Free Republic

Get ready to pay double or even triple the price for fresh produce in the coming weeks after the worst freeze in 60 years damaged and wiped out entire crops in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. The problem started less than a week ago, when our nation was focusing on the Superbowl and sheets of ice falling from Texas Stadium. Farmers throughout northern Mexico and the Southwest experienced unprecedented crop losses. Now devastation that seemed so far away, is hitting us in the pocketbooks. "We've had to double and triple some prices and consumers come in and it's quite...

US Politicians Duped By The Brotherhood In the United States, one individual maintained a pretense of "moderation" which would later embarrass the left and the right. According to the testimony of Dr. Michael Waller to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Abdurahman Alamoudi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A man born in Eritrea in 1951, he arrived in the US in 1979 and became a naturalized US citizen on May 23, 1996. From 1985 onwards he became involved in many Muslim groups. In 1990 he founded the Washington DC-based American Muslim Council (AMC), which Waller states "has...

After providing a more thorough analysis of the precious metals market Monday morning, given silver's activity yesterday, we felt compelled to continue the discussion. The silver market has been extremely volatile as of late, and the day's action has proven no different. After peaking at 27.95 overnight, silver hovered around unchanged before dropping precipitously for no reason, ending Monday down almost 2%.(Click charts to expand)The large intraday price drop is certainly cause for concern among investors, but digging into Monday's volume action may be a bit more revealing.Both silver futures and the SLV displayed average to light volume. The...

Fuel price rises by 0.76p per litreSat Jan 1, 2011 3:26PM On 1 January, the British government announced an increase in the price of petrol, a condition which led to another 0.76p rise in the price of both petrol and diesel. This is while VAT will rise by 2.5 percent on 4 January. It is also said that another £1,200 is to be added to annual fuel bills due to the rises announced on 1 January, according to the state-run BBC. The AA suggested that these increases would push the cost of a litre of both diesel and petrol up...

It may be the happiest season of the year,but higher oil prices that have translated into gas prices topping $3 a gallon have many motorists frowning.

Gold recently logged a 25% gain so far this year, and many people think it's time to bank gains and head for the benches. While I'm never opposed to grabbing nice gains, I think there are much NICER gains to come in gold. I can give you a list of forces I've told you about before — lack of new supply, new and surging demand from gold ETFs, the world's central banks switching from net sellers to net buyers, and more.But today, I want to tell you about six more forces that will keep the heat on gold at...

Watch live feed of GM stock price!

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 18, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "There they go again," said The American Legion's National Commander Jimmie Foster about the recommendations of two debt reduction commissions which would decrease military retirement benefits. "Every time Washington wakes up with a deficit hangover after decades of spending binges, those who study the serious problems of our national debt can't resist the easy but unfair route of trying to balance the budget on the backs of veterans. It is unfair and if these ridiculous proposals are passed into law, it will hurt America's ability to defend itself from our enemies." One panel, chaired...

Nothing matches monetary theory and currency issues as a source of delirium among economists. As the G20 gets underway today in South Korea, name-calling has taken the place of diplomacy. The German Finance Minister called the U.S. Federal Reserve’s US$600-billion money-printing operation “clueless,” while Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he has “absolute confidence” in the program. Somebody mentioned gold, and the swords are drawn again. Not a chance, said Mr. Carney. A good idea, said Robert Skidelsky, a leading Keynesian who says it’s a golden opportunity to reform the world monetary system. Meanwhile, the man who started the...

Gold is getting crushed today, when priced in silver. This move is insane. Silver is up over 4%, compared to less than 1% in gold.

The price of oil has hit a six-month high after encouraging manufacturing data in the US and China boosted confidence in the global recovery. US light crude oil rose by $2 (£1.25) a barrel or 2.5%, to $83.45, while London Brent rose by $1.90 to $85.04 a barrel. Figures showed that the US manufacturing sector accelerated faster than expected in October, thanks to strong new orders and exports.

One of the most controversial topics in investing is the price of gold. Eleven years ago, gold dropped as low as $252 per ounce. Since then, the yellow metal has risen more than five-fold, easily outpacing the major stock market indexes—and it seems to move higher every day.Some goldbugs say this is only the beginning and that gold will soon break $2,000, then $5,000 and then $10,000 per ounce.But the question is, “How can anyone reasonably calculate what the price of gold is?” For stocks, we have all sorts of ratios. Sure, those ratios can be off…but at least they’re...

Spot gold prices set a fresh record of $1,318.40 per ounce in European electronic trading on Friday, and were recently quoted at $1,315.90 an ounce, up $6.40 from its closing level in New York Thursday.

More than 10 million children's toys have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the toys' manufacturer Fisher Price, the CPSC announced today.

“If the price ratio between [gold and silver] were to revert back to it’s historical average, then silver prices would outperform gold by more than 2 to 1. In fact, the physical ratio of silver to gold in the earth’s crust is 16 to 1. During the inflationary 1970’s, the ratio between gold and silver prices was at exactly 16:1…mirroring the proportions in which the two metals occur in nature.” –The Little Book of Commodity Investing, by John Stephenson (Wiley) With gold currently trading around $1250 per ounce, and silver just above $19, the current ratio of gold’s price to...

(Reuters) - Gold could rally above $1,300 an ounce this year, setting successive all-time highs, as uncertainty about economic recovery and a sovereign debt crisis stoke investment interest, according to a closely watched industry report released Tuesday. Investment demand in gold should benefit from the threat of inflation as central banks cut interest rates to the bone to battle double-dip recession and high unemployment, respected metals consultancy GFMS Ltd said in its Gold Survey 2010 Update. "I think we could easily see gold spike comfortably above $1,300 before the year's out ... further gains in 2011 are far from out...

The drought decimating Russia's grain crop is helping put more money into the pockets of U.S. farmers and leaving the world more dependent on the U.S. harvest. The U.S. Agriculture Department said Thursday it expects U.S. wheat exports to soar 36% amid higher prices, and in a rare move raised its one-month-old harvest forecasts and price forecasts for several major U.S. crops, including wheat, corn, and soybeans at the same time. "The U.S. is an island of supply in a year of very big demand," said Daniel W. Basse, president of AgResource Co., a Chicago commodity forecasting concern. Higher prices...

The House will vote next week on a Republican measure that would prevent Democratic leaders from passing controversial policy initiatives during a lame-duck session of Congress this year. Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Tom Price (Ga.) introduced the privileged resolution last Thursday in response to reports that Democratic leaders told their base that they could move big-ticket legislation after the November elections and before the new Congress convenes in January. Price explained that his resolution says that a lame-duck session should not occur unless there were to be a national emergency. “When [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.] and...

Washington, Jul 29 - Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after offering a resolution on the floor of the House of Representatives calling on Congress not to hold a lame duck session after Election Day for the purpose of passing hugely unpopular legislation like a national energy tax, enormous deficit spending bills, and the kickback to Big Labor known as “Card Check.”

Petrol and power prices have risen sharply in New Zealand after the government introduced a controversial emissions trading scheme. The government has pressed ahead with plans to slash the nation's carbon output, despite widespread opposition and New Zealand's larger neighbour Australia shelving its own scheme. Motorists were hit by a 3c (1.4p) rise in the price of a litre of petrol overnight, while householders face a 5 per cent increase in gas and electricity prices. It was the first step in a complex scheme, universally referred to as "the ETS", to slash carbon emissions back to 1990 levels. Some disgruntled...