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The Democrats knew what they were doing when they deferred the implementation of most provisions of Obamacare until after the 2012 election. What is surprising, really, is that Obamacare has been so unpopular, given that most of its baleful effects have not yet been felt. But it won’t be long now. The Associated Press reports that health insurers are warning of massive price increases beginning next year: Some Americans could see their insurance bills double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.

A daughter is new car shopping for a Hyundai(they are supposed to be much better made now)and she used Consumer Reports to find the Invoice Price. She is nowhere near a seaport but the difference in Invoice & Sticker is only $200.... It has been a long time since i bought new and i though my Chevy Invoice was much lower than the sticker. I understood that knowing the invoice was a good baseline to bargain with the dealership. Do any FReepers know if her Invoice from Consumer Reports is bogus or is there a better place to find invoice...

President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress want to raise the minimum wage to improve the lot of the working poor. But they've got the wrong idea. The problem is not that these workers earn so little; it's that the things they buy cost so much. I propose instead to outlaw high prices. No one, after all, likes paying too much. So let's put a stop to it. Gas is too expensive? Make it $2 a gallon, max. Bread and meat take a big bite out of the family budget? Poor people could eat better if they had to pay...

Watch: “The Global Food Crisis You Need To Prepare For Is Now Imminent” Mac Slavo December 19th, 2012 Grocery stores may still be stocked with food and most Americans are still able to keep their family’s fed, but with 50 million Americans requiring government assistance to do so and prices on a seemingly never ending rise, how long will it be before the situation becomes unmanageable? The global food crisis you need to prepare for is now imminent. For the past six years the world has consumed more food than it has produced. As a result, global food reserves are...

Owning or Renting: High Risk or Tragedy of the Commons? The tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to their long-term best interests. Examples abound such as common grazing on public land, depletion of fish in the ocean and why public restrooms are usually filthy. Homeownership is an example of the “tragedy of the commons.” Public housing projects, such as the infamous Cabrini Green in Chicago, are an example. Public housing is often poorly maintained...

The Smartest Investment Of The Decade by Simon Blackon November 12, 2012 Here’s something crazy to think about. Roughly 200,000 people were born today. That’s net world population growth, births minus deaths. Each one of them constitutes a new mouth to feed. And when they come of age, those 200,000 people will consume, conservatively, about 1,250 Calories per day. Collectively, that’s 91.25 billion Calories per year for the entire 200,000 people that were born today. Where will they get that food from? Consider that a cup of rice contains about 300 Calories. An average annual rice harvest yields about 150...

Forget Fact Checking: Where’s the Logic?- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -In a real town hall meeting, the person asking a question gets to follow up. What we saw Tuesday night wasn’t a town hall meeting at all. The readers appeared to be simply mouthing someone else’s prearranged questions. There wasn't any passion. But what if the public was allowed to retort? Following are my thoughts on the lecture Barack Obama provided in response to the second question, a rather simple one which he has yet to answer. QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times...

When you pull up to that gas pump and nearly faint from how much it costs you to fill 'er up, you may be tempted blame the government for not doing enough to keep a lid on prices. Resist the temptation. The truth is the global nature of the world's energy supply means that no president has much power over what you pay at the pump. The question of whether the nation's chief executive can do anything to lower soaring energy costs has been a bone of contention between President Barack Obama and his GOP rival, former Mass. Gov. Mitt...

The Home Price Rally Is Spreading To More Housing Markets Mamta BadkarOctober 2, 2012Home prices, including distressed sales, were up 4.6 percent year-over-year according to CoreLogic's latest home price index. Prices were up 0.3 percent from a monh ago. This is the sixth straight increase in home prices. Excluding distressed sales home prices were up 4.9 percent on the year, and 1.0 percent on the month-over-month. One of the criticisms leveled at those that say housing has turned the corner is that housing is a local story and many markets are getting worse. But Mark Fleming, CEO of CoreLogic said...

An Autumn Surge In Corn Prices Will 'Shock The US And Global Livestock Industry' Rob WileSeptember 11, 2012 The historic U.S. drought caused corn prices to explode to record highs during the summer. However, prices haven't budged in a month and stands near $8/bu. In his latest note, Morgan Stanley commodities guru Hussein Allidina reiterates his thesis that the corn price rally isn't over. While the market continues to test what price will ration demand, it will eventually figure it out: While many have cited recent weakness in ethanol production and exports as a sign that prices have risen enough...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced on Thursday that he would resign if that was the will of the people, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. .....

