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Gasoline price in Jasper County, Indiana jumped 26 cents a gallon between 8am and 1pm on Thursday, 13 Oct 2011

...The Labor Department on Thursday said consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in August. The increase was largely responsible for a 0.6% drop in the average hourly wages of U.S. workers, adjusted for inflation. It marked the biggest one-month decline in more than three years. Stripping out the volatile food and energy categories, the “core” rate of consumer price inflation rose a smaller 0.2%. Yet the core rate has also been rising steadily, hitting a 12-month level of 2.0% for the first time since November 2008.

Gold this morning is plunging by the most since December 2008. For those seeking the reason for the sell off, it once again appears that the market is about 24 hours late in processing news that has been out for over a day. One of the main catalysts for today's gold price is the realization that the Shanghai Gold Exchange hiked gold margins by 26%. Of course that this happened not one but two days ago (as we reported) is irrelevant. There are other factors to be sure: on Tuesday holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's...

For the second time since voters approved California's massive bullet train project, the state on Tuesday raised the total price tag for the first stretch by several billion dollars -- and now the cost for the entire rail line is on pace to skyrocket to an eye-popping $60 billion to $80 billion or even more. The latest estimates put the cash-strapped state even further behind in bankrolling its biggest, and one of its most polarizing, public works plans ever, as California struggles to secure funds from shy investors and broke governments. Still, project officials are ramping up to spend billions...

There’s one question that I’ve been seeing over and over for the last several weeks as the price of gold has taken out its all-time highs and continued a nearly uninterrupted ascent: Should I buy gold now? It’s understandable, especially for people who don’t own precious metals yet. Nobody wants to be the sucker who buys gold at the top, only to watch it crater back to $1200 or below. But here’s some food for thought– The US dollar is shattering historic lows against currencies like the Swiss franc, Australian dollar, and Singapore dollar. Any currency that isn’t a complete...

AEI’s Michael Barone wrote recently about the higher education bubble, which could also described as a “low-interest education loan bubble” to reflect the government’s role in subsidizing higher education, similar to its role in subsidizing homeownership. The topic has been receiving a lot of attention lately, and there is even now a Wikipedia listing for “higher education bubble.”

Hinde Capital's Ben Davies says the debt crises in Europe and the U.S. will lead to only one thing: Gold 2K. He tells King World News: “This has the smell of 1998 when I was trading US government bonds and everyone was away on holiday and problems were beginning to brew. Stock markets were beginning to get violent in reaction to Russia’s problems and it all kicked off in the summer months and people were being called back to their desks. I just have that same kind of feeling now. This is not one I want to fight, the market...

Market regulators forcing short squeezes? Check. Central banks using mob-style gimmicks to push the price of "assets" around? Check. Market confidence back to 100%? We'll have to get back to you on that. Gold spot just touched on a fresh new intraday all time high of just under $1,579... and is going much, much higher. After all, the most important question - Everyone is broke? Check.

US President Barack Obama had made a secret deal with Libyan rebel leaders to capture the freed Lockerbie bomber from Libya and return him to face justice in the US, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday. The British daily quoted senior congressional sources in Washington as saying that Mr Obama had told the Libyan rebels through intermediaries that a condition of Washington's continued support was that they must hand over Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to US special forces if they enter Tripoli. The mission would involve Megrahi being flown to a neutral Arab country by US special forces and on to the

On Nov. 5, 2009, at the behest of Rep. Michele Bachmann, thousands of tea party activists descended on the Capitol to vent their rage over the health care overhaul bill pending before Congress. The assembled activists chanted, "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!" and waved signs opposing a government takeover of health care — but they may not have known that the same government was paying for the event. According to House expense reports, Bachmann and three conservative GOP colleagues — Reps. Tom Price (Ga.), Steve King (Iowa) and Todd Akin (Mo.) — each paid $3,407.50 that day, a total...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible price-fixing of gasoline by U.S. refineries because “recent reports,” according to the senators, suggest the refiners are trimming supply to keep prices high. But a federal report from November shows that refinery stockpiles started to decline in 2008, if not earlier. At a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had sent a letter that day to the FTC, “to request the Commission begin an investigation into potential price fixing of gasoline by U.S. refiners.” “Recent...

