Truckers park rigs to protest gas prices

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Posted: Feb 26, 2008 08:11 PM PST

Updated: Feb 26, 2008 08:11 PM PST

SCREVEN, GEORGIA (WTOC) - Gas prices have some truckers feeling helpless. In Screven, Georgia, a group of truckers are taking some drastic measures.

It's not a rest area or a campground, but along Highway 84 in Screven, you'll find some truckers and their families. Ron White says, "I'm telling you, everything is getting so expensive."

"I don't know where I'm going from here," says Eddie Hudson. For most of his life Hudson has been a contract log hauler. He says he remembers the good old days when fuel prices were reasonable. "You can spend from $400 to $600 of fuel to haul 18 to 20 loads."

But not anymore. At many service stations Hudson has gotten used to seeing fuel prices well over $3 a gallon. Hudson says with gas prices well over $3, if he were to fill up his truck right now it would cost him well over $1,100, and he can't afford that.

That's why Eddie, Ron and their families have decided to park their rigs to send a message - claiming the sky-high fuel costs are forcing them out of a job. "That means I'm in serious trouble and the country's in trouble," says Hudson.

Eddie believes so strongly in what he's doing, he has no plans to leave anytime soon. But he admits it's tough. "It hurts," he says. "This is all I know how to do."

"I can't support my family anymore."

Hudson says he will stay there as long as it takes.

http://www.wistv.com/global/story.as...Type=Printable
..........................................................benny

Oil hits a high; some in U.S. see $4 gas by spring
By Jad Mouawad

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Gasoline prices, which for months lagged the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts fearing they could hit $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily and oil closed at an all-time high on Tuesday of $100.88 a barrel.

The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, high energy prices that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could exacerbate the nation's economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing.

"The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession," said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economist.

The depth of the nation's economic problems became clearer Tuesday with the release of figures showing that prices at the producer level rose 1 percent in January, driven in large measure by energy costs. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 7.4 percent, the worst producer price inflation in the United States since 1981.

Other new figures showed that home prices around the country are falling at an accelerating pace, suggesting no end is in sight for the housing meltdown. As of Tuesday, regular gasoline was selling at a nationwide average of $3.14 a gallon, according to AAA, the automobile club, up from $2.35 a year ago. The price has jumped 19 cents a gallon in two weeks. Energy specialists predict that as demand picks up further this spring and summer, retail prices will surpass the high of $3.23 a gallon set last Memorial Day weekend.

On Tuesday, diesel prices rose to a record $3.60 a gallon, compared with $2.62 a gallon last year.

For a decade, rising oil prices had failed to dent global economic growth. In the United States, consumers absorbed the higher costs thanks to easy credit and rising prosperity, while in developing countries, government subsidies helped ease the pain. The rise in energy prices was a result of growing demand around the world.

The price of oil has quadrupled in six years, and Tuesday's close was not far below the inflation-adjusted all-time high set in April 1980, after the Iranian revolution. That record, $39.50 a barrel, equals $103.76 in today's money.

As oil prices spiked last fall, low wintertime gasoline demand helped keep prices in check. But now, experts say, the price of oil is finally showing up at the pump.

For Americans like Phyllis Berry, a 31-year-old General Motors factory worker in Cleveland, gasoline costs are starting to hurt.

"I used to fill it up pretty regularly, but now I drive it until the tank is almost empty, looking for the cheapest place to buy gas," said Berry, who drives a beat-up Chevrolet Caravan. She said that she used to take her four children to the movies four or five times a month. But with the cost of gas, tickets, popcorn and soda adding up to $70, they now go only once a month.Still, things are not quite as bad as during the 1970s and 1980s oil shocks. In the early 1980s, at the height of the last energy crisis, energy accounted for more than 8 percent of household spending. As prices fell and the economy became less energy intensive, energy costs fell under 4 percent of household spending in the early 1990s.

With the run-up in prices in recent years, economists say energy's share of disposable income is slowly creeping up again. Last December, that figure reached 6.1 percent, the highest level since 1985. The increase of two percentage points — amounting to $200 billion — is a huge sum, a little less than half what Americans spend each year on new cars and automobile parts.

"You're adding an oil shock on top of a crunch on credit and a housing collapse," said Nigel Gault, an economist at Global Insight. "Even the U.S. economy cannot withstand all of that at the same time."

American consumers have responded belatedly by cutting back on their energy use. Oil demand in the United States grew by just 0.4 percent in 2007 and is expected to be flat in 2008.

But global oil demand, the relentless driver behind higher prices, is still expected to increase by 1.4 million barrels a day this year, analysts estimate. That growth, from China and the Middle East, may help keep prices up, whatever happens to the American economy.

According to the Energy Department's latest forecast, gasoline prices should peak near $3.40 a gallon this spring. That figure would match the inflation-adjusted record price for gasoline that was reached in early 1981.

But many outside analysts consider the government's forecast conservative, foreseeing a sharper spike as refiners come out of the seasonal maintenance period and start producing summer-grade gasoline in March and April.

"We've gone this high without the normal summer dynamics," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. "That's when I think we will have the big jump — of 50 cents to 75 cents a gallon."

Kloza said he expects gasoline to peak around $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon nationwide. Geoff Sundstrom, AAA's spokesman, echoed that view and added that $4-a-gallon gasoline is possible this summer. "We've gone from a worrying situation for gasoline to one that is quite alarming," Sundstrom said.

Oil prices are unlikely to drop any time soon, analysts said. Barclays Capital recently raised its long-term prediction, saying prices could reach $137 a barrel in 2015, up from a previous target of $93 a barrel.

"The remorseless move up in long-run prices has not yet fully played out," Barclays analysts said in a note to investors.

While demand keeps growing, producers are struggling to catch up. They are not replacing the oil they are pumping out of the ground fast enough because of various restrictions on access to fields, as well as rising costs. Meanwhile, demand from China, India and the Middle East is expected to push oil consumption up by more than 1 million barrels a day, each year, for the next decade.

"An oil crisis is coming in the next 10 years," John Hess, the chairman of Hess Corporation, said at a recent conference in Houston hosted by Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "It's not a matter of demand. It's not a matter of supplies. It's both."
.......................................................benny

Market Place
Russia Quietly Starts to Shift Its Oil Trade Into Rubles
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By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: February 27, 2008
MOSCOW — Americans surely found little to celebrate when the price of oil settled above $100 a barrel last week.

They could, though, be thankful that oil is still priced in dollars, making the milestone of triple-digit oil prices noteworthy at all.

Russia, the world’s second-largest oil-exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, has been quietly preparing to switch trading in Russian Ural Blend oil, the country’s primary export, to the ruble from the dollar. Industry analysts and officials, however, say that this change, if it comes, is still some time off.

The Russian effort began modestly this month, with trading in refined products for the domestic market.

Still, the effort to squeeze the dollar out of Russian oil sales is yet another project notable for swagger and ambition by the Kremlin, which has already wielded its energy wealth to assert influence in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

“They are serious,” said Yaroslav Lissovolik, the chief economist at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. “This is something they are giving priority to.”

Oil trading is nearly always denominated in dollars. When Middle Eastern oil is sold to Asia, for example, the price is set in dollars.

Similarly, Russia’s large trade with Western Europe and the former Soviet states in crude oil and natural gas is conducted in dollar-denominated contracts. Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, set the price of gas in Ukraine at $179 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2008, for example. There are no proposals yet to switch gas pricing away from dollars.

As a result, companies and countries that buy petroleum products are encouraged to hold dollar reserves to pay for their supplies, coincidentally helping the American economy support its trade deficit.

Russia would like to change this practice, at least among its customers, as a means of elevating the importance of the ruble, a new source of national pride after gaining 30 percent against the dollar during the current oil boom.

In a speech on economic policy this month, Dmitri A. Medvedev, a deputy prime minister and the likely successor to President Vladimir V. Putin in elections on March 2, said Russia should seize opportunities created by the weak dollar.

“Today, the global economy is going through uneasy times,” Mr. Medvedev said. “The role of the key reserve currencies is under review. And we must take advantage of it.” He asserted that “the ruble will de facto become one of the regional reserve currencies.”

Other oil-exporting countries are also chafing at dealing in the weakening dollar.

Since 2005, Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, has tried to open a commodity exchange to trade oil in currencies other than the dollar. The Iranian ambassador to Russia said Iran might choose rubles to free his country from “dollar slavery.”

To be sure, some economists have dismissed the project as improbable, given the exotic nature of a security — oil futures contracts denominated in rubles — that would blend currency risk with the dollar-based global oil market.

Ruble-denominated futures contracts for Ural Blend, the main Russian grade, would be attractive only if the dollar continues to depreciate, said Vitaly Y. Yermakov, research director for Russian and Caspian energy at Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

“There is a big distance between the desire to trade commodities for rubles and the ability to do so,” he said.

All this has not stopped the Kremlin from trying.

In a sign of the government’s seriousness, a new glass-and-marble high-rise home for a ruble-denominated commodity exchange is rising this spring in a prestigious district in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city after Moscow. The exchange will occupy three floors of the 16-story tower on Vasilievsky Island, one of the islands that make up the historic city center.

The director of the St. Petersburg exchange, Viktor V. Nikolayev, said that the intention was to move slowly and gain market acceptance; the government will not strong-arm sellers or buyers onto the exchange, even in an industry dominated by the state.

Web-based trading for refined products like gasoline or diesel is being introduced in three phases for domestic customers, beginning with government buyers like the Russian navy or municipal bus companies. Private brokers will be allowed to trade in March; futures contracts will be introduced in April.

Mr. Nikolayev said no timeline had been established for trading for export on the exchange, which also handles grain, sugar, mineral fertilizer, cement and esoteric financial products like Russian government beef and pork import quotas — all in rubles.