On Thursday morning, hundreds of PA Arabs blocked roads and burned tires in the Ramallah area, protesting the high price of products in the PA. The Thursday protest was the latest in a series of demonstations in PA controlled area over high prices. On Wednesday, hundreds of residents of Shechem gathered in one of the town's main squares. demanding the removal of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PA chief Mahmous Abbas. ...Fayyad and Abbas did not represent them, and that they demanded a new government. Joining them were Hamas members of the PA parliament. Protests have been taking...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Police in southeast Michigan say a man called to complain that a woman he had agreed to pay for sex unexpectedly increased the price. AnnArbor.com reports (http://bit.ly/Rw4Wcl ) that police were called to an Ann Arbor home late Wednesday on a report of a robbery. Police say the 45-year-old man and a 19-year-old Ohio woman he contacted online had agreed on a price, but that the man claimed she upped the cost after taking his money.

This coming Wednesday features a myriad of important economic, housing and mortgage reports: GDP, Pending Home Sales, Mortgage Purchase Applications, Pending Homes Sales and Corporate Profits. But on Tuesday, the Case-Shiller home prices indices will be released (and that means a busy day on TV for Yale Professor Robert Shiller). What are we expecting for Tuesday’ Case-Shiller 20 metro home price index? In a nutshell, it will show that house prices are recovering. FNC (blue) and FHFA (gold) have already released their home price indices last week and both show an uptick in their recent release for June 2012. What...

How To Save Money On Meat As Corn Prices Soar Andrea Woroch, AndreaWoroch.com Aug. 19, 2012, 12:14 PM A few weeks ago, the USDA warned about the impending increase in food prices as drought continues to diminish corn and soybean crops. More recently, however, the USDA advised corn crop yields are even less than previously estimated, making the future of grocery bills even more bleak. Since 40 percent of US-grown corn is used for animal feed, beef, pork and poultry will see the most significant price increases. If you and your family depend on meat as a primary source of...

The head of the world's largest food producer believes high prices are due to the growing of crops for biofuels."The time of cheap food prices is over," says Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. He is highly critical of the rise in the production of bio-diesel, saying this puts pressure on food supplies by using land and water that would otherwise be used to grow crops for human or animal consumption."If no food was used for fuel, the prices would come down again - that is very clear," he says. "We are now in a new world with a completely different level...

Corn Is Still Ripping Higher, And Is Now Up More Than 50% In Less Than A Month Joe Weisenthal Jul. 16, 2012, 8:14 PM Non-stop going up. Thanks to the drought... December corn futures via the CME, now up more than 50% from recent lows.

In a not-so-subtle rebuke of President Obama’s tendency to offer unsolicited recommendations on how Europeans should handle their debt crises on Sunday evening, Germany’s finance minister suggested that perhaps His Munificence should focus on his own problems before trying to fix everybody else’s. Wolfgang Schaeuble told public broadcaster ZDF in an interview late Sunday that “people are always very quick at giving others advice.�He says: “Mr. Obama should first of all take care of reducing the American deficit, which is higher than in the eurozone.� An unfortunate and embarrassing truth — the EU’s debt-to-GDP ratio is well over eighty percent,...

WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- Federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico, along with output from Texas and North Dakota, pushed U.S. oil production to its highest level in 14 years, the EIA said. The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. oil production during the first quarter of 2012 topped 6 million barrels per day for the first time since 1998. "The roughly 6 percent growth in U.S. oil production from October 2011 through March 2012 is largely the result of increases in oil output in North Dakota, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico," the agency said...

Just got the scoop from my guy who works at Bryan Mound (Strategic Petroleum Reserve). As you may know, the largest reserve site in the U.S. is located a few miles from where I work in Freeport. It hold 200+ million barrels of oil. They got a visitor from Washington D.C. authorizing the release of 80-90 million barrels across all 4 sites in the U.S. It will be sold to Exxon Mobil for the purpose of flooding the market to bring down gas prices (temporarily). Just in time for the election. The president can do this without Congress. What an...

