They believe this challenge is beyond us, and looking at the plans a of those who want our votes, WHO CAN BLAME THEM? At the heart of these problems, our utter dependence on a commodity whose price is fixed not by the cost of materials and labor, and R&D and profit, but the greed of those who sit atop the oil, and the greed of mortgage and other irresponsible ravenous, avarice filled risk bankers whose grasping need for a better quarterly report has caused a tipping point to be reached among the economies of nations, especially viewing the American need for other to buy American instruments of debt, as we buy their products. Danger Will Robinson.That's one, now the Financial TimesIndependent.co.uk
Oil price surges to all-time high
By Sean O'Grady, Economics Editor
Saturday, 1 March 2008Crude oil has surged for a fourth day as the feeble dollar and lackluster stock markets increased the appeal of commodities for investors.
Oil and gold prices surged to record highs yesterday as the dollar fell to close to its lowest level ever against the euro.
Gold hit a new high near $980 an ounce, and crude oil set an all-time high of above $103 a barrel - both beating the real-terms peaks reached in 1979-80. Many traders believe that gold at $1,000 an ounce is now well within reach.
Corn and soya beans have also tested new records. New York silver futures, meanwhile, broke the much-anticipated $20-an-ounce level.
Commodities that are traded and denominated in dollars usually move for technical reasons in the opposite direction to the US currency. A falling greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies, though the scale of recent movements has few parallels. Gold is also a traditional hedge against inflation, especially in Asia.
It was a question of dollar weakness rather than commodity strength per se. The dollar fell to the lowest for almost three years against the yen and endured its biggest drop against the euro since September as the markets bet that the Federal Reserve will continue its policy of aggressively cutting rates, making the returns from dollar investments look less attractive. Fed vice-chairman Donald Kohn in effect said last week that economic weakness was a bigger concern than inflation.
Dollar slumps amid the gloom
By Neil Dennis
Published: March 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 1 2008 02:00
The dollar slumped this week after a worsening array of US economic data deepened fears of recession and increased expectations of further aggressive US interest rate cuts.
The US currency fell to record lows against the euro and Swiss franc and multi-year troughs against a number of other currencies.
Tumbling US house prices, falling consumer confidence, weaker-than-expected orders for durable goods, stalling manufacturing, flat economic growth and signs of a weakening labour market drove expectations of lower interest rates.
The dollar sell-off started in earnest on Wednesday - particularly against the euro - after eurozone data supported the view that the European Central Bank would keep rates on hold for some time.
"Markets are probably wisely bracing themselves for further monetary policy divergence between the US and eurozone over the next few months," said Martin van Vliet at ING.
Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, added fuel to the fire after he promised "timely" action to "provide adequate insurance against downside risks".
What will it take for Americans to INSIST on realistic and complete plans to cure the obvious problems, and GROW. What is the reason NO CANDIDATE features such plans? What is the reason no president and no congress has made realistic changes to avoid these problems for over a generation?
What is the reason?
More from FT.com
Soaring cost of gold causes jewelery market pandemonium
By Ellen Kelleher
Published: March 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 1 2008 02:00
The soaring cost of gold and platinum is causing pandemonium in the UK's jewellery market as retailers and private owners rush to reappraise the value of necklaces, brooches and rings.
Jewellers in London's Hatton Garden - the capital's jewellery quarter - are raising the price of wedding bands on a weekly basis, with less-expensive palladium rings now coming into vogue. And insurers are urging clients to get another assessment of the value of their jewellery collections in response to the rapid rise in the price of precious metals, sparked by investors seeking refuge from volatile stocks.
"The price of platinum has been going up so fast, we're quoting people prices for platinum wedding bands on a Saturday and saying we can't guarantee the same price on Monday.
"Last week, we had to raise the price of all our platinum items by 30 per cent," said Adam Lawrence, a manager at Anthony Gray, a Hatton Garden jeweller.
The rise in prices has made less-expensive palladium wedding rings - which are lighter, but nearly identical in colour to platinum or white gold ones - more popular, London jewellers report.
4 comments:
Know what a big chunk of them are doing, Epam? Streaming into bookstores to buy their copies of Oprah's latest reading assignment, New Age guru Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose". I've sold at least 50 copies in the last week, and that's just one Borders. Now she has them reserving a "seat" at the "online classroom" webcast to be held tomorrrow night. This will launch a 10-week indoctrination course in how to eliminate your ego, curb your reason, and, I assume since she publicly endorsed him, become the sort of cosmically awakened lemming who goes over the cliff for Obama with the rest of them.
I have only glanced inside the book a few times -- I refuse to buy it -- but it is mainly boilerplate New Age mind control goobledegook and after 15 years experience investigating cults it makes my hair stand on end to see this sort of thing balloon into a national movement like this. It is close cousin to the Obama phenomenon, unplug your mind and meditate on Hope and Change.
Meanwhile the dollar is tanking, the Iranians are on the fast track to nukes, and some idiot let Ahmadinejad into Iraq today on an official visit.
RRA,
I didn't know you studied cults. That's interesting. So then, you think the Obama phenomenon is cult-like.
Any specifics?
Epa,
We need a President who articulates a multi-pronged approach which would include our reserves in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains, as well as research into fuels for the future.
It seems to me bio-engineering is the best hope for future fuels, but it is an industry which is only beginning to stretch its wings.
I investigated cults for about 15 years in the '80s and early '90s. (That's how I ran into my weird "friend" who recently turned up in the NSA, btw.)
The Obama campaign reminds me of a cult recruitment more than a normal political campaign in its vagueness and evasiveness about issues, heavy emphasis on emotion (Hope! Change!) over reason, "messianic" tone and undercurrent of "personal transformation" through the Obama Experience, if you will.
Often, people don't "join cults" so much as cults successfully recruit them. What resonates for me with Obama's campaign is that, similar to recruiting cults, they tap into the personal dissatisfactions of their targets. In the Obama campaign case we have the would-be First Lady crying that the souls of Americans are broken and only her husband's presidency can fix that. The reason I brought up the Oprah/Tolle indoctrination website classes is that with Oprah having stated her support for Obama's candidacy I can see this "A New Earth" project as aligned with her political leanings in terms of conditioning participants' minds to more readily accept the social message of the Obama campaign. The Tolle book, to put it in a very small nutshell, advocates destroying one's "ego" and embracing one's oneness with the universe. Typical New Age boilerplate b.s., but it fits nicely with an Obama campaign that urges people to reject lucrative careers in favor of those focused on social "service".
Some aggressive cults like the old "est" phenomenon used an almost basic-training-like method of breaking down the recruit's resistance and then remaking him/her in the cult's image. Others, such as the Moonies, took the "love-bombing" approach of immersing the recuit in the love and support of the group so long as she/he accepted the group's ideology and rules. Obviously, the Obama campaign uses the latter approach. Rational thought, questioning, criticism and doubt are the enemies, and we are certainly seeing that in the Obama campaign as well.
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