“We are in Russia, and the currency is rubles, not euros, not dollars,” he said. “We don’t want to depend on the rise or fall of the dollar.”

“We will trade in rubles, to strengthen the ruble,” he said.

.............................................benny

JPost.com » Business » Business News » Article


Feb 27, 2008 16:14
Oil spikes above $102 a barrel
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria
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Oil prices rose to a new intraday high above $102 a barrel Wednesday as a slide in the US dollar prompted investors to pump more money into energy futures as a hedge against inflation.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery spiked as high as $102.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before slipping back to $100.54 down 34 cents, in afternoon European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract on Tuesday jumped $1.65 to settle at $100.88 a barrel, a record close.


.................................................benny

Half of world to live in cities by end '08
Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:51pm EST

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - By the end of this year one half of the world's population will be living in cities for the first time in human history, the United Nations said in a new report released on Tuesday.

According to the report, by the year 2050 there will be 6.4 billion people living in cities, up from 3.3 billion at present. The world's total population is expected to rise to 9.2 billion in 2050 from the current figure of 6.7 billion.

As urbanization increases, the world's rural population is expected to begin declining in around a decade and should fall to 2.8 billion people in 2050 from 3.4 billion in 2007, the report said.

Some countries, like India -- home to two of the world's biggest metropolises, Mumbai and Delhi with 19 and 18.8 million people respectively in 2007 -- aim to slow down the process of urbanization by encouraging development of rural areas.

Despite the challenges urbanization poses for governments and local authorities, Hania Zlotnik, head of the U.N. Population Division, told reporters urbanization is generally a sign of a lively economy.

"Governments would be well advised that urban growth is a proof of economic dynamism," Zlotnik told reporters.

Still, intense urbanization and the expected addition of eight new "megacities" -- cities with 10 million or more inhabitants -- by the year 2025 will pose new challenges.

Governments need to make sure large urban populations have access to basic services, above all health care, Zlotnik said.

MORE HERE: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2635607520080226
................................................benny

Dollar plunges to fresh record euro low

Feb 27 06:07 AM US/Eastern
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The dollar plunged to another record low against the European single currency on Wednesday as a stream of negative US data undermined the greenback, analysts said.
In morning deals, the euro surged as high as 1.5088 dollars, after smashing through the 1.50 barrier for the first ever time in US trade on Tuesday.

"The euro is trading above 1.50 against the dollar for the first time since the eurozone came into existence in January 1999," said Global Insight analyst Howard Archer.

"This is primarily a consequence of the dollar being undermined by further weak US data heightening concerns over the US economy and reinforcing expectations of additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve."

.................................................benny

Food is Becoming The New Oil, OPEC Shows The Way as Grain Prices Reach New Heights
Posted February 27, 2008 | 08:42 AM (EST)





What's good for the goose is good for the gander. As the world's governments acquiesce to the outrage of OPEC's collusion to manipulate the price of oil another storm is looming in the near distance. Grain prices are lurching forward. Wheat prices have reached new records and soybeans (including soybean oil and soybean meal) and corn

are not far behind. The UN is warning on the impact of rising food prices cautioning many nations may not be able to cope. Argentina, Russia and Kazakhstan have imposed restrictions on grain exports.
Where are prices going and what is at stake. Yesterday the price of wheat touched and passed $12 per bushel on the CBE. According to the USDA the variable cost (seed, fertilizer, energy) to grow plant and harvest an acre of wheat is $91 per acre. Each acre yields some 42 bushels of wheat (subject to some regional variances of course). Thus it costs approximately $2.61 to grow a bushel of wheat. Add to this the annual carrying cost of each acre of land, which can vary depending on local land values, land taxes etc. A figure of $1.75 per acre would be a fair estimate. Thus the cost to produce a bushel of wheat to an American farmer could be reasonably estimated at $4.36 per bushel.

At $12 a bushel per the calculations above, this would accord Farmer Jones a profit of just under $8.00 per bushel, a level as close to heaven as he has ever been even though it begins to present economic and social dangers for the rest of the world.

But wait, before one begins to pontificate about our farmers enriching themselves on the backs of the masses, consider this- the price of another vital commodity, oil. Let's compare some profit margins. Here is our Farmer Jones, hard worker and diligent as he is, enjoying the fruits of his labor and enjoying a return of 300 percent, margins he has never seen before. Nothing to sneeze at but still pony league compared to the giants of finance who have been shown the door at Citicorp, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide.

Yet when it comes to bonanzas our friends in places like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait truly take the ring. They and the other charter members of OPEC have no limits to their rapaciousness. Today they are allocating oil (as in production quotas) to us and the rest of the world at prices that now exceed $100 a barrel. And this for the Saudis and Kuwaitis at production costs that are less than $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents) a barrel.

So our Farmer Jones gets dirty looks with his 300 percent margin. This while our Saudi and Kuwaiti friends are welcomed in the halls of government and civil society with margins exceeding 6500 percent. The price of wheat with the same multiple would reach $283 per bushel. Let me repeat that number, $283 per bushel.

At those levels Farmer Jones would have to build a bunker on his farm spread and stock it with ample supplies of vintage wines and the best Kentucky bourbon. A lot of people are going to waiting outside with pitchforks.

If the agricultural sector was doing to us what the OPEC led oil patch is getting away with, the howls of outrage would be worldwide. Food riots, rationing would be the order of the day. Yet the oil sector gets away with the most outrageous market manipulation colluding to mark up their commodity to the most outrageous levels, and this outrage is met with barely a beep.

Ah, but you say, these are different commodities. Oil is finite, and if you believe the peak oil pranksters, in precipitous decline. As I have posted before, that is a highly questionable perception (see "Peak Oil is Snake Oil " 06,25.07), used all too willingly by the oil producers and their flacks to rationalize ever higher prices.

But that is not the point here. You see wheat, corn, soybeans are all in their way consummately finite. Without such mineral nutrient inputs as phosphates, potash, nitrates/nitrogen at planting, crop yields would collapse with crippling famine sweeping large swaths of the planet. And if oil is finite, then too are these basic minerals, the building blocks of chemical fertilizer. Not only are they as finite as oil, but often more limited and more difficult to access. Think the end of the "Green Revolution".

While the price of grains move sharply higher, there is no moral equivalence to hold them in check until outrage and concern is expressed and steps are taken to address the consummate distortion in the price of oil. Remember as we started, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymon...-_b_88666.html
.............................................benny

International experts foresee collapse of U.S. economy


And you thought that I had a gloomy outlook on the economy. Now the bad news pops up everywhere.

Harry Koza in the Globe and Mail quotes Bernard Connelly, the global strategist at Banque AIG in London, who claims that the likelihood of a Great Depression is growing by the day.

Martin Wolf, celebrated columnist of the U.K.-based Financial Times, cites Dr. Nouriel Roubini of the New York University's Stern School of Business, who, in 12 steps, outlines how the losses of the American financial system will grow to more than $1 trillion - that's one million times $1 million. That amount is equal to all the assets of all American banks.

Every day now, thousands of people all over the U.S. and Great Britain are walking away from their homes - simply mailing their house keys to the banks - as housing bailout plans fail.

With unemployment growing, the next phase will hit commercial real estate making the financial institutions the unwilling owners not only of quickly depreciating houses, but also of empty strip malls and even larger shopping centres.

The next domino to fall will be credit card defaults, and after that... who knows? There are so many exotic funds out there, with trillions of dollars in paper - or rather computer-screen money - all carrying assorted acronyms, and all about to disintegrate into nothingness. Over the next couple of years, scores of banks that have thrived on these devices, based on quickly disappearing equities, will fail.

The most frightening forecast so far comes from the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB), available for 200 euros - about $300 - for 16 issues annually. Its prediction is quite specific.

Where my warnings never spelled out an exact date, this think tank has it pegged precisely. Here are its very words:

"The end of the third quarter of 2008 (thus late September, a mere seven months from now) will be marked by a new tipping point in the unfolding of the global systemic crisis.

"At that time indeed, the cumulated impact of the various sequences of the crisis will reach its maximum strength and affect decisively the very heart of the systems concerned, on the front line of which (is) the United States, epicentre of the current crisis.

"In the United States, this new tipping point will translate into - get this - a collapse of the real economy, (the) final socio-economic stage of the serial bursting of the housing and financial bubbles and of the pursuance of the U.S. dollar fall. The collapse of U.S. real economy means the virtual freeze of the American economic machinery: private and public bankruptcies in large numbers, companies and public services closing down."

The report goes on to say that we are entering a period for which there is no historic precedent. Any comparisons with previous situations in our modern economy are invalid.

We are not experiencing a "remake" of the 1929 crisis nor a repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis.

What we will have, instead, is truly a global momentous threat - a true turning point affecting the entire planet and questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the world was organized in the last decades.

The report emphasizes that it is, first and foremost, in the United States where this historic happening is taking an unprecedented shape (the authors call it "Very Great U.S. Depression").

It continues to predict that, although this crucial event is global, it will be the beginning of an economic 'decoupling' between the U.S. and the rest of the world. However, non 'decoupled' economies will be dragged down the U.S. negative spiral.

Concerning stock markets, the GEAB anticipates that international stocks would plummet by 40 to 80 per cent depending where in the world they are located, all affected in the course of the year 2008 by the collapse of the real economy in the U.S. by the end of summer.

The European authors of this report - it appears simultaneously in French, German and English - state that they simply and without prejudice try to describe in advance the consequences of the ominous trends at play in this 21st-century world, and to share these with their readers, so that they can take the proper means to protect themselves from the most negative effects.

So there you have it. Three reports from three different sources, all well regarded, and all pointing to a disastrous fall-out from our monetary moves.

