Free Republic

ABC has Gotcha Gibson. NBC has Williams. CBS has Couric. Fox has............ Nothing. There is no national broadcast coming from Fox news. This needs to change.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than 3 percent on Thursday, touching the lowest level since May 2005 as record U.S. job losses intensified concerns of a long and deep global recession and further crushed demand expectations. The U.S. government reported the number of workers making new claims for jobless benefits last week surged to the highest in 16 years, helping to push down global equity markets. U.S. crude fell $1.81 to $51.81 a barrel by 1251 p.m. EST after earlier touching $49.75, marking the lowest level since May 25, 2005, when prices hit $49.58. London Brent crude shed...

NEW YORK – Oil prices fell below $79 a barrel in choppy trading Tuesday as investors took profits from the previous day's rally and shifted their focus back to signs of dwindling world energy demand. A falling U.S. stock market, a day after a record-breaking advance, also weighed on crude prices as oil market traders continued to fixate on equities as a barometer for the overall confidence in the shaky world economy. At the pump, retail gas price kept dropping. A gallon of regular dropped 4.3 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.163, according to auto club AAA,...

CBOT Rice Review: Slips As Lack Of Demand Weighs 3 hours ago CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Chicago Board of Trade rice futures ended sharply lower Wednesday as a lack of demand continues to weigh on the market, an analyst said. November rice ended down 40 cents to $17.30 per hundredweight and January rice ended down 41 1/2 cents to $17.62. Prices have fallen sharply since hitting a high of $20.44 last month, when the market had rallied on concerns about the crop following hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Although the crop remains troubled, with lower yields expected, firstgrain.com analyst Ed Taylor said the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than 6 percent to below $88 a barrel on Monday as a global market rout churned concerns that faltering fuel demand could slow further. U.S. stocks tumbled 6 percent to the lowest level in nearly five years as part of an international sell-off on fears the global economy was heading into recession. U.S. crude settled down $6.07 at $87.81 a barrel after hitting an eight-month low of $87.56. London Brent crude fell $6.57 to settle at $83.68 a barrel. Crude prices have plummeted from a peak over $147 a barrel set on July...

LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices fell below 105 dollars Friday on concerns over slowing energy demand and a strong US currency, while the market awaited next week's OPEC meeting on crude output levels, traders said. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October dropped 97 cents to 105.33 dollars a barrel in electronic deals after slipping under 105 dollars earlier in the day. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October, fell 96 cents to 106.93 dollars a barrel in pit trading. "Crude prices featured on the downside on persistent concerns over weakening oil demand and as the US...

$65 oil is coming (maybe) A top analyst expects crude prices to start plummeting. If you don't believe it, you're not the only one, and a few stocks look good if you're in the skeptics' camp. By Jon Markman If you're frustrated over the high cost of gasoline at the pump, don't trade in your Hummer for a Vespa just yet: A leading energy analyst is telling clients these days to prepare for crude oil to retreat back below $65 per barrel over the next three years. How could it happen? He says conservation, new drilling, efficient new vehicles, alternative...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Commodity markets slumped broadly Wednesday, dragged by crude oil prices that dropped below $125 a barrel after the government reported a big rise in gasoline stocks, suggesting high pump prices were hitting U.S. fuel usage. Gold prices sank almost 3 percent while industrial metals such as aluminum and copper tumbled to five-week lows. Soybeans and wheat fell, giving back most of Tuesday's rebound. Corn slumped too as investors fretted about demand for biofuel products that had until June enjoyed a boom competing with the rally in oil. The broad sell-off pushed the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index ,...

World oil production fell by 0.2 percent in 2007, the first decline since 2002, while consumption rose by 1.1 percent, BP (British Petroleum) said on Wednesday, highlighting a tight supply/demand balance that has helped push oil prices to record levels. Production fell by 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year to 81.53 million bpd and reserves were essentially flat at 1.24 trillion barrels, London-based BP said in its 2008 Statistical Review of World Energy. The figures compiled by BP underline the world's challenge of boosting production to meet growing demand, particularly from developing economies such as China and India.

North Korea is refusing to proceed further with its nuclear disarmament unless other countries at arms talks guarantee promised energy aid, a South Korean official said Thursday. Seeking to break the latest stalemate at the nuclear negotiations, the five other countries in the arms talks - the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - met with the North on Wednesday in the truce village of Panmunjom in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas. "The North has taken the position that if that (energy aid) is not fully guaranteed, it cannot cooperate in making further steps" at...

