randy Petersen, editor of Inside Flyer Magazine. “Everything has been passed along to the consumer.” (snip) Continental Airlines Inc. — one of the...

As Congress begins a five-week break without passing legislation to address high gasoline prices, Democrats and Republicans are fighting for the political high ground in the energy debate. [Nancy Pelosi] In a flurry of ads and on the campaign trail, Republicans are pounding Democrats for failing to allow votes on lifting a federal ban on oil and gas drilling in offshore areas to boost domestic production. Democrats are accusing Republicans of blocking renewable-energy initiatives and protecting wealthy oil companies at consumers' expense. On Thursday, House and Senate Democrats held a press conference to highlight oil companies' record profits. The Senate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The downward spiral of U.S. housing prices still has a way to go and homes were overvalued by between 8 percent to 20 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to research by an International Monetary Fund economist published on Friday. In his report "What goes up must come down? House price dynamics in the United States," IMF economist Vladimir Klyuev used several economic techniques to determine by how much U.S. home prices are overvalued. Klyuev drew from a government study of single-family home prices to conclude that values were "around 14 percent above equilibrium...

The average American voter understands no more about the contributing factors of the current price of gasoline, than they do the falling value of their national currency. That makes them easy targets for political manipulation in a very important election year. Simple Supply and Demand Economics Most Americans kind of get this one, though they are often misled about the ups and downs of natural free market cycles and how much impact government has, or should have, on the matter. In short, the cost for one gallon of gas (or one loaf of bread) is dramatically increased when there is...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices have fallen more than 10 cents per gallon in a week and could fall another 25 cents by the end of summer, a sign the worst is over for U.S. motorists this vacation season. The decline tracks a record pullback in the price of crude that has come amid mounting evidence high energy costs and an economic slowdown are shrinking American demand for fuel, auto and travel group AAA said Friday. "We expect pump prices below $4 this weekend and we could see the price fall another 25 cents before Labor Day...

ToughTimes, Tough Decisions (MATURE CONTENT) BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - During these tough economic times, many people are struggling to make ends meet. The city's housing market is in a slump, gas and food prices are rising, and some say it's either sink or swim. Now, some women are going to great lengths to make some extra cash right in Baton Rouge. It's a fantasy, an escape for some attempting to close off the outside world. However, for the women inside who are barely clothed and strapped into high heels, exotic dancing can be a way to survive. "All of...

(Ft. Lauderdale)-Our strategic oil reserves are maintained for use during an impending emergency. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call to divert resources from those reserves shows that she lacks the vision to see beyond a knee-jerk, band-aid response to today’s high oil prices that will only weaken us in the event of a real emergency. And now Congressman Ron Klein, who campaigned on a slogan that he would “lead, not follow,” has once again followed Speaker Pelosi’s ridiculous plan and signed onto this pathetic display of ineptitude. No wonder Congress’s approval rating is at 9%. Speaker Pelosi does seem to understand the...

<p>Before the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission starts scrutinizing the role that speculators may have played in driving up fuel and food prices, investigators may want to take a look at price swings in a commodity not in today's news: onions.</p>

Congress Looks for a Culprit for Rising Oil PricesWednesday June 25, 4:35 am ET By JAD MOUAWAD With Americans growing angrier by the day about high gasoline prices, nobody can accuse Congress of turning a deaf ear. On Wednesday lawmakers will hold their 40th hearing so far this year on the cause of high oil prices. Filing bills on Capitol Hill to combat the problem is becoming a cottage industry, with clever names like the Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices Act, or PUMP Act, and the No Excuses Energy Act. Until recently, lawmakers had focused on the traditional suspects: oil...

Oil prices threaten to end Malaysian party's 50-year rule By Thomas Bell in Kuala Lumpur Last Updated: 4:12AM BST 14/06/2008 As oil price protests spread around the world, the government of Malaysia could become the first to fall as a result of the crisis. Lorry drivers and motorists across Europe and Asia are in uproar, with the price of oil at unprecedented highs of about $138 a barrel. In the past few days there have been protests in France, Spain, Holland, India, South Korea and Nepal. Lorry drivers are threatening to blockade the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Tuesday. In Malaysia,...

London —- Americans paying a record $4-plus a gallon for gasoline are feeling the pinch this summer, but it's even worse for Europeans. Angered by soaring fuel prices, Europeans are protesting. And those protests have taken a toll on individuals and companies by creating food shortages, blocking highways and causing the deaths of two people in Spain and Portugal. Motorists are paying the equivalent of $10 a gallon in France, more than $9 a gallon in Britain and more than $8 a gallon in Belgium. Tens of thousands of truckers already are on strike or threatening to strike in Italy,...