This and earlier columns can be seen at hielema.ca. Comments to hielema@allstream.net.


Copyright © 2008 Belleville Intelligencer

http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleD....aspx?e=918803
...............................................................benny

Soaring food prices imperil U.S. aid
Government to scale back donations, reduce number of recipient nations
By Anthony Faiola
The Washington Post
updated 2:00 a.m. CT, Sat., March. 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.

USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India.

Officials said they were reviewing all of the agency's emergency programs -- which target almost 40 countries and zones including Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia, Honduras and Sudan's Darfur region -- to decide how and where the cuts will be made.

Setting priorities
"We're in the process now of going country by country and analyzing the commodity price increase on each country," said Jeff Borns, director of USAID's Food for Peace, the organization's food aid arm. "Then we're going to have to prioritize."

The reductions, international relief agencies say, will seriously complicate already strained efforts to combat global hunger, particularly in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. Poor countries in those regions are struggling to cope with record food price surges, which have made it difficult for aid groups to sustain their operations in some countries.

The cuts will likely have a direct impact on major USAID partners, including aid groups and the United Nations World Food Program, the largest international provider, which counts on U.S. food aid for 40 percent of its distribution.

The U.N. program is confronting similar price pressures. It announced this month that it was facing a $505 million shortfall due to soaring food and fuel costs, and would cut distribution if it did not receive new funds. Meanwhile, need is increasing. Afghanistan, for instance, recently put in an emergency request for $77 million to cope with skyrocketing prices that have put key staples out of reach for more and more Afghans.

"Look at what's happened to wheat prices alone -- they shot up 25 percent in one day last week," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program. "This is really the first emergency we've faced without a drought, war, natural disaster. We will have to cut the amount of people being served or the amount of food being served if we do not get more funds."

Agencies express alarm
Groups that work with USAID, several of which have been informed of the shortfall over the past two weeks, are alarmed. Emergency aid is earmarked only for countries in desperate need as a result of natural disasters, civil strife or other humanitarian crises. Although the United States has proportionally provided less of the world's food aid in recent years, it still provides about half the global total in efforts to relieve hunger among more than 800 million people. In 2007, USAID gave about 2.5 million tons of food, accounting for more than 50 percent of the emergency aid in a number of nations, including Ethiopia.

USAID officials would not speculate on which countries might be picked for cuts, though aid workers said it was unlikely that those with the greatest need -- such as Sudan -- would be hit hard. Most at risk appeared to be long-term emergency programs in such countries as Nepal, where unrest has quieted, as well as a number of African countries, such as Tanzania, that had relatively good harvests last year.

The Bush administration's 2008 USAID budget request calls for $1.2 billion in food aid with a supplemental $350 million to cover assistance in Darfur and critical situations in southern Africa, Kenya and other hot spots.

USAID officials said the administration, facing a tight budget year, was not planning to request funds to cover the projected $200 million shortfall from the price increases. USAID purchases grains in the same domestic commodities market as the U.S. companies that serve up Wonder bread or Big Macs, meaning they pay the same high market rates. As a result, officials said, the program cuts are necessary. "At this point, this is the administration's request," Borns said yesterday.

Aid groups said they would press USAID and the Bush administration to pursue more funds from Congress to cover the shortfall. Several are concerned that the cuts come at a time when the Senate is considering a farm bill that would make it much harder for USAID to tap into non-emergency food in the event of a catastrophic event such as the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Frank Orzechowski, an adviser for Catholic Relief Services, said his organization has calculated that U.S. food aid would drop from 2.6 million tons last year to about 2.2 million this year. "That is going to be a pretty big hit for the people who can afford it the least," he said.

"The biggest concern is that there are going to be more people being pushed into food insecurity in poor countries because they don't have the purchasing power to cover higher costs, and we will be less rather than more prepared to cope with that. Higher commodity prices is not a situation that the U.S. is to blame for, but we are going to need to see it step up now and decide to make a greater contribution anyway."

Although it may take several months before the cuts are felt, higher food prices already have begun to erode the non-emergency aid and development programs sponsored by USAID in partnership with CARE, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and others. In the case of one Asian nation, CARE said USAID had provided 10 percent less non-emergency food aid than expected, citing higher prices.

In Liberia, Catholic Relief Services funds its developmental programs -- including health worker training and technical assistance to farmers -- by selling wheat or rice provided by USAID at market prices. But, Catholic Relief was unable to find buyers for those grains in January because market prices have jumped so high that local buyers have switched to cheaper foods. The aid group is scrambling to find alternate sources before its funding runs out in April.

© 2008 The Washington Post Company

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23418142/..................benny

- loss of bees causes massive crisis for US agriculture

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...b/25/useconomy

Ice cream crisis as bees buzz off
John Sterlicchi, US correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday February 25 2008 Article history · Contact us

Cinema goers watching Bee move are being signed up to save the bee

The collapse of US honeybee colonies this year is set to devastate America's multibillion dollar agriculture and food industries.

Last year about 750,000 of the 2.5m hives in the US were wiped out in mysterious circumstances, and already this year the American Beekeeping Federation says there is evidence from its members that losses will be even greater this year.

For the first time individual businesses have stepped forward to give money to try to speed up the process of finding out, first of all, what causes colony collapse disease (CCD) and then eradicating it.

Häagen-Dazs, the ice cream making subsidiary of General Mills, gave a total of $250,000 (£127,000) to two university research teams and Burt's Bees, the personal care products maker, made a undisclosed grant to create the Honeybee Health Improvement Project, a research task force.

Burt's Bees also launched a public service announcement to run in cinemas showing Bee Movie. In the announcement co-founder Burt Shavitz talked about the important role bees play in agriculture.

He then urged audiences to visit the company's website (www.burtsbees.com ) to sign up to receive a free packet of wildflower seeds to help create a bee-friendly environment.

Honeybees are said to be critical to the production of $15bn worth of crops in the US and Häagen-Dazs says around 25 of its 60 flavours depend on fruits and nuts pollinated by bees.

The ice cream maker is also aiming to raise consumer awareness about CCD by launching a new flavour this spring called Vanilla Honey Bee.

Flying off

Diana Cox-Foster, professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences, which received $150,000 from Häagen-Dazs, believes researchers have identified a major cause of CCD.

Her team has recently given the mite-transmitted Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) to healthy bee colonies and has seen rapid die-off??. As it is winter those tests took place in greenhouses so the researchers are waiting for the weather to improve to verify the results with bees in their normal environments.

The mysterious and unique aspect of CCD is that the bees are not being found dead near their colonies. They are flying off; just abandoning their life's work, leaving behind the queen and a few younger bees.

Professor Cox-Foster believes that there are other factors together with IAPV are the cause of CCD, such as other viruses, the use of chemicals near colonies and whether the bees are receiving enough nutrition.

To beekeepers pesticides are definitely part of the problem, says Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation. "A lot of beekeepers blame neonicotinoid insecticides. These are safer for humans and other mammals but they affect the neurological systems of bees. They don't kill the bees outright but they cause to act in ways different to the norm."

The beekeepers believe these insecticides, which in fact have been partially banned in France, weaken the immune system of the bees thereby allowing viruses such as IAPV to strike.

Beekeepers that have their hives in the forest or grasslands and not near cultivated crops are doing well, so there is anecdotal evidence that the pesticides and insecticides are part of the problem, said Fore.

Australia on the attack

But not everyone agrees that IAPV is a cause of CCD. Australian government scientists miffed that the Penn State team suggested in a paper published in Science that IAPV arrived in the US in imports of live bees from Australia pointed out in a follow-up letter that there were several CCD colonies free of IAPV and the "shivering phenotype", and the death of bees close to the hive associated with IAPV in Israel.

The assertion that IAPV came from Australian bees was also refuted by the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, which said that IAPV was found in the country back in 2002, two years before the importation of Australian bees was instituted to replenish colonies.

The Australians, which see their $5m a year live bee exporting industry endangered by such allegations, have demanded that Penn State withdraw its conclusions. They also point out that neither CCD nor large-scale, unexplained mortality events have occurred in the Australian bee industry.

The first description of IAPV came from Israel in 2002 and since then there have been die-outs of bees across the globe, some definitely attributable to the virus.

British beekeepers too are worried that CCD may come to these shores and they have called on the government to back a five-year, £8m research programme designed to save the insect.

Back in America all eyes are nowadays on California's almond trees, which represent a $2.5bn industry. The pink and white blossoms have started to appear and the concern is whether there are the tens of thousands bees needed to pollinate the crop.

"The almonds are in bloom right now in California and we are hearing there are some significant die-offs. It's worrisome," said professor Cox-Foster.
..............................................benny

NEW ECONOMY

YOU WANTED NEW ECONOMY
SEE NOW WHAT IS DOES
RESOURCES STOLEN
PRODUCED GREED

GREED WITHOUT ME
MANY HAVE FEW
FEW HAVE MANY
REVERSE IT I WILL

Iran shifts oil sales away from dollar

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company for international affairs says Iran has completely dropped dollar in its oil sales.

“We issue invoices in dollars and agree with clients that the letters of credit and other means of payment will have a non-dollar basis,” he said.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Hojjatollah Ghanimifard said that over the past three months, Iran has received 75 percent of the proceeds from its oil sales in euros and the remaining 25 percent in the Japanese currency, yen.

Analysts are of the view that Iran's oil revenues have enabled the country to bear the costs of UN sanctions and US attempts to prevent dollar transactions through third party banks.

Ali Shams-Ardakani, head of the energy committee of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, said the move away from the dollar was “absolutely right” and was economically justifiable on the grounds that it helped prevent losses due to the fall in the value of the US currency. “It should have happened much earlier,” FT quoted him as saying.

