Gas prices climbing with no end in sight

* Story Highlights
* California had the highest average price: $3.86 per gallon
* Wyoming had the lowest average price: $3.39 per gallon.
* Prices not expected to go down anytime soon as demand grows in
spring, summer

(CNN) -- U.S. gasoline prices topped out Monday at $3.50 per gallon
for self-serve regular, according to AAA -- the highest average price
the national auto club has ever recorded.

The cost inched up from Sunday's $3.49. A month ago the reading was
$3.26 a gallon, and a year ago it was $2.85.

California had the highest average price -- $3.86 per gallon -- and
Wyoming had the lowest -- $3.39.

AAA's data is obtained from the average of the last credit card swipe
at about 85,000 gas stations on the previous day. Another survey, the
Lundberg Survey, is carried out every two weeks at about 5,000 gas
stations, and it, too, hit a record high.

Gas prices climbing with no end in sight

* Story Highlights
* California had the highest average price: $3.86 per gallon
* Wyoming had the lowest average price: $3.39 per gallon.
* Prices not expected to go down anytime soon as demand grows in
spring, summer

(CNN) -- U.S. gasoline prices topped out Monday at $3.50 per gallon
for self-serve regular, according to AAA -- the highest average price
the national auto club has ever recorded.

The cost inched up from Sunday's $3.49. A month ago the reading was
$3.26 a gallon, and a year ago it was $2.85.

California had the highest average price -- $3.86 per gallon -- and
Wyoming had the lowest -- $3.39.

AAA's data is obtained from the average of the last credit card swipe
at about 85,000 gas stations on the previous day. Another survey, the
Lundberg Survey, is carried out every two weeks at about 5,000 gas
stations, and it, too, hit a record high.

Alert from the US Fish and Wildlife Service:

Trappers needed, there is a coon and a beaver trying to get into the
White House.

Gee, maybe he shouldn't have insulted them - even if he did think he
was only doing it behind their back at a forum of elitist democrats in
San Francisco. Ah well, live and learn!

"Way Back Jack" wrote

I haven't watched any TV in the last 8 years. And I burn about 1.5
gallons of gas per week.

Heating bill is typically $600 for the year - and falling.
Electric bill is typically $10 per month.

Now post your consumption rates.

"Way Back Jack" wrote

I don't. Ceiling fans, insulation and roof ventilation suffice quite
nicely.

A rising euro threatens American dominance

By Benn Steil
Financial Times
Published: April 22 2008 19:38

As the dollar continues its relentless six-year slide against the euro and
other main currencies, the question is being asked more and more: what would
it mean if the dollar ceded its global dominance to the euro?

The question is a serious one because the US Federal Reserve is pumping new
dollars into the global economy at an astounding pace. A broad measure of US
money supply growth is increasing at a rate not seen since 1971 when
President Richard Nixon imposed price controls and ended the dollar¹s
convertibility into gold, which recently roared above $1,000 an ounce. With
consumer prices having climbed 4 per cent from a year ago, and wholesale
prices having soared 6.9 per cent, presaging higher consumer price inflation
around the corner, we are living witnesses to Milton Friedman¹s famous
dictum that ³inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in
the sense that it cannot occur without a more rapid increase in the quantity
of money than in output².

The Fed is acting with the best of intentions to head off a recession. But
in a rapidly globalising financial marketplace it is in fact accelerating
the demise of its own unique powers. Virtually all national...

US regulator fears wave of bank failures

By Daniel Pimlott, Krishna Guha and Joanna Chung in Washington and Ben White
in New York

Financial Times
Published: April 22 2008 23:52

US bank failures could rise above "historical norms" as a weakening economy
puts pressure on badly underwritten loans, particularly in commercial real
estate, according to a bank regulator.

In an interview with the Financial Times, John Dugan, who oversees about
1,700 national banks as comptroller of the currency, said the growing
problems for lenders follow a period of almost four years in which no
institution regulated by his agency had failed.

"We're going to have some more bank failures that will come back more to
historical norms and may go above that with time," he said. "That is a
natural consequence of the economy going from historically exceptionally
benign credit conditions to something that is more normal to something you
would get in a downturn."

NEWS STORY - "Is biofuel responsible for the global food crisis?"

SEE

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=7512

"Shortage has hit the USA, too. The New York Post reports, “Major
retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast
are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand
outstrips supply.”

"The Tokyo housewife went to the local supermarket for butter this
week, intent on baking a cake. Much to her surprise, the shelves were
bare."

"Yikes. We’re headed for frightening territory here. It’s one thing to
hear about food riots in faraway places. It’s another to hear about
troubles at the corner grocery."

435-305
Obama maintains solid delegate lead despite PA loss

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
4/22/08

Well, Rush Limbaugh’s big push to have Republican supporters switch
allegiance and vote for Hillary in Pennsylvania in order to keep the
race going had a profound effect.

The polls from the political analysts suggest that Hillary would win
by 11 points. With about 80%% of the vote counted, she is leading by
... ten. Back when Rush first suggested voting for her, she still led
in the state by about twenty points.

So the big dittohead boost didn’t materialize, and while she won by
just enough to stay in the race, she faces dwindling donations as her
campaign falls ten million in debt.

She did win, and she’ll get a boost from that, a small bounce in the
polls which may or may not help her in Indiana two weeks from now.
(North Carolina isn’t really in play, with Obama enjoying a solid 20
point lead there). But she only gained about fifteen delegates on
Obama.