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Data for March 2012, the Consumer Price Index for fresh vegetables purchased for home use rose 4.5 percent from the same time last year. Recent USDA data also shows that the price of grains such as corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans has increased 234% since January 2002...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida supermarket chain is about to close almost all of its local stores. It's part of a move by Albertson's to end the majority of its operations in the state. For the last year or so, Albertson's has been shrinking the number of stores it operates in Florida. In Central Florida, six more stores are going to close in the next few weeks. Only a store in Altamonte Springs will remain open. Albertson's says the Florida market is not good for it, and with fuel and utility costs being what they are, it's closing all...

Why High Oil Prices Even At $200 Won't Cause A Recession Commodities / Crude Oil Apr 12, 2012 - 07:43 AM By: Money Morning Martin Hutchinson writes: Last Friday's weak unemployment numbers, with only 120,000 jobs created, brought renewed wails that high oil prices were causing a recession. Having heard this refrain so many times, I thought I'd dig a little deeper. After all, a peak of $145 per barrel in the West Texas Intermediate oil price pretty well coincided with the onset of the 2008 recession. The question is whether or not high oil prices are always correlated with...

Detroit - Remember “sticker shock”? After several years of heavily discounting their products in a desperate bid to keep assembly lines rolling, automakers are finding themselves back in the driver’s seat again – pushing prices to record levels. And it’s “not a blip,” warns one senior analyst, who expects the trend to continue for several years. The good news for shoppers is that trade-ins are also yielding better prices – and while that new car, truck or crossover may command more money than ever before it’s also likely to include significantly more features and markedly better fuel economy than

The Obama administration is blaming Israel for the recent rise in global crude oil prices, according to a Sunday report in The World Tribune. The rise in fuel prices is deemed as harming the U.S. economy and has also hurt Obama in the polls as he seeks re-election in November. The report cited a leading U.S. analyst, Robert Satloff, who returned from talks with Israeli officials. Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, according to The World Tribune, that the Israeli leadership saw Washington as attributing the higher gas prices to “Israel’s posturing” on Iran....

Obama Promises Lower Gas Prices and Defends Keystone XL DecisionBy Tara Dodrill | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Mar 23, 2012 President Obama signed an executive order earlier this week approving the Keystone XL pipeline connecting Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf Coast, National Public Radio reports. Obama concluded his four-state energy tour at Ohio State University in Columbus on Thursday. While in Ohio, Obama toured an experimental "high-tech" automotive facility and viewed the "fasted electric car in the world," the Buckeye Bullet 2, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The automotive research center has garnered millions in federal funding for...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House panel Tuesday that he’d give himself top marks when asked to grade his policies’ effects on energy prices. Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked President Obama’s top energy official if he’d grade himself with an “A minus” on “controlling the cost of gasoline at the pump.” Chu responded by saying he’d give himself a better grade than that. “The tools we have at our disposal are limited, but I would I say I would give myself a little higher in that since I became...

A sharp jump in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February. But outside higher pump prices, inflation stayed mild. The Labor Department said Friday that the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in February, the largest increase in 10 months. Gas prices rose 6 percent to account for most of the gain. Food prices were unchanged for the first time in 19 months. And excluding food and energy, so-called "core" prices rose just 0.1 percent. Mild inflation allows the Fed to maintain its low interest-rate policy. "Not much to stew about on the inflation front,"...

President Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, renounced his previously-stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels in order to motivate alternative energy research, telling the Senate today that he wants gas prices to fall for the sake of the economy. "We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Chu said in 2008. When reminded of that comment today during his congressional testimony, Chu backed away from that position. "I no longer share that view," Chu told Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, today.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gas prices increased for the third straight day Friday, to an average of $1.626 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas, according to motorist group AAA. That's nearly a one-cent jump from the previous day's average of $1.618. The price of gas is down by nearly 20 cents from the prior month's average of $1.803, and prices are off by nearly 47%, or $3.052 from this time a year ago. Prices have plummeted along with the price of crude oil, the main ingredient in gas. Oil has shed more than $100 a barrel since July, and...