Ghanimifard did not deny there have been some problems for Iran in opening letters of credit but did not elaborate on the extent of the problem or which banks were involved.

“Sanctions could not harm our exports and those banks that have problems issuing letters of credit for our clients are the ones that lose income,” he said, insisting that trying different channels did not cost Iran “even one single cent”.

“We understood that money does not exist only in the west,” Ghanimifard said.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020102
............................................benny

Wednesday, 05 March 2008

Europe raises heat on US to halt dollar slide

Worried Euro zone policymakers have pressured Washington to do more to limit the dollar's slide after it hit its lowest ever value against Europe's single currency.

While finance ministers raised the tone of their complaints, saying exchange rates were no longer in line with economic reality, there was no mention – implicit or explicit – of any direct central bank intervention to influence currency markets.

Guy Quaden, Belgium's representative at the European Central Bank, told Belgian radio: "Things are becoming exaggerated".

"It's up to the relevant authorities to assume their responsibilities and particularly for US authorities, who repeat that they are in favour of a strong dollar but who should reaffirm their words," he said.

The Europeans seemingly fear the dollar slide, which makes life harder for euro zone exporters, may get out of hand after the dollar sank below $US1.50 per euro last week.

It hit a new low on Monday at $US1.5275 per euro, according to Reuters data, and was trading not far from that level on Tuesday as European finance ministers met for a second day of monthly economic policy deliberations in Brussels.

Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders delivered much the same message, less bluntly than Quaden.

"There's a limit. The feeling is the dollar is more of a problem nowadays than the euro. What reassures me is that the American authorities seem to be realising this and they want a strong dollar. I'm quite happy with this development."

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon added his voice to the rising chorus of complaint, echoing declarations overnight at a Brussels meeting of the euro zone's finance ministers and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet.

"There is a problem in the relationship between the dollar and the euro," he told French Europe 1 radio, saying exchange rate developments were partly to blame for the rising price of commodities, which from oil to wheat are soaring.

Tuesday's talks were broadened to ministers from all 27 European Union countries, which include the 15 euro zoners who met the evening before.

When the euro was in the opposite situation back in 2000, worth little more than 80 US cents at its weakest, the ECB intervened in currency markets to stem its slide.

There was no hint on Tuesday of such action to push the euro the other way.

Asked whether the finance ministers had talked about intervention, Greece's George Alogoskoufis told reporters: "No, no, there was no discussion of that."

The euro zoners talked at length about currency developments and agreed with Trichet to voice their mounting concern, mainly via Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup, where ministers confer with the ECB chief.

"In the present circumstances we're concerned about exchange rate moves," Juncker said on Monday, adding that what he had to say was agreed by all in the Eurogroup meeting.

"We have never previously said that we were concerned on the basis of current circumstances. We don't think the recent moves are reflecting economic fundamentals," he said.

Trichet held no news conference but did his bit to suggest that there were limits to acceptable dollar weakness.

Breaking with a tradition of not commenting to the media outside formal news conferences, Trichet stopped on his way into the Eurogroup talks on Monday to make a statement to reporters.

He stressed that Washington favoured a strong dollar. But what was more unusual was that he opted to make the point on the sidelines of a meeting that he routinely enters and exits with no more than a polite hello to the media.

"In the present circumstances, I consider it very important what has been affirmed and reaffirmed by the US authorities including the secretary of the Treasury and the president of the United States, according to whom the strong-dollar policy is in the interests of the United States of America," Trichet said.

Washington did not remain silent. "A strong dollar is in our nation's interest," US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday.

"The long-term (US economic) fundamentals are very solid and they're going to be reflected in our currency," he told Bloomberg TV.

Euro zone officials have been complaining for more than a year about the weakness of other currencies from the dollar to the Japanese yen and China's state-controlled yuan.

One factor buoying the euro versus the dollar is Europe's better economic situation compared to the United States, which many believe is on the brink of recession if not already there.

Another is the refusal of the European Central Bank to reduce interest rates. The US Federal Reserve, by contrast, has cut rates by 2.25 percentage points since last September.

Markets expect the ECB to leave rates unchanged at its policy meeting on Thursday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4426297a6026.html
.................................................benny

I am starting to feel ashamed I am a European, and consider quiting my membership, hipocrites.

For I rather be stateless than to be associated before God with the guys who turn a Temple into a place of financial lendership.
If you can not honor your ancestors and learn from their mistakes, then what good are ye?
For this I vow: when I start to march, you will shake in your booties, as the Word of Jesus falls upon you:

Matthew 12 (if ye can read!)

Euro bond spreads hit record as panic grips markets
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 12:14am GMT 06/03/2008

Investors sold Italian and Greek debt yesterday in signs of near panic liquidation, driving bond spreads to the highest level since creation of the single currency.

Spreads on Greek bonds also jumped to 52.

The yields on Italian 10-year government bonds reached 52 basis points above German Bunds, approaching levels that risk setting off a self-reinforcing spiral of investor flight.

The wild moves on the euro-zone bond markets came as gold plummeted by $29 an ounce to $957 on automatic stop losses and forced selling by funds. Crude oil futures tumbled almost $3 a barrel in New York.

The Dow Jones index fell 226 points at one stage.

Traders said the market was swept by rumours that a distressed hedge fund was being forced to sell profitable contracts to meet margin calls, triggering a cascade of sales in loosely correlated assets.

"We're in the middle of a big panic in the market," said David Keeble, a strategist at Calyon. "There are simply no buyers for anything with even slight risk on it."

The grim mood caused a reflex flight to safety, boosting Bunds and refuge currencies such as the Swiss franc and the yen.

Funds dumped bonds from the more vulnerable emerging markets and picked off the weakest members of the euro-zone.

"There are forced sellers out there having to liquidate assets," said Dominic Konstan at Credit Suisse. "There are also people out there who always felt EMU wouldn't work and this is bringing them out of the woodwork.

The blowing up of the spread does not help sentiment and these things can become self-fulfilling.”

Mounting evidence that Italy is sliding into recession have raised fears of a ballooning fiscal deficit, putting the country’s debt trajectory on an unsustainable course. The collapse of Romano Prodi’s government has left Rome in limbo and raised doubts about the viability of economic reform.

The rating agencies have already downgraded Italian debt twice. A growing number of banks have advised clients to take “short” bets against Italian debt, including Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.

Simon Derrick, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon, said flow of funds data show that foreign investors have suddenly liquidated half the Italian and Greek governments bonds accumulated over the last four years.

He said the markets were starting to price in risk that these countries would be hit much harder than Germany by the strong euro and a cyclical downturn. Brussels has halved its growth forecast for Italy to 0.7pc this year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...cnbonds105.xml
................................................benny

Oil prices rise as dollar sinks to new lows
Gas prices extend their advance toward record levels
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Oil prices hit record high
March 6: Oil prices hit a record high nearing $106 a barrel. MSNBC's Savannah Guthrie talks with CNBC's Sharon Epperson reports.
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NEW YORK - Crude oil futures rose to another record close Thursday, boosted once more by the dollar's continuing slide to new lows against the euro.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices extended their own advance toward record levels. The national average price of a gallon of gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to $3.185, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices are following oil higher, and are expected to peak this spring well above last May's record of $3.227 a gallon.

Thursday brought a mixed slate of economic news. Although reports on same-store sales suggested some retailers are doing better than expected and the number of people filing for unemployment claims dropped last week, home foreclosures jumped in the fourth quarter to an all-time high, according to The Mortgage Bankers Association.

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The European Central Bank and Bank of England, meanwhile, decided to leave interest rates unchanged.

The foreclosure data and European interest rate decisions helped push the dollar lower. Analysts believe the steadily weakening dollar is the reason oil prices have jumped to a number of new inflation-adjusted record highs this week. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling.

"This market continues to be based on the dollar," said James Cordier, founder of OptionSellers.com, a Tampa, Fla., trading firm.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose 95 cents to settle at a record $105.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier spiking to a new trading record of $105.97. However, prices alternated between gains and losses frequently Thursday as some investors sold to lock in profits from a rally that added 6 percent to crude's price in two days.

Helping push oil prices higher Thursday was an overnight rebel attack on a Colombian oil pipeline that transports 60,000 barrels of oil a day for export markets.

"The attack was in response to the Colombian military's killing of a high ranking member of the rebel group ... during a raid into Ecuador," said Addison Armstrong, director of exchange Traded Markets at TFS Energy Futures LLC in Stamford, Conn., in a research note. "The Transandino pipeline may be out of service for up to three days following the explosion."

The attack came as traders worried about escalating tensions between Colombia and Venezuela over Colombia's raid into Ecuador. Venezuela moved tanks and soldiers to the Colombian border. Ecuador said Monday it had sent 3,200 soldiers to its border with Colombia.

In other Nymex trading, April heating oil futures rose 3.02 cents to settle at a record $2.9733 a gallon, while April gasoline futures rose 1.11 cents to settle at $2.6532 a gallon.

April natural gas futures inched up 0.1 cent to settle at $9.742 per 1,000 cubic feet. The Energy Department said inventories fell by 135 billion cubic feet last week, less than analysts had expected.

In London, Brent crude rose 97 cents to settle at $102.61 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Diesel prices jumped 1.4 cents overnight to a new record national average of $3.71 a gallon. High diesel prices are boosting prices of consumer goods, the vast majority of which are transported by the distillate fuel.

.................................................benny

We have seen nothing like this in our lifetime. Foreclosures have hit an all time record. Gas is predicted to rise to $4/gal. at the pumps by spring/early summer...and continue to rise. As a result, food shortages will ensue.

