THE monster created by careless, profit-driven BP executives has trashed the beaches and wetlands of the Deep South without fear - fearless not due to its malevolent soul, it has no soul - but due to its massive size and wealth. But wait! A trim man in a black T-shirt steps into the monster's path with the moves and the body of a light-middleweight boxer. It is CNN's Anderson Cooper, with fists clenched and fire in his eyes.
Consumers are facing a perfect storm this winter as the biggest credit crunch and housing recession since 1990 combine with an energy price spike to test their shopping mettle. Many economists are reluctant to bet against a nation of inveterate shoppers who in recent years faced down disasters, wars and terrorist attacks without blinking. But others fear they will finally succumb to this year's toxic combination of tightening credit and rising energy prices, which threatens to zap purchasing power during the holiday season.
WASHINGTON -- Speculation by large investors -- and not supply and demand for oil -- were a primary reason for the surge in oil prices during the first half of the year and the more recent price declines, an independent study concluded Wednesday. The report by Masters Capital Management said investors poured $60 billion into oil futures markets during the first five months of the year as oil prices soared from $95 a barrel in January to $145 a barrel by July.
On June 9, Indonesia's attorney general's office and the religious and home affairs ministries issued a joint statement ordering the Ahmadiyah to "stop spreading interpretations and activities which deviate from the principal teachings of Islam," but did not ban it.
So much for the idea that President Bush went to war for cheap oil. Yes, I know, they're now imagining that high gas prices are actually lining the pockets of the president's cronies at ExxonMobil and Sunoco. But this is not an argument advanced by grown-ups. I cannot pretend to plumb the intricacies of oil prices. I gather that the current high prices are attributable to a number of factors including, in no particular order: the decline of the dollar, high demand and OPEC. But it does appear to me that wherever you look along the political spectrum, a lack of sobriety on this subject reigns.
NEW YORK -- Wall Street ended the week with a big decline as investors grappled with two of the biggest threats to the economy: fallout from turmoil in the credit market and surging energy prices. All three major indexes suffered losses for the week.
DETROIT (HedgeWorld.com) - The plunge last week of General Motors Corp.'s stock price, coupled with the risks of bankruptcy the automaker faces, have sent the cost of insuring General Motors debt soaring. GM's problems range from drastic drops in sales to high oil prices and labor costs. But some derivatives experts said the mere existence of large long positions in credit protection could increase the odds of a bankruptcy filing.
THEY come with metronomic regularity, these media stories about "soaring" gasoline prices and the causes thereof, news stories which always identify the same two culprits, supply and demand. The stories always give various reasons why supplies are tight - more often, why prices include a risk premium based on fears that supplies might become tight - or why demand is higher than it is "should" be, given supposedly high prices. Today, as the price of a gallon of regular ($2.70 nationally on Monday) "soars" almost to where it was (measured in constant dollars) in 1982, the "news" is: "Drivers Offer a Collective Ho-Hum as Gasoline Prices Soar" (The New York Times, last Friday). People are not changing their behavior because the real, inflation- adjusted cost of that behavior has not changed...
PINEY POINT, Md. -- President Bush marked Labor Day on Monday by promising to help keep U.S. workers competitive in global markets and reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil so it doesn't choke U.S. economic expansion. Dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes our capacity to grow," Bush said in a speech focused on the U.S. economy -- a key issue in November elections that will determine whether the GOP retains control of the House and Senate.
LAKESHORE, Miss. - Pete Yarborough, a trucker who hauled seafood until the BP oil spill hit, and about 800 other households are under pressure to buy or get out of the state-owned cottages they've been living in since Hurricane Katrina left them homeless. Yarborough's 400-square-foot cottage sits on cinder blocks 13 feet above sea level, 7 feet lower than post-Katrina standards require. He can buy the cottage for $351, but it would cost about $23,000 to raise it in the flood-prone area, and Yarborough can't afford that.
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