White House defends Obama on gas prices after poor poll numbersBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/12/12 01:41 PM ET Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took to the White House briefing room Monday to defend President Obama’s energy plan after a new poll suggested high gas prices are eroding the president’s approval numbers. Salazar insisted that Obama is reviewing short- and long-term actions to lower gas prices, while also noting that there are no quick fixes to the problem. “All options are on the table because the president obviously feels the pain that the American people are facing,” Salazar said when asked if...

Newt Gingrich predicts high gas prices will 'crater' the economyBy Vicki Needham - 03/04/12 05:41 PM ET Former House Speaker and GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich hit the president again on Sunday over rising gas prices, saying that increasing pump prices would "crater" the economy by August. “The price of gasoline is becoming a genuine crisis for many American families. If it continues to go higher, it will crater the economy by August because people will have no discretionary income,” said Gingrich on CNN’s State of the Union. Republicans along with Gingrich have hammered Obama over rising gas costs, demanding...

Obama campaign: Consumers ‘don’t blame’ the president for gas pricesBy Ben Geman - 03/02/12 10:26 AM ET A top official with President Obama’s reelection campaign expressed confidence Friday that consumers won’t punish Obama politically for rising gas prices and touted “significant accomplishments” on energy, including tougher auto mileage rules. “They don’t blame the president. They understand what’s going on with the global marketplace,” said Stephanie Cutter, the president’s deputy campaign manager, on MSNBC. “But they also acknowledge that we have to do everything we can to make sure that America is independent and not tied to foreign oil and they...

Worried Dems pressing Obama on gas pricesBy Alexander Bolton - 02/28/12 09:45 PM ET Congressional Democrats are ramping up pressure on President Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to prevent rising gas prices from threatening the economy and their election-year prospects. They are growing anxious that the price of fuel could reverse their political fortunes, which had been improving due to signs of growth in the economy. Republicans have hammered Democrats on the price spike, repeatedly noting that gas prices — now at $3.72 per gallon for regular — have doubled since Obama won the White House. House...

.........America’s economy is intrinsically aligned with fuel prices because the lifeblood of our economy is oil. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas will not just sting at the pump but also will put the squeeze on every American for milk and cookies at the grocery store and every product we purchase because they are all delivered to stores by truck. ...As gas prices continue to rise, consumer debt probably also will rise as American families, already strapped for cash, will use credit cards to pay for the increased fuel costs. Ultimately, higher gas prices put the squeeze on all things related to the economy,...

Nothing new here. Remember, O’s very first campaign ad of the year was also aimed at the Kochs. Until the GOP chooses a nominee, the Emmanuel Goldstein brothers will have to do as the designated root of all political evil. Look at it from Obama’s perspective: What’s more likely to get a shrieking leftist to open his wallet, some perfunctory grumbling about Mitt “Meh� Romney or a dire new warning about just how far the Kochtopus’s tentacles extend? The title of the fundraising e-mail, no joke: “They’re obsessed.� In just about 24 hours, Mitt Romney is headed to a hotel...

'The American people aren't stupid," thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami, ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let's hope he's right, because not even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell. To wit, that a) gasoline prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy. Where...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Tensions with Iran are adding at least 30 cents to a gallon of gasoline in the United States, and experts say gas prices have only just begun to rise. Gasoline prices have surged over 10% in the last two months, largely tracking the runup in oil prices, which have increased by a similar amount and are now at a 9-month high. Several factors have caused oil prices to rise, including the sense that the economy is improving and supply disruptions in a handful of minor oil producing nations. But the biggest factor by far, say analysts,...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is confronting Americans' anxiety over rising gasoline prices by drawing attention to his energy policies and taking credit for rising oil and gas production, a greater mix of energy sources and decreased consumption. Obama is heading to Florida on Thursday to promote an energy strategy that the administration says will reduce dependence on foreign oil in the long term. But Obama's pitch will also have a subtext: that the federal government can do little to halt the current rise in gasoline prices. Obama will speak at the University of Miami and tour the school's Industrial...