We must all draw close to the Lord and His Word; prepare spiritually like never before.. Press in.

http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/06/top18.htm

FAO warning over virulent wheat fungus
By Amin Ahmed

RAWALPINDI, March 5: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has asked the authorities of Pakistan and five other wheat-producing countries, located east of Iran, to be on high alert, following a report that a new and virulent wheat fungus has moved to major wheat-growing areas in Iran.

The FAO says the detection of the wheat-rust fungus in Iran is extremely worrisome. The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk. Affected countries and the international community have to ensure that the spread of the disease is checked in order to reduce the risk to countries that are already hit by high food prices, the UN agency announced in Rome on Wednesday.

The fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying entire fields, FAO says.

According to FAO, countries in the predicted, immediate pathway grow more than 65 million hectares of wheat, accounting for 25 per cent of the global wheat harvest.

Quoting M. E. Tasneem, Chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, the FAO said: "If we don't control this stem rust threat, it will have a major impact on food security, especially since global wheat stocks are at a historic low".

"If we fail to contain Ug99 it could bring calamity to tens of millions of farmers and hundreds of millions of consumers," says Nobel Laureate Borlaug. "We know what to do and how to do it. All we need are the financial resources, scientific cooperation and political will to contain this threat to world food security."

The FAO estimated that as much as 80 per cent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa were susceptible to the wheat stem rust, Puccinia graminis. The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents.

The Iranian government has informed the FAO that the fungus has been detected in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in western Iran. Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus. Iran said it would enhance its research capacity to face the new infection and develop new wheat varieties resistant to the disease.

The wheat fungus first emerged in Uganda in 1999 and is, therefore, called Ug99. The wind-borne trans-boundary pest subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia. In 2007, an FAO mission confirmed for the first time that Ug99 had affected wheat fields in Yemen. The Ug99 strain found in Yemen was already more virulent than the one found in East Africa. Ethiopia and Kenya had serious wheat rust epidemics in 2007 with considerable yield losses.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), established to combat wheat rusts around the world, will support countries in developing resistant varieties, producing clean quality seeds, upgrading national plant protection and plant breeding services, and developing contingency plans. The BGRI was founded by Norman Borlaug (known as "the father of the Green Revolution"), Cornell University; the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the FAO.

Disease surveillance and wheat breeding is already underway to monitor the fungus and to develop Ug99 resistant varieties.
.............................................................benny

You all should know that Monsantos tampering with genetics is responsible for what you are seeing.
Beef recall, plant diseases and a severe rip in the genetical immune systems.

If I was a parent with children, I would raise hell about these abominations, but noooo....
yet everyone walks like meak sheep into the Monsanto trap, and even when the Truth is presented, you all are lukewarm.

Since my additions to this forum are not appreciated, I will keep those in heart that have shown me kindness.
The rest of you:

- keep calculating numbers
- keep looking for clues
- keep reading Rev like a Pharysee

I am done here, for this forum had the promise of being a church,
but God has led me astray apparently.
I leave this enlightening and necessary step now behind me.

I hope you all will enjoy the coming fireworks, although it does not feel like a party at all to me.

I do not depend on any of you. As I said, I wear my scars with Dignity.
Have fun with Monsanto, the international political mess, the financial tumble down that is on the rise, and most of all, enjoy all your hipocritical humbug.

I am done.

Crude Oil Rises Above $107 to Record as Returns Outpace Stocks

By Mark Shenk
Enlarge Image/Details

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $107 a barrel in New York to a record as investors purchased futures because the returns have outpaced those of financial markets.

Oil in New York surged 77 percent over the past year as the S&P 500 and Dow averages dropped. China, the second-biggest oil- consuming country, increased crude-oil imports by 18 percent last month and halted overseas shipments to meet rising demand.

``Momentum coupled with sufficient fundamental underpinnings, such as the Chinese oil-import data for February, keeps propelling us,'' said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at MF Global Ltd. in New York. ``The grab for hard assets is on due to the lack of confidence in the rest of the markets at the moment.''

Crude oil for April delivery rose $1.30, or 1.2 percent, to $106.45 a barrel at 11:51 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures surged to $107.44 a barrel today, the highest since trading began in 1983.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s forecast for 2009 U.S. crude-oil prices was raised to $105 from $90 a barrel, in a report dated March 6. The Goldman oil equity analysts in London said that the increase was warranted because non-OPEC production is approaching a plateau while Asian economies spur consumption.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. raised its first-quarter forecast for Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude-oil grades by 8 percent during the first quarter, in a report released on Feb. 29. Brent oil will average $92 a barrel during the quarter and West Texas Intermediate, the New York-traded U.S. benchmark, will average $93, the report showed.

Options Contracts

Bets that May crude oil will fall below $90 a barrel were the most-actively traded options contracts on the Nymex today. The put contracts, which represent the right to sell oil at that price, fell 16 cents to 55 cents, or $550 per contract, the lowest since November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. One options contract is for 1,000 barrels of oil.

``We're witnessing an ongoing flow of fund buying, which isn't particularly motivated by the particulars of the petroleum market,'' said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. ``Prices have rallied to such an extent where sellers have backed off. Any time prices go lower the buyers come right back into the market.''

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased net-long positions, or bets on higher oil prices, in the week ended March 4, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission report showed.

Market Bubble

``Clearly the fundamentals don't matter at this point,'' said Chip Hodge, a managing director at MFC Global Investment Management in Boston, who oversees a $4.5 billion energy-company bond portfolio. ``We've seen bubbles in other markets over the years and eventually they end. It's impossible to see when that will be the case here.''

U.S. crude-oil inventories rose 1.8 million barrels last week, according to the median of responses in a Bloomberg News survey. Stockpiles increased in seven of the previous eight weeks, Energy Department figures show.

Brent crude for April settlement climbed 43 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $102.81 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. Futures reached a record $103.98 a barrel on March 7.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 10, 2008 12:08 EDT
Edit/Delete Message
..................................................benny

U.N. Warns Food Shortage Will Continue Up To 2010

March 8, 2008 8:42 a.m. EST


Orlando Fumera, Jr. - AHN

London, U.K. (AHN) - United Nations World Food Program (WFP) head Josette Sheeran warns that the agency is already taking precautionary measures by rationing food aid to address worldwide food shortage and the increasing commodity prices which is expected to continue up to 2010.

She said that millions of the world's poorest people will buy less food, less nutritious food or be forced to depend on aid if no concrete action is taken.

WFP latest data showed that prices of some food rose by up to an unprecedented 40 percent last year in many nations citing that the escalating energy and grain costs, the effects of climate change and demand for biofuel are primarily responsible for the soaring prices.

The agency head said global food reserves were at their lowest level in 30 years, which is good for only 53 days, compared with 169 days in 2007.

After briefing the European Parliament, Sheeran warned that the problem "is not a short-term bubble and will definitely continue." She stressed further that WFP needed an extra $375 million (244m euros; ?187 million) for food projects this year and $125 million (81m euros; ?93million) to transport it.

Meanwhile, a special BBC coverage online, on radio and on TV will be aired on Tuesday March 11, to highlight serious concerns on food shortage affecting millions of people from 40 countries worldwide.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010270408
....................................................benny

Perhaps this will cause the massive world population decrease as prophesied to happen? If I'm not mistaken, isn't it going to be 1/3 of everyone will die off?

Record oil drives gas through the roof
Pain at the pump as crude prices surge to an all-time trading high of $109.72.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The cost of filling up the family car climbed to a record high Tuesday, adding to the challenges consumers already face with falling home values and rising food prices.

Gas prices at the pump rose overnight to a record national average of $3.2272 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's a tad higher than the previous record of $3.2265, set last May.

Soaring gas prices worsen the financial plight of consumers already suffering through a downturn in the housing market that has sharply reduced home prices in many markets and limited Americans' ability to tap home equity for spending. Food prices are also on the rise, partly due to rising fuel costs.

"I used to think three bucks a gallon was all I'd pay, but I keep filling up," said Joe Gowans while gassing his Acura SUV in San Francisco one recent afternoon. "You have to use it."

A year ago, rising demand and a string of refinery outages had raised concerns about supplies. Now, the record price of crude oil is the culprit, propelling gas higher although supplies are at 15-year highs.

On Tuesday, light sweet crude for April delivery surged to a new trading record of $109.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating after the Energy Department and International Energy Agency cut crude consumption forecasts for this year. Futures settled 85 cents higher at $108.75 a barrel, a new record.

Where gas and oil go from here is anybody's guess. Many analysts expect prices to moderate, while others predict oil could keep rising to $120 a barrel, or higher. And with demand for gas expected to rise as warm weather arrives, analysts say pump prices could spike as high as $3.75 a gallon, regardless of what happens with oil prices. The Energy Department on Tuesday raised its forecast of how high prices will rise this spring by a dime to $3.50 a gallon.

Gasoline: Painful, and getting worse
"I've got to say, if they ever go up to $3.50, that would be the point where I'd feel angry," said Alex Magby, a Morrisville, Pa., resident who was filling up his tank near his New Jersey restaurant job one recent afternoon. "I'd feel cheated at that point."

High prices are painful to New York cab drivers like Brandis Younge, who spends $35 to $40 on gas each day.

"Before it skyrocketed, I used to pay $25," Younge said.

Still, because gas is so expensive, analysts expect demand for fuel will rise more slowly this spring and summer than in previous years. Nationwide demand for gasoline is off by about 1% over the last 6 weeks, a trend analysts expect to accelerate if prices keep rising.

"We don't go visit family as much," said Steve Bagosy, of Pocono, Pa., while gassing up a company car in Manhattan Tuesday. "Just try to stay local."

The effect can be seen in states such as California, where prices are consistently 30 cents higher than the national average. Last November, the latest month for which data is available, demand for gasoline fell by 3.7% from the previous year in California as prices soared past $3.40 a gallon.

