Excellent advice, and thank god the USA has no 1.4L hatchbacks…my son currently pays approx $1600 to insure his 1.0 Litre engined micra, thats come down from from $2400 over the last two years
You are not counting the energy input from the SUN that creates the raw material (corn)in the first place. It was also the sun originally that provided the energy input for the fossil fuels that constitute oil, coal and gas.
That’s why ethanol from sugar cane in Brazil is a good deal. The warm sclimate, no fertlizer or irrigation needed, and the value of the by-products make this a viable fuel and has been for the last 30 years or so.
I could never figure how why auto insurance in the UK was so high. Granted younger drivers will have higher rates no matter where you live. But when I was 18 I had car with supercharged 3.8L engine And I don’t think I ever paid more than $2000 USD a year for comprehensive coverage. I hear horror stories from people across the pond that are paying more for insurance in one year than their car is worth in the first place. My daily driver has a 4.6L supercharged V8 and I pay about $900 a year for full coverage on it. I have a feeling it would be significanlty higher if I lived in the UK.
The price of oil and other commodities is being driven up by the Federal Reserve’s nonsupport of the dollar and it’s printing of billions of new dollars. It’s called inflation, and it’s just beginning to ramp up big time. It’s the next crisis to come. The Federal Reserve and the Federal Government are acting recklessly and a train wreck may occur soon if the deficits are not reigned in.
It’s called inflation
WHAT INFLATION??? Growth over the past decade has been MODERATE at best. INFLATION??? I don’t think so.
Agree; although the price of oil is denominated in US dollars, the wild fluctuations in oil prices and the rapid run up lately is caused by the other factors previously discussed. The price of oil in terms of other currencies (Yen, Euro, Pound, Can dollar) has gone up as well. It’s even gone up in terms of Swiss Francs, the world’s most stable currency.
It’s true that massive inflation and a major devaluation of the US dollar would cause a price rise for Americans, but not necssarily in real terms for the rest of the world. Inflation in the US has been moderate, so it’s influence on the price of oil has been NEGLIGIBLE.
There is a movement afoot to try to price oil in terms of a “basket” of currencies and take the average inflation of those currencies to price oil. This has proven to be a very difficult task, since no one can agree on the actual to be used currencies and the method.
Sounds like you’re ranting hysterically with no idea what you are talking about.
- We don’t have inflation. We may yet, but not now. Consumer and producer prices, currently, are being pressured up by the increase in oil, NOT the other way around.
- Oil trades internationally on the dollar. When the dollar weakens oil goes up. there are also many benefits to a weak dollar, such as increased exports, which adds to employment.
- the Federal Reserve does not print money. The Treasury prints money. Fed action can increase or decrease the money supply. They can buy bonds, using existing money from the reserve, or they can sell bonds, taking money back in to put in the reserve and reduce the money supply. Both are completely different from “printing billions of dollars”.
- Defecit spending was necessary over the past 3 years to avoid a serious depression. Business was not spending, and banks were not lending.
Bet you’re pretty bummed out that Glenn Beck is taking his show off the air, aren’t you?
Bet you’re pretty bummed out that Glenn Beck is taking his show off the air, aren’t you?
It wasn’t Glen Beck…Fox News (I mean Opinion) is taking is show off…After over 400 advertisers refuse to be associated with his program.
Sure, more demand by new players in the oil markets, tighter supplies, Mideast unrest contribute to price hikes but to pretend that the markets don’t anticipate future inflation due to the current philosophy of devaluing the US dollar via QE seems naive.
You may drink the “deficit spending was necessary” Keynesian policies kool-aid but others don’t. There was never a liquidity problem but mostly a too much credit problem. Businesses had plenty of cash but weren’t willing to put it to work. The private sector was trying to deleverage while the public sector went on a leverage binge. Not letting businesses fail that should, sending good money after bad…They’re just puttin off the day of reckoning and making the next recession cycle that much more painful. History has shown that the urge to inflate is almost irresistible but always disastrous in the long run.
Fair enough.
Anyone who can see beyond the tip of their nose can see that inflation is going up. Just pull up a chart of the CRB Index for commodities, the real stuff required for life, and one can see it has been on a steep upwards trajectory since July 2010. Inflation is very much here and alive.
