Perhaps the biggest danger to free markets , is not oppressive regulation by the government, but the gimmicky players that treat the world markets as a giant ponzi game. I buy my gas from this dude named Jose. It seems that Jose is as closely attuned to the International petroleum markets as any day trader. When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, Jose immediately raises his prices. These days it goes up daily. This really doesn't make any sense. When the Shell truck came by a couple of weeks ago it filled Jose's tank, and he was charged a certain amount ...
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More than the collapse of Bear Stearns , or keeping the speculators on Wall Street happy, the people I know are more concerned that the American dollar is only slightly stronger than the peso. One doesn't need to know the slightest thing about economics to notice that it is costing more to balance the household budget today than it did just six months ago. A visit to the supermarket is only marginally less unpleasant than pulling up to the pumps. Besides the fact that the predatory gamblers have exited the tumbling stock market , to do their damage by artificially bidding up the prices ...
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A view of some of the thousands of unsold cars currently being stored at Avonmouth Docks on January 16, 2009 at Avonmouth, England. Sales of new cars in the UK have slumped to a 12-year-low and production of cars at Honda in Swindon has been halted for a unprecedented four-month period because of the collapse in global sales and represents the longest continuous halt in production at any UK car plant. The announcenent comes on a day when the EU's Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen warned the outlook for the European car industry was "brutal" and predicted not all European manufacturers would survive the crisis. ...
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In this handout from the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama (R) talks with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the Oval Office of the White House in the morning January 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. This is the first complete day of Obama's administration. (Photo by Pete Souza/White House via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Rahm Emanuel;Barack Obama (Getty Images) more pics » President Barack Obama and Congress tackled the troubled economy on Wednesday, weighing tactics for fixing the struggling financial industry and pushing ahead with a massive economic recovery package of new spending and tax cuts. Obama, in his ...
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A Costco customer looks at a display of televisions as she shops at a Costco store October 28, 2008 in San Francisco, California. As the economy continues to falter, business research firm The Conference Board reported today that its consumer confidence index fell to an all-time low of 38, down from 64.1 in September. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America) Need more evidence that we're in a recession? Watch and weep: More lack of consumer confidence photos: Photos by Getty
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