"It evokes a real reaction in demand destruction above $3.25 a gallon," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

Gasoline price spike has only just begun
Prices have already passed the $4 mark at many stations nationwide. But Kloza thinks slower demand growth will prevent the national average from rising that high.

High gas prices may actually help some companies that rely on tourism. Carl Wilgus, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, said the number of skiers visiting the Pennsylvania ski region this winter was up, despite gas prices holding steady above $3 for most of that time. In part, that's because many people plan vacations closer to home when fuel is so expensive, he said, giving up a trip to Florida in favor of a ski vacation an hour away, he said.

"We'll definitely lose some visitation, but hopefully we'll gain some from the folks who hope to stay closer to home," Wilgus said.

The price of gassing a recreational vehicle may induce some to look for campgrounds closer to home this summer. At $3.50 a gallon, a 100-gallon Winnebago Destination RV will cost $350 to fill, $27 more than right now, and $96 more than a year ago.

Analysts believe oil's underlying supply and demand fundamentals do not support such high prices, and argue that crude's rise in recent months is mostly due to the falling dollar. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is weak.

The Energy Department and IEA, an energy consultant to western, industrialized nations, raised more concerns about the economic slowdown's impact on oil consumption Tuesday when both forecasters cut U.S. demand growth forecasts, but said strong demand overseas will keep prices elevated this year.

In other Nymex trading Tuesday, April heating oil futures rose 2.23 cents to settle at $2.9957 a gallon while April gasoline futures rose 1.12 cents to settle at $2.7261 a gallon.

April natural gas futures fell 2.4 cents to settle at $10 per 1,000 cubic feet on the Nymex.

In London, April Brent crude futures rose $1.09 to settle at $105.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

First Published: March 11, 2008: 6:45 AM EDT

Gas prices hit record level

Six months after the first rate cut
.............................................benny

JPost.com » Israel » Article


Mar 12, 2008 13:18
Workers at Polgat textiles factory protest layoffs, set tires on fire
By JPOST.COM STAFF
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Workers protesting layoffs at the Polgat Textiles factory in Kiryat Gat barricaded themselves within the factory premises on Wednesday morning, and set tires alight.

The workers not only protested a decision by the company to fire 300 employees, but voiced anger over the compensation being offered to those expected to be laid off.

On Tuesday, the company announced plans to close the factory in April due to the fact that it was losing money.

.....................................................benny

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures rallied to a record high of $1,000 an ounce on Thursday, fueled by a combination of a weakening dollar, strong investment demand and inflation fears due to rising crude oil prices.

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At 8:27 a.m. EDT, the active contract for April delivery was up $17.30 or 1.7 percent at $997.70 an ounce. Just minutes earlier, it had hit an all-time high of $1,000 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

(Reporting by Frank Tang; Editing by John Picinich)

...................................................benny

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BIZNETDAILY
Recession? Maybe worse.
Economy stumbles more
Expert says it could take years to recover
from financial crisis now going global

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Posted: March 13, 2008
3:50 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily


Wall Street
WASHINGTON – It was another gloomy day on the financial markets, as more economic indicators suggested America's financial crisis is deepening and spreading globally.

Chrysler told employees worldwide – not just factory workers – to take a mandatory two-week vacation in July.

The Carlyle Group announced creditors planned to seize the assets of its mortgage-bond fund after it failed to meet more than $400 million in margin calls on mortgage-backed collateral that has plunged in value.


Gold rose above $1,000 an ounce for the first time as mounting credit-market losses spurred demand for bullion as a haven from the sagging dollar and equities. Silver and platinum also advanced as the dollar dropped below 100 yen for the first time since 1995 and to a record against the euro. Gold is up 37 percent since the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates in September, sending the dollar tumbling.


U.S. home foreclosure filings jumped 60 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in February as rates on adjustable mortgages rose and property owners were unable to sell or refinance amid falling prices.


Retail sales in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in February, indicating that declines in payrolls and home values and a surge in energy costs have pushed the economy into a recession. Sales dropped 0.6 percent, led by auto dealers and restaurants, after a 0.4 percent gain in January, the Commerce Department said. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said jobless benefits rolls climbed to a 2 1/2-year high, and import prices soared 13.6 percent from a year ago, reflecting higher energy costs.
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U.S. import prices rose by a less-than-expected 0.2 percent in February as petroleum prices dipped while export prices increased by a surprisingly strong 0.9 percent as food prices soared, a government report showed today.


Global writedowns linked to the U.S. sub-prime crisis could reach $285 billion, $20 billion more than expected earlier this year, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said in a report published today.


The Dow and Nasdaq indexes were up slightly after a morning plunge.
Meanwhile, in the March-April edition of Foreign Policy magazine, the chairman of RGE Monitor warns that central banks cannot save the U.S. or the world from the worsening recession. Slashing interest rates is not enough, writes Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"Central banks don't have as free a hand (as they had in 2001)," he writes. "They are constrained by higher levels of inflation."

He also cautions that stimulus packages, like the one passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, will have little beneficial impact on the stalling economy.

"The United States is facing a financial crisis that goes far beyond the subprime problem into areas of economic life that the Fed simply can't reach," says Roubini. "The problems the U.S. economy faces are no longer just about having enough cash on hand; they're about insolvency, and monetary policy is ill equipped to deal with such problems."

Roubini points out the sorry details all too evident in the day's news – led by millions of households on the brink of default on mortgages.

"When the economy falls further, corporate default rates will sharply rise, leading to greater losses," he writes. "There is also a 'shadow banking system,' made up of non-bank financial institutions that borrow cash or liquid investments in the near term but lend or invest in the long term in non-liquid forms. Take money market funds, for example, which can be redeemed with just one month's notice. Many of these funds are invested and locked into risky, long-term securities. This shadow banking system is therefore subject to greater risk because, unlike banks, they don't have access to the Fed's support as the lender of last resort, cutting them off from the help monetary policy can provide."

Roubini concludes it will "take years to resolve the problems that led to this crisis."

In fact, it's hard to consider solutions when the problems seem to grow worse each day – especially in the area of mortgage foreclosures.

"With declining prices, there is a pervasive problem of not being able to refinance or sell,'' Susan Wachter, professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia, told Bloomberg News. "I'm very concerned. This is continuing to worsen. It tells us that we are not at a bottom.'''

About $460 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset this year and another $420 billion will rise in 2011, according to New York-based analysts at Citigroup Inc. Homeowners faced higher payments as fourth-quarter home prices fell 8.9 percent, the biggest drop in 20 years as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index.

According to Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings are likely to be "explosive'' in May and June as more payments jump, after remaining at current levels this month and next. He said there may be between 750,000 and 1 million bank repossessions in 2008. '

February was the 26th consecutive month of year-on-year monthly foreclosure increases, Sharga told Bloomberg News.


.........................................................benny

Benny, are you into stock tradings?

HEE! HEE!.....No, But By Silver and Wheat!.......................benny

U.S. economy impacts global markets
By Patrice Hill
March 14, 2008




Traders worked the floor in the crude oil and natural gas options pit of the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global markets gyrated wildly yesterday on signs that the U.S. economy and mortgage markets continue to unravel despite strenuous efforts to revive them.



The dollar hit new lows, falling below 100 yen for the first time in 12 years, sending oil and gasoline prices to record highs and driving gold prices above $1,000 an ounce for the first time. Credit market turmoil resumed amid a massive liquidation of mortgage assets by the Carlyle Capital Corp. and other hedge funds that made losing bets on prime mortgages.



Investors in the U.S. and abroad were stunned by news of another big drop of 0.6 percent in retail sales last month as overstretched consumers, fearful of recession and weighed down by the rising cost of necessities, dramatically pulled back spending on everything from cars and gasoline to restaurants and groceries.



"It's been a long time since anyone has seen so many things go wrong at the same time," said Bernard Baumohl, managing director of the Economic Outlook Group, who just returned from a trip overseas where foreign investors expressed grave worries about the U.S. economy and markets.



"The U.S. is struggling with a real crises of confidence in the credit markets, one that is having global ramifications. Adding to these concerns is the growing sense that the Federal Reserve is unable to easily and quickly rectify the structural problems that now plague banks and securities firms," he said.



Oil's inexorable march past $110 a barrel is provoking anxiety overseas as well in the United States, he said. "Many wonder if growth around the world is about to come to a screeching halt as a result" of the high fuel prices and a likely U.S. recession.



"Given all this uncertainty, it's hardly a surprise that the dollar is in free fall and that gold has crossed $1,000," Mr. Baumohl said he has assured investors here and abroad that the Fed's deep rate cuts and infusions of cash into the financial system are the right medicines, "but it will take time for these policies to turn the economy around." He doesn't expect to see improvement until next year.



"This should have been a good week" because of the Fed's massive $200 billion infusion into mortgage markets on Tuesday, said Steven Hull, currency analyst with Lehman Brothers, noting that the move was "reasonably aggressive" and "aimed at easing the intense pressure in global credit markets." The Fed's action initially provoked the biggest rally on Wall Street in five years.

................................................benny

Mar 13, 2008 18:09 | Updated Mar 14, 2008 8:49
'Dollar has moved against us'
By SHARON WROBEL
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The Bank of Israel intervened in the foreign exchange market on Thursday for the first time since 1997, buying an undisclosed amount of foreign currency as the shekel-dollar exchange rate fell below the psychological barrier of NIS 3.40.




Financial expert Dan Gerstenfeld on the dollar's decline

The move is designed to stem the recent decline in the dollar against the shekel, before it causes serious damage to the economy, in particular to the export sector.

"In light of the exceptional behavior of the shekel exchange rate over recent days, the central bank bought foreign currency," the Bank of Israel said in a statement on Thursday afternoon, while declining to provide further details.