China's Oil Needs Keep Rising For Trucks, Industry, Stockpiles Reinhardt Krause 1 hour, 37 minutes ago Beijing's Summer Olympics, Sichuan's 7.2-magnitude earthquake in May and a buildup in strategic petroleum reserves put China's always difficult-to-discern oil demand even more in the dark. China has become the world's second-largest oil consumer after the U.S. as its people drive more cars and its factories produce steel and other energy-intensive goods. Despite China's growing role in global consumption, its actual demand for oil remains a mystery. In May, the U.S. urged China to join the International Energy Agency to help calm oil markets....

Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average. They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil. The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported. It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m. In the UK, nearly a quarter of adults are...

Many investors have become contrarians and are now apparently experts in being able to spot bubbles. Hence, they all are fully aware that a bubble exists in agricultural commodities at this juncture. Really, you can listen to just about any financial source and hear some commentator warning about the epic bubble that is evident in agricultural commodity prices. However, some of these same folks were completely blindsided by the collapse of the tech bubble in 2000. And they also were shocked that real estate prices could ever decline in value. Of course, this new class of maverick investor is also...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's High Court rejected an opposition demand Monday for the immediate release of long-delayed election results, prolonging a political crisis that has paralyzed this southern African nation for more than two weeks. An opposition spokesman said the party would stage a nationwide "stay-away" from work on Tuesday. The main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he won the March 29 election outright, and has accused President Robert Mugabe of holding back the results so he can orchestrate a runoff and ensure his 28-year grip on power. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had hoped that the court — though...

China's oil reserve build-up adds to global demand It plans a stockpile equivalent to 30 days' worth of imports by 2010 By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch Last update: 6:40 p.m. EDT March 11, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- China's plans to build its strategic petroleum reserves to at least 100 million barrels by 2010 could add more pressure to crude prices which have already been at record highs. The world's second-largest oil consumer already has built two underground storage reserves in east China and will put into use two more storage bases soon, a senior Chinese official said over the weekend,...

A Global Need for Grain That Farms Can’t Fill By DAVID STREITFELD LAWTON, N.D. — Whatever Dennis Miller decides to plant this year on his 2,760-acre farm, the world needs. Wheat prices have doubled in the last six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply. “For once, there’s great reason to be optimistic,” Mr. Miller said. But the prices that have renewed Mr. Miller’s faith in farming are causing pain far and wide. A tailor in Lagos, Nigeria, named Abel Ojuku said recently that he had been forced to cut back...

WASHINGTON: Forget the import of jet fighters and uranium for the moment. It’s India’s purchase of wheat in the international market that is attracting world attention — besides domestic controversy. A massive purchase of nearly 800,000 tonnes of wheat by India at record prices earlier this week has added to what agricultural experts are calling the great wheat panic of 2007. Wheat prices had already reached record levels ahead of the Indian move, thanks to falling or stagnating production in many countries — blamed on poor weather and crop diversion — and growing population. Now, prices are going through the...

With gasoline prices rising, political rhetoric is rising even faster. Liberals in Congress and in the media have launched a war of words, whose net result may well be a demand for some form of price control. Price controls are not a new idea. There have been price controls in countries around the world. There were price controls during ancient times in Babylon and in the Roman Empire. Whatever the hopes that may have inspired price controls, economists have studied their actual consequences, which have been remarkably similar from one place to another and from one time to another --...

A speed limit of 20mph could be introduced across much of London within three years. The measure, which would affect central London and residential areas where the limit is usually 30mph, is being demanded by the London Assembly Green Party, backed by road safety experts. Jenny Jones, the Mayor's Green road safety adviser, said she had discussed the plan with Ken Livingstone and that he backs more 20mph zones, but needed a little "arm-twisting" to accept their introduction across London.

Higher demand, lower subsidies driving costs Milk prices worldwide are rising at the fastest rate ever and won't be falling anytime soon because of growing demand in China and Latin America and dwindling government supplies. Dairy farmers have failed to keep pace with a 3 percent increase in annual milk consumption, according to Rabobank Groep in the Netherlands, the world's biggest agricultural lender. Reduced subsidies eliminated milk surpluses in Europe and slowed production growth in the U.S., government data show. The rally started last year after Australia reduced exports because of its worst drought in a century. "Over the next...