With oil prices closing above $125 a barrel of oil on Friday, angry politicians are blaming the higher prices on everything from speculators to greedy oil companies. Last week some Democratic Senators demanded “urgent action . . . to adequately investigate whether speculators are driving up prices.” Democrats are proposing to protect the American people from “greedy oil traders who manipulate the market.” Senator Barack Obama wants price gouging by oil companies to be a federal crime. Everyone wants lower prices, but many politicians seem unable to understand that speculators actually smooth out wild swings in prices. Speculators make profits...

McHenry's gas solution: Drill in AlaskaCongressman discusses alternative fuels, presidential battle and general election BY ANDREW MACKIE Tuesday, June 3, 2008 HICKORY - The time has come to increase oil refinery capacity in the United States and open up oil exploration in Alaska to better deal with wallet-busting gas prices, says U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry. “We must increase our supply in a major way. We should increase capacity and invest in alternative fuels for the long term,” McHenry said Monday in an exclusive interview with the Record. “We can’t allow extreme environmentalists to determine our energy policy. That’s what they’ve...

Red Planet on the Money Will $13 a gallon gasoline change voters' minds in Blue States? [Click on images to enlarge them.] If the voters in Blue, Democrat-controlled states are looking for a culprit for high gas prices, they may look no further than in the mirror. Their representatives in Congress continue to strangle the oil supply--by ruling most of the USA off-limits for drilling. This artificial restriction by the Dem-controlled Congress is a great subject of two great Red Planet Cartoons. The subject: why the Dem-controlled Congress' posturing on the environment is costing every driver, every energy-user in the...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- High-flying tech stocks crashed. The roaring housing market crumbled. And oil, rest assured, will follow the same path down. Not everyone agrees. In an echo of our most recent market frenzies, some experts pronounce that the "world has changed," and that the demand spikes, supply disruptions, and government bungling we face now will saddle us with a future of $4, $5 or even $10 a gallon gasoline. But if you stick to basic economics, it's clear that the only question is when - not if - prices will succumb. The oil bulls are correct in their...

A cloud-to-ground ligtning strike from a severe thunderstom hit a large gasoline storage tank at the Magellan Petroleum tank farm in Kansas City, igniting 2 million plus gallons of unleaded gasoline, rapidly growing into a huge inferno of flame belching over 200 feet in the air. Local authorities have elected to let the fire burn itself out, which is anticipated to take a day or more. The fire is presently contained to the burning tank. Authorites and company officials feel confident the fire poses no danger to other large storage tanks nearby. Video from local news helicopters shows tank walls...

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index for the first quarter showed prices for existing homes nationwide declined 14.1% from a year earlier, compared with a year-to-year drop of 8.9% in the fourth quarter. A separate S&P index that tracks 20 major metropolitan areas on a monthly basis showed home prices dropped 14.4% in March from a year earlier and 2.2% from February. Meanwhile, sales of new homes last month rose 3.3% from March. But sales remain well below year-earlier levels and, with a glut of unsold homes on the market, any significant improvement in the market remains down the road. The...

House prices force Americans to sleep in cars By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles Last Updated: 12:58AM BST 22/05/2008 Increasing numbers of women and elderly people are taking advantage of a scheme in one of America's wealthiest cities that enables the homeless to sleep safely in their cars at night. Organisers of the programme say they are seeing ever more unlikely people living out of their cars in the exclusive beachfront city of Santa Barbara, where the average house costs more than $1 million(£500,000). Many hold down part-time jobs while bedding down for the night in their vehicles. Barbara Harvey,...

Ready for the Oil Bubble? Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/104/story/651928.html ------------------------------------------------------------ One law is causing prices to go through the roof By Ed Wallace Special to the Star-Telegram "There’s a few hedge fund managers out there who are masters at knowing how to exploit the peak [oil] theories and hot buttons of supply and demand and by making bold predictions of shocking price advancements to come, they only add more fuel to the bullish fire in a sort of self fulfilling prophecy." — National Gas Week, Sept. 5, 2005 as reprinted in the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ report, "The Role of...

Don't blame us for prices - oil execsA Senate Judiciary Committee seeks answers from Big Oil execs for rising oil prices on day that crude crossed $130 a barrel. By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer Last Updated: May 21, 2008: 3:47 PM EDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators on Wednesday hauled industry executives in to testify about the recent runup. **SNIP** The executives said it did, and that they are doing all they can to bring new oil supplies to market, but that the fundamental reasons for the surge in...