Speculations in the market estimated that the central bank probably bought between $50 million and $100m., but in any case not more than $200m., in foreign currency.

The move by the Bank of Israel came as a surprise, since over the past couple of months Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer reiterated the bank's stance in favor of a free market for the shekel, rejecting urgent calls by exporters to intervene to ease the sharp plunge of the shekel-dollar exchange rate hurting their profits.

"What's going on now is that the dollar has moved against us. Indeed, it's moved against everybody in terms of exports," Fischer said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post to be published next week. "Against the euro we haven't strengthened so much, so the European market looks better, and there is growth in Asia. So the exporters have to start reorienting [themselves], without being so extremist as to forget that there will continue to be a huge market in the US, in a year from now when the recovery starts."

Fischer added that the exporters have well understood what they have to do and that data showed that they were "reorienting" to the new dollar rate.

Capital market analyst Prof. Rafi Eldor of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya said on Thursday that "the Bank of Israel cannot deal with a 'speculative attack' on the shekel-dollar exchange rate on its own. To have an impact, the central bank would have to make regular purchases of millions of dollars."

Eldor added that in 1997, when the central bank first interfered in the level of the shekel, it had to make regular purchases of $20m. to keep the shekel-dollar exchange rate at NIS 4.

The bank's announcement came as the shekel-dollar exchange rate dropped more than 2 percent, to an 11-year low of NIS 3.34 in early trading on Thursday. Following the announcement in the afternoon, the dollar strengthened slightly, trading at NIS 3.43.

"The dollar continues to fall to new record lows against the shekel and the euro," said Benny Menashe, head of the dealer room at Finotec. "Investors are losing confidence in the rescue solutions by the US Federal Reserve to help dampen the repercussions of the US subprime mortgage crisis and avert a recession in the US economy."

Since the middle of December, the shekel has appreciated 16% against the dollar, even after the Israeli central bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 3.75% on February 25.

"We've had a dollar-selling wave, which was triggered after it broke a nine-year low Monday morning," said Neil Corney, head trader at Citi Israel, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc. "There was a realization that even though the Bank of Israel has cut its rate, the interest gap with the US is still widening."

Over recent months, Fischer and the Finance Ministry have come under heavy pressure from Manufacturers Association President Shraga Brosh to take urgent action to stem the sharp slide of the shekel-dollar exchange rate and avert a "national disaster" in the export sector. If nothing was done, the manufacturers said, industry was poised to lose $3.5 billion worth of orders and 30,000 jobs this year.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.
...............................................benny

The TimesMarch 18, 2008

Million face famine after plague of rats devastates rice crop in Mizoram, India
SATEEK About a million people are facing famine in India's northeastern state of Mizoram after rats ate the region's entire paddy crop.

The rats swept through the forests, feasting on the fruits of wild bamboo, which flowers every 48 years. When they finished the bamboo, they turned to the farmers' crops. The last time the bamboo flowered was in 1959 when a similar influx led to severe food shortages.

Aid agencies have said that most villagers are surviving on wild roots, yam and sweet potatoes. “Conditions of widespread food shortage and hunger prevail in all eight districts of Mizoram,” said a report by the international aid agency Actionaid. “The Government is reluctant to accept that the situation is rapidly slipping out of its control.” Mizoram needs about 15 million kilos (16,500 tons) of rice a month, but only about a fifth of that is available.

Local people call the famine that follows bamboo flowering mautum, which means bamboo death. In 1959 the famine led to the birth of the Mizo National Famine Front, which ended up fighting the Indian Government for independence. After 20 years of war and 3,000 deaths, the rebel group won recognition for Mizoram as a separate state but not independence. (Reuters)

.............................................benny

A blade runner society at best. Economic upheavel will be rampent during the tribulation period with no place to run. These conditions will come as the result of the destruction of MBG's "great city" at the beginning of the period and the world will never recover. This environment will be the backdrop of instability and confusion for satan's beast and followers to take advantage of in his quest for world rule.

These are some of the things you may have seen advertised Below and how much food and groceries cost in the 80's

2% milk $1.59 a gallon Iowa 1987

Apple Juice 99 cents per gallon New Jersey 1986

Apples 39 cents a pound Wyoming 1986

Bacon $1.69 cents per pound New Jersey 1986

Blue Bonnet Margarine 50 cents per pound Pennsylvania 1981

Bratwurst $1.69 per pound Iowa 1987

Bread Sliced 55 cents New Jersey 1986

Broccoli 39 cents per pound Wyoming 1986

Cheese Puffs 89 cents a bag Kentucky 1986

Corn $1.18 for 12 Pennsylvania 1981

Flour 99 cents for 5 pounds Pennsylvania 1981

White Sliced bread 50 cents Pennsylvania 1981

Grapefruit 33 cents New York 1988

Ground Beef $1.39 per pound New York 1980

Ham and Cheese Pizza $2.49 New York 1988

Heinz Ketchup 99 cents Pennsylvania 1981

Ivory Dish Soap 79 cents New York 1980

Kiwi fruit 99 cents per pound New Jersey 1986

Kraft Singles Cheese $1.47 for 12 Pennsylvania 1981

Leg O Lamb $2.19 per pound Wyoming 1986

Miracle Whip $1.27 Pennsylvania 1981

Navel Oranges $1.39 for 10 New York 1980

Peanut butter, Skippy $1.49 jar New Jersey 1986

Pineapples $1.69 each New Jersey 1986

Plums 39 cents per pound Pennsylvania 1981

Pork and Beans 40 cents Iowa 1987

Pork Chops $2.49 per pound New York 1988

Pork Loin $1.39 per pound New York 1988

Pot Roast $1.49 per pound Wyoming 1986

Potatoes $1.00 for 5 pounds Wyoming 1986

Rib Eye Steak $3.89 per pound Iowa 1987

Ritz Crackers $1.59 Wyoming 1986

Strawberry Jam $1.39 Pennsylvania 1981

Tomatoes 39 cents per pound New York 1980

Tuna, Star Kist 99 cents per bag New Jersey 1986

Turkey 55 cents per pound New York 1980

.......................................................benny

http://nwahomepage.com/content/fulltextfox/?cid=11068

Nationwide Banana Shortage Affects Local Grocery Stores
Play Media
Reported by: Allison Woods

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 @06:20pm CST

Getting a little potassium could cost more in the near future.
Louis Shluterman, a manger at Harps Marketplace, says the banana shortage hasn't affected his store yet, but it could.
Schluterman says, "We really haven't seen the shortage yet, but in the long run it will probably hit the stores. We're getting our quantities in now but, in the long run it may affect everybody."
When the shortage hits, local grocery stores and hungry consumers will pay the price. Shluterman says, "They've only gone up a little right now across the country, but they will be going up, and who knows how far."
Shluterman says this has happened before with oranges and other fruits. Schluterman explains, "It just depends on the growers. The weather affects them and it can completely destroy them. It's just like what happened to peaches here in Arkansas."
Some local shoppers say they're surprised by the fruit's inflation. Fort Smith resident, Maxine Donaldson, says, "I was shocked! I didn't think bananas would go up, at least not that much. Not like gas."
Schluterman says, right now the quality of bananas is good but, that might change in the next few weeks.
__________________
.................................................benny

http://www.reuters.com/article/busin...rpc=23&sp=true

Starbucks plans changes amid "economic tailspin"
Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:19pm EDT

By Lisa Baertlein

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile, Research), battling to revive U.S. growth in an economy that is in a "tailspin" plans to roll out a line of energy, health and wellness products, Chief Executive Howard Schultz said on Wednesday.

Schultz, recently returned to the CEO position, promised shareholders at the annual meeting to transform the company, whose stock has dropped 40 percent over the last 12 months, but he said there was no "silver bullet".

"You have an economy that is really in a tailspin," he said, adding that Starbucks would not use that as an excuse.

Starbucks will continue to be a growth company, Schultz said, adding that it will delve into new categories, such as the health and wellness business, by the end of the year.

The company showed off new espresso equipment that will debut in 30 percent of U.S. stores by the end of this year and 70 percent by the end of 2010.

"I humbly recognize and share both your concern and your disappointment in how the company has performed and how that has affected your investment in Starbucks," Schultz told investors. "I promise you this will not stand."

But cash-strapped consumers are cutting back on Starbucks $3 to $5 coffee drinks as the costs of gasoline and other essentials rise.

Competitors also are nibbling away at different segments of the $25 billion-plus U.S. specialty coffee market that Starbucks carved out.

In particular, McDonald's Corp (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has aggressively entered the drip coffee market and plans to roll out more expensive espresso drinks including lattes and cappuccino.
__________________
.............................................benny

Sooner Fed bail-outs than the 1930s revisited
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 12:11am GMT 19/03/2008


Put a clothes peg on your nose. The moral stench of bail-outs for the über-rich will be sickening. None of us wants to pay a farthing to rescue the bankers and assorted debt pimps who got us into this financial mess, and in doing so exposed our societies to such harm.
.

Yet we must forbear. It was such sentiments that turned the 1930 recession into a slump. "Liquidationists" prevailed: they insisted with Puritan zeal - or malice - that speculators should be driven to the wall amid a cathartic purge of the Roaring Twenties.

Among them were top bureaucrats at the US Federal Reserve and some of E


urope's central banks. The consequence was the Brüning deflation in Germany, ushering in the Nazis. Democracies snapped across half of Europe. If it had not been for the towering figure of Franklin Roosevelt, America might have splintered into a bedlam of Prairie populists, Coughlan Fascists and Huey Long extremism.

We should be thankful that the man now heading the US Federal Reserve - Ben Bernanke - spent his early career immersed in the details of that catastrophe. He has written books showing how a credit crunch can set off a vicious downward spiral, and do so with lightning speed. You do not mess around in such circumstances.