Gas prices mentioned in 97 stories in one month of 2008 coverage, compared to just 21 in 2012. Rising gas prices used to be big news, but not so these days. Although the national average climbed to $3.56 on Feb. 20, setting a February record after going up nearly a month straight, there was far less coverage than in 2008. Broadcast networks repeatedly covered the rise under the Bush presidency. Gas prices bounced around eventually reaching $3.56-a-gallon on April 24, 2008. The Business and Media Institute analyzed broadcast network news references to gas or fuel prices between Jan. 20 and...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will deliver a speech on energy and rising gas prices Thursday at the University of Miami, FOX News Channel reported. White House officials told FOX the president will lay out an "all of the above" approach to the nation's energy security that he has previously outlined and will tout the fact that domestic oil production has risen on his watch while imports have decreased. Gas prices have continued to climb in recent months, surpassing $4 per gallon in some areas. According to the Automobile Association of America's (AAA) Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average price...

Can Americans Handle $150 Oil? February 21, 2012Douglas A. McIntyre The International Energy Agency said Europe could “cope” with a supply shortage brought on by a drop in imports of crude from Iran, but that prices might temporarily reach near the $147 a barrel peak of 2008. The chief of large energy firm Vitol told the Financial Times that crude could reach and stay at $150. It is not entirely possible to determine what oil at $140 or $150 would do to the average American household budget, but a look at Census data suggests that the effects would be harsh....

Ridiculously High Gas Prices Expected To Hit Major US Cities By Memorial Day Calculated Risk Febuary 19, 2012 From the Mercury News: Gas prices surging beyond $4 a gallon -- and they will go higher Gasoline prices are rising at an almost unheard-of pace, and painfully so in California, where the cost for a fill-up now exceeds $4 a gallon in five cities and is approaching that dreaded mark in numerous others, including San Jose and Oakland. The statewide average of $3.96 on Friday is 25 cents higher than just a month ago and 46 cents more than this time...

Gas Prices Expected To Soar 60 Cents: How That Impacts Your BudgetBy: Diane Lee | News Channel 7 Updated: February 06, 2012 - 4:32 PM GREENVILLE, S.C. - For 16 years John and Clare Coulis have driven the 1200 mile journey to Ontario and back every May. When they started, gas was under a dollar. Now... "I think I want to occupy BP," he said with a laugh. In all seriousness, it is slated to get worse. Analysts predict prices will sour 60 cents from now until May. The main reasons: Oil refiners have cut back on production because of...

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (AP Photo) During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the BLS. (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation.) Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon,...

Students drowning in their own student loan debt has caused massive amounts of public outcry because graduates have no way to pay off the cost of their education. Even though sometimes it is the student’s fault for pursuing and graduating with a worthless degree, the problem of the student debt cannot be ignored. The true source of the problem is government intervention in (what should be) a free market education system. As it stands right now, the Federal government is guaranteeing student loans so it looks like Old Uncle Sam is trying to invest in American students and the future...

A Punch To The Mouth – Food Price Volatility Hits The World January 5, 2012Gregory McDonaldPerfect Storms 2011 was an abysmal year for the global insurance industry, which had to cover yet another enormous increase in damages from natural disasters. Unknown to most casual observers is the fact that during the past few decades the frequency of weather-related disasters (floods, fires, storms) has been growing at a much faster pace than geological disasters (such as earthquakes). This spread between the two types of insurable losses has moved so strongly that it prompted Munich Re to note in a late 2010...

The Consumer Won't Look So Hot When Gas Prices Catch Up To Oil Prices Lance Roberts, Street Talk Live Dec. 6, 2011, 3:11 PM Yesterday I pulled into my local gas station and went through the automated motions of filling up my non-green, oil consuming, emission generating vehicle while thinking about my day of meetings ahead of me. While the pump did its job I checked my email and scrolled the web for the latest headlines out of Europe. As the pump shut off I extracted the nozzle from my car and replaced it on the pump while looking up...

OTTAWA -- Republicans turned up the heat on U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday to reverse his decision to delay what was described at a congressional hearing as the safest oil pipeline ever proposed. A parade of witnesses appeared at a House sub-committee meeting on energy to defend the safety and economic benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline, and to warn of the consequences should it rupture. And in between partisan sniping between Democrats and Republicans, pipeline junkies learned Alberta-based TransCanada Corp. has adopted 57 additional safety measures, including 21,000 censors linked to satellites to detect problems. "This is the...