Can anyone provide a current breakdown of gas prices? I want to forward to my friends who think that Big Oil is the big winner when prices spike up. I'm assuming that all the Fed, State and Local taxes are the main reason. Thanks.

Silver's shine is fading fast, and the market for the precious metal may have reached a top in a speculative, mad dash by ETF investors. "The last move higher over the last month or so has really been driven by the strength of the retail investment demand, so the levels up here are not supported," said Suki Cooper, precious metals analyst with Barclays Capital. "At levels above $40, we've seen some concern rising on the industrial demand side. The last leg higher has been investment-driven, rather than fundamentally supported. In that respect, the correction was due. I would say from...

I woke up at 3 am yesterday morning. It was a bleary-eyed, “oh-God-I-fell-asleep-in-the-chair” awakening. Everything ached. I pushed myself out of the chair planning to stumble to the bed for a few hours of real sleep. I'd nodded off with the TV on, and blazoned across the TV screen was a banner that read "Bin Laden Dead". I thought, "Never heard of that movie before." Then a talking head was on the screen telling how Mr. Terror and his beard had both met their demise at the hands of Navy Seals and Army helicopters. Fascinated, I plopped back down in...

I was just starting to work on a column about silver mania Tuesday morning when a big, beautifully produced ad insert on silver, of all things, arrived with my Financial Times. Proclaiming that “silver is the single greatest profit opportunity of our time,” the insert featured a huge, nearly three-dimensional replica of a one-ounce U.S. silver eagle, with Liberty herself reaching out her hand and In God We Trust right there for all to see. The coin replica, some 3 ½ inches in diameter, shone like a harvest moon, glittering with the possibility of instant riches. And — you just...

There’s something sad about a man so carelessly revealing himself as entirely inadequate to the moment. Government spending is an existential threat to the United States. Whether or not anyone at the White House knows this, the viziers decided to shove the sultan out on stage with a pitifully unserious speech retreating to all his lamest tropes – the usual whiny, petty and unpresidential partisan snippiness, and the ponderous demolition of straw men even he barely bothered to pretend he believed in: Politicians are often eager to feed the impression that solving the problem is just a matter of eliminating...

In case you're not paying attention, the silver market has gone nuts today, surging until near $50, before collapsing to around $46. It's the most controversial, hotly-followed asset class in the world. So what's the real story. Earlier this month, Philip Klapwijk of GFMS presented a very through, complete look at the silver market: from its demand, its production, and where the current market stands in history. It's definitely a great, complete lesson. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

These government-issued coupons are good for one gallon of gas at most retailers...  I myself recall seeing them, but until recently never realized their actual worth... You may yourself have a couple laying around-- just a heads-up, now is the time to use them before they lose their value: Just as you were warned back in January...  except instead of four bucks a gallon it's FIVE- and we could be looking at six this summer. Obama's all upset about it -here- ___________________________________________________ More at Reaganite Republican

The US Labor Department said that consumer prices climbed a higher-than-expected 2.7pc in March from a year before. Almost three quarters of the rise was due to surging food and petrol prices, with petrol costs climbing 5.6pc, the ninth straight month of increases. Food rose 0.8pc in March, the largest gain since July 2008. A survey of 41 economists by Bloomberg had on average expected annual inflation to hit 2.6pc. David Wyss, the New York-based chief economist at Standard & Poors, said the inflation was largely as expected, adding: "The Fed is not going to see inflation as a threat...

Have Drivers Finally Thrown in Their Keys? Mass Transit Sees Uptick in Ridership Gas prices are now the highest they have ever been during the month of April and at its fourteenth highest nominal price according to data from the Energy Department going back to 1990. The average gas price is $3.79 per gallon of regular, according to the Energy Department's weekly figures released today, an increase of 11 cents from last week and 93 cents from a year ago. As the average price of gasoline edges closer to $4 a gallon -- with at least one gas station in...