The "liquidationists" accuse Mr Bernanke of taking a dangerous gamble with inflation by slashing rates from 5.25 per cent to 2.25 per cent in six months, culminating in a trenchant three-quarter point cut Tuesday. They accuse him of "moral hazard" for invoking a Depression-era clause permitting the Fed to take on $30 billion of direct credit risk left by the wreckage of the US broker Bear Stearns.

They are right, in a sense. This is probably the start of a massive taxpayers' rescue of the banking system. It stinks. But imagine if Mr Bernanke had listened to such advice as Bear Stearns faced collapse.

It is America's fifth biggest investment bank. It has $13,400 billion of derivative positions, and has underwritten $491 billion in options contracts. Topple this domino at your peril. It risks a chain of cross-defaults through the entire "shadow banking system", that vast untested nexus of paper commitments.

Bear Stearns had a liquidity cushion of $17 billion early last week. It vanished in two days. This was a run on a bank by New York insiders. It would not have stopped there. If the Fed had not taken emergency action on Sunday night, wolf packs would have fallen on Lehman Brothers (even bigger) with equal ferocity this week. The crisis threatened to snowball out of control.

America is not facing "recession-as-usual". It is in the grip of a property crash. House prices have fallen by 10 per cent so far; Goldman Sachs fears they may fall by 30 per cent in the end. The sub-prime mortgage industry has already disintegrated. Some 241 lenders have gone bust, or shut their doors.

The crisis has since spread to prime mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the fortress agencies that guarantee 60 per cent of America's $11 trillion mortgage market - began to crumble last week. Even bodies standing at the top of the credit system are no longer deemed safe. As Barclays Capital put it, this was a "tsunami event".

Or in the words of City veteran David Buik at Cantor Fitzgerald: "No one in living memory has ever seen a banking crisis like this. I am older than God, and the outlook has never looked as bleak."

Any smug assumption that this will remain a local American affair may soon be confounded. The IMF has abruptly changed its tune. "Obviously the financial market crisis is now more serious and more global than a week ago," it said on Monday.

Property booms will soon be deflating across the Anglo-Saxon world and the eurozone's Club Med belt. Japan is already on the brink of recession. Debt levels are higher now in most rich countries than they were in 1929. The levels of financial leverage are greater.

As the Bank for International Settlements wrote last year, we are more vulnerable to a 1930s dénouement than people realise - should the authorities botch the response.

Like some other free-market bears, I now find myself in an odd position. For years we castigated the central banks for inflating a reckless credit bubble by holding interest rates too low. Now we have flipped. We are on the other side, defending monetary stimulus, even defending the state takeover of Bear Stearns debt.

No doubt we will have to defend yet more egregious intervention by the state before this is over. We will become temporary socialists.

Too bad. The world is in deep trouble. Purist ideology has become a danger. The "liquidationists" must be countered, and defeated.

When the dust settles, we can revisit the burning question of how we got here. We can try to remember that the time for tough love in monetary policy is at the start of a boom, not the end. We can administer condign punishment in Mayfair and Westchester County later for what has happened.

If it is any comfort to hard-liners, Bear Stearns shareholders have just suffered a 99 per cent haircut. Our own Joe Lewis has a lost a billion dollars. Satisfied?



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai.....;/19/do1902.xml
.....................................................benny

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=59832


Canadian dollar
Herbert Grubel – the Canadian economist who developed the concept of a North American currency comparable to the euro – laments that politics prevents the U.S. from agreeing to the creation of the amero right now.

In an op-ed piece entitled "Fix the Loonie" in Canada's National Post, Grubel expresses concern about the current relative strength of the Canadian dollar, or "loonie," in comparison to the weakening U.S. dollar.

The strength of the loonie, now trading more than par ($1.02) to the U.S. dollar, has caused Canada's exports to be more expensive in the U.S. market.

About 85 percent of all Canadian exports are headed to the U.S. and a more expensive loonie threatens to harm the Canadian export market.

Grubel wrote that Canada "has a bad case of the dreaded Dutch disease, which is named after the problems that developed in the 1960s when the Netherlands sold natural gas that had been discovered on its coast."

(Story continues below)


The resulting increase in Dutch exports caused a strong appreciation of exchange rates which in turn caused the loss of Dutch manufacturers' ability to compete abroad with their imports.

Grubel noted in Europe the problem was solved when the euro eliminated national currencies, forcing all countries to operate under interest rates set by the European Central Bank.

"The analogous creation of the amero is not possible without the unlikely co-operation of the United States," said Grubel, an economics professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Instead, Grubel called upon Canada to create a new Canadian dollar to replace the loonie. The new currency could be valued at par with the U.S. dollar, with the possibility that the Bank of Canada might peg the new Canadian dollar to $0.90 on the U.S. dollar.

"The public would readily use the new Canadian and the U.S. dollars interchangeably and enjoy savings in the conversion of one currency into the other," he wrote. "The present exchange risk premium on Canadian interest rates would be eliminated completely."

WND has previously reported Stephen Jarislowski, a billionaire money manager and investor, called on the Canadian House of Commons' finance committee in November to create a peg on the U.S. dollar that would allow the Bank of Canada to adjust the Canadian dollar in a 5 percent plus or minus range, based on the fluctuation in value of the U.S. dollar.

Jarislowski further argued Canada and the United States both should abandon their national dollar currencies and move to a regional North American currency as soon as possible.

Grubel and Jarislowski's arguments belie an article published in the Boston Globe Nov. 25 arguing the call for the amero to become the new North American regional currency was "purely theoretical."

The loonie became slang for the Canadian dollar when the common loon appeared on the back of the dollar coin that replaced the bill in 1987.
..................................................benny

Exclusive: US and Saudi Arabia agree to bring oil prices down to $85-90
March 24, 2008, 11:49 PM (GMT+02:00)


A profitable encounter in Riyadh
DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources disclose that US Vice President Dick Cheney persuaded Saudi leaders to raise production in order to curb rocketing world oil prices, during their talks in Riyadh on Saturday, March 22.

King Abdullah thereupon convened the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Mineral Affairs Sunday, to underline the kingdom’s commitment to stabilizing the international oil market “by ensuring adequate supply.”

The Saudi Supreme Oil Council’s statement emphasized OPEC’s role in “stabilizing the world energy market and realizing global progress and prosperity.”

It also “emphasized the Kingdom’s desire for oil market stability, and ensuring supplies to different regions at all times to maintain world economic growth.”

The council expressed its satisfaction with the progress in new investment projects for expanding oil production and refine capacity; and, finally, committed the kingdom to working with OPEC countries, other producers and consuming countries toward oil market stability and avoidance of the effect of harmful speculation.”

These decisions, as DEBKAfile’s Gulf oil sources disclose, add up to the Saudi King’s compliance with Cheney’s request to act for stable world oil prices - by speeding up the expansion of production and refining projects both inside OPEC and in cooperation with other world producers, such as Russia and Norway.

Cheney thus succeeded where President George W. Bush failed in January.

The Saudi monarch refrained from complying with the US president’s request to persuade members of OPEC, the Oil Producing Cartel, at its last meeting to step up production. The Saudis only spiked the initiative of radical members, led by Iran and Venezuela, to cut production down.

Saudi Arabia has targeted the year 2009 for increasing its output from 11 to 12.5 million barrels per year. The new Council decision brings the target date forward by some months. In any case, the kingdom does not export all it produces and could sell more by drawing on its emergency reserve.

In the first two days of the week, oil prices, like other commodities, began to slide – mainly in response to US Federal Reserve steps. Those steps may have helped convince Riyadh that it was time for a more aggressive policy to curb the speculation rife in oil prices.

While the extent of this downward trend is hard to predict, oil producers are looking favorably at prices of $85-90 in the short term, which are realistic given the protracted US dollar slump. Vice President Cheney proposed lower price levels for the more distant future, but Abdullah said that given the volatility of international oil and financial markets, this was not realistic.

..................................................benny

Food Prices Soaring Worldwide
Monday, Mar. 24, 2008 By AP/KATHERINE CORCORAN Article ToolsPrintEmailSphereAddThisRSSYahoo! Buzz (MEXICO CITY) — If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.

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From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.

The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.

But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.

"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."

No one knows that better than Eugene Thermilon, 30, a Haitian day laborer who can no longer afford pasta to feed his wife and four children since the price nearly doubled to $0.57 a bag. Their only meal on a recent day was two cans of corn grits.

"Their stomachs were not even full," Thermilon said, walking toward his pink concrete house on the precipice of a garbage-filled ravine. By noon the next day, he still had nothing to feed them for dinner.

Their hunger has had a ripple effect. Haitian food vendor Fabiola Duran Estime, 31, has lost so many customers like Thermilon that she had to pull her daughter, Fyva, out of kindergarten because she can't afford the $20 monthly tuition.

Fyva was just beginning to read.

In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize. Farmers will grow more grain for both fuel and food and eventually bring prices down. Already this is happening with wheat, with more crops to be planted in the U.S., Canada and Europe in the coming year.

However, consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food, according to preliminary FAO projections.

Among the driving forces are petroleum prices, which increase the cost of everything from fertilizers to transport to food processing. Rising demand for meat and dairy in rapidly developing countries such as China and India is sending up the cost of grain, used for cattle feed, as is the demand for raw materials to make biofuels.

What's rare is that the spikes are hitting all major foods in most countries at once. Food prices rose 4 percent in the U.S. last year, the highest rise since 1990, and are expected to climb as much again this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

As of December, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had imposed some sort of food-price controls.

For many, it's a disaster. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it's facing a $500 million shortfall in funding this year to feed 89 million needy people. On Monday, it appealed to donor countries to step up contributions, saying its efforts otherwise ha