The retracement of housing prices, as a component of official CPI, while it conveniently leaves out food and energy costs, pulls the official inflation figures down, even though those figures don?t sync up with the actual cost of living. Of course, a low CPI gives the government cover for continuing to monetize its debt.
In their vanity, the feds think they can command the economy to do as they want. They’ve invested whole careers…and gotten Nobel prizes for their crackpot theories. They’re not going to give up now; they think their central planning can succeed, even though central planning by others has been universally disastrous.
Christopher Caldwell, writing in The Financial Times:
“The story of the past half century is that Americans found a way to extract money from future generations and leave them with the bill. What they have been enjoying is not prosperity, but luxury.”
It’s NOT a question as to if Inflation is going up…it’s weather Inflation has caused the current oil price problem…and surely it hasn’t.
If you think you can predict inflation…then why don’t you start your own hedge-fund.
Again, oil raising commodities prices. you’ve got your cause and effect wrong.
I guess I will just take my economics degree and close relationships with top execs in the finance industry, throw all of that out the window and follow you. Please sign me up for you r newsletter, you obviously have the answers that nobody else has.
No, you have it wrong, Mr. eco degree and buddy-buddy with “top execs” in the finance industry. Of course we know where top execs in the finance industry got us. But after I’m done genuflecting at your altar I might remind you to review the CRB index chart. It started heading up at a sharp angle in July 2010. Oil did not start increasing until recently. In other words, commodities have been up well before oil started its rise.
If you choose to ignore the fact that your timing is flat wrong and you don’t believe me, well, I have intimate contacts with EXPERTS that agree with me. So there.
I think you got gypped on your degree by the way. Inflation, except when very moderate and temporary, is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth not by increases in price of a single commodity like oil.
I suppose you believe that the Fed’s effort to flood the economy with money has somehow not in any way affected the price of oil? Just stocks and other asset bubbles?
The question is whether oil price has caused the inflation seen since July 2010…and surely it hasn’t.
What does “predicting inflation and starting a hedge fund” have to do with anything?
I feel pretty much the same. I recently bought a very small (Honda Fit) vehicle for daily driving and I’ll gladly pay $4.00 per gallon to get it to go 35 miles.
Commodities prices started going up in summer of '10 due to crop forecasts in Europe and Asia, which turned out to be accurate. World prices for wheat, rice and corn rose dramatically. This was temporary. Current pressures are due to oil prices.
One measure of inflation CAN be as you quoted, but is not the only way. Sorry.
Over. Done with this.
You can rationalize anything apparently. Crop forecasts in Europe and Asia?! Give me a break. Not to mention LOL. Did their copper, aluminum, gold, silver and nickel crops suffer too? Their crude oil, heating oil, natural and unleaded gas crops failed? What about their cocoa, cotton, sugar, live cattle and hogs crops? Orange juice? Hard times? You’re a hoot!
Crude oil is the biggest component of the CRB by a long shot at 23%. The next highest percentage is the 6% of several commodities. Corn is 6%, wheat is 1% and rice isn’t even in it. The four petroleum related items make up 40% of the index. Metals 20%. Kind of embarrasing huh?
Given that, how the heck would you know what the current pressures are limited to? Well, you don’t.
You could be a front man for the government. As long as no one thinks about what you’re saying.
I’ll leave to others to review the link below and decide if the rise in the index since the summer of 2010 is likely due to your crop forecast theory:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/CRB/charts
It sure beats walking, doesn’t it? Even at $4/gallon, your fuel cost is only $0.114 per mile. Nice!
Trial drugs and trial protocols are not covered by traditional insurance policies. The cost is generally borne by a combination of fundraising and private payment. Currently, the only place government gets involved in drugs is in the approval and regulation process. These processes cover not only the drug itself but also the manufacture of the drug.
Even of one gets into a government-funded study group, insurance will not cover an experimental drug. The expense of the medication can determine it’s availability to an individual.
The initiative to approve a drug comes from the pharmacutical companies via applications with the study data. The study itself, its protocols etc., is approved by the FDA prior to initiation of the study. These studies can take years and cost many millions. No government agency encourages the study and/or approval of a new drug.