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U.S. producer prices fell in February, dragged down by falling costs for services and offering little sign of a pickup in inflation pressures. The Labor Department said on Friday its seasonally adjusted producer price index for final demand dropped 0.1 percent last month. U.S. inflation has held at a very low level in recent years because of a persistently high unemployment rate. This is expected to push the Federal Reserve to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for many more months even as the central bank dials back its monetary stimulus. Prices received by the nation's factories, retailers and...

That the bulk of Americans (especially those 4+ million whose insurance policies have recently been cancelled as a result of the ACA) have to pay more for healthcare as a result of Obamacare, is now largely accepted and well-known. But did you know that the cost of Obamacare is slowly metastasizing to other places? Such as your restaurant bill. Presenting Exhibit A.From CNN: Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes...

Beef: It’s what you can’t afford for dinner — for years to come. Retail beef prices are near record highs. During 2013, the price consumers paid for ground beef climbed roughly 5%, according to government data beef price data released Thursday finds that consumers paid an average of nearly $3.50 per pound for 100% ground beef. What’s more, experts say that climbing beef prices are here to stay. The USDA’s Economic Research Service projects that beef prices will rise faster than almost anything else this year. Don Close, a cattle economist with Rabo AgriFinance says he thinks prices this year...

So much for being the most expensive Super Bowl ever. With ticket prices in a freefall, seats for Sunday’s MetLife Stadium matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos could end up being the least expensive for a Super Bowl since the post-9/11 game of 2002. After hitting record highs last week, ticket prices took a nose dive over the weekend, with the cheapest prices plummeting nearly 50 percent, to a low of $1,150 from about $2,200 at 9 a.m. on Jan. 19.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) released its latest LPS Home Price Index (HPI) report, based on September 2013 residential real estate transactions.According to the report, U.S. Home Prices rose 0.2% in September, up 9.0% Year-Over-Year (YoY). LPS HPI – September 2013 The big winners? Nevada, Georgia and South Carolina. The big losers? NE “blue states”: Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. lpshpisept13 On a metro level, Myrtle Beach SC, Charleston SC, Atlanta GA, Miami and Naples FL were the big winners. The big losers? Most of Connecticut and Springfield MA. bigmetro Hey, at least bankrupt Modesto CA is making a comeback! So...

Romney Marsh Wind Farm, Kent/East Sussex * Why do Britons pay much higher electricity prices than before? Because, by government decision, as consumers they have to subsidize low-carbon methods of energy generation, in particular wind farms. There are 4 words that best describe wind turbines for energy production: inefficient, unreliable, very expensive. Wind power is the most costly form of electricity generation. Many British households, no less than 1 in 4, are already suffering from a newly-labelled condition, "fuel poverty", in which energy bills expenditure makes up 10% or more of the household's net income. We've got to the...

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), June pending home sales declined 0.4% in June, but the year-over-year pending home sales rose 9.1%. phs07292013 Home affordability has declined with recent interest rates increases. But affordability is still high by historic standards. narafford On the house price front, according to Loan Processing Services (LPS), May home prices rose 1.3% for the month and were up 7.9% Year-Over-Year. lpshp072913 The biggest winners? All west coast MSA. lpsmovers And Case-Shiller is out tomorrow. Here is a chart of the LPS home price index versus the Case-Shiller 20 metro repeat sales index. lpcs072913...

Rising mortgage rates, rising home prices. What is happening to the jumbo-conforming loan spread? In the fixed-rate market, the jumbo mortgage rate remains higher than the conforming mortgage rate. But the spread between the two has shrunk for the first time to early 2007 (and before) levels. jumboconfrs The jumbo-conforming spread actually began to increase in late 2007 and peaked in January 2009 at 184 basis points. It is now 28 basis points, below the average from 2000 to July 2007 of 29.5 basis points. jumboconformigspread On adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), the spread between jumbo ARMs and conforming ARMs is actually...

As expected (based on Loan Performance’s HPI index yesterday), the S&P Case-Shiller 20 metro index showed average home prices increased 11.6% and 12.1% for the 10- and 20-City Composites in the 12 months ending in April 2013. From March to April, the 10- and 20-City Composites rose 2.6% and 2.5%. Case-Shiller is in white, Loan Performance is in yellow. cs062513 Again, like Loan Performance, all 20 cities and both Composites showed positive year-over-year returns for at least the fourth consecutive month. Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Minneapolis posted their highest annual gains since the start of their respective indices. On a...

Federal Reserve officials both expect and want inflation to be higher than it is. So far, that isn’t happening. Consumer price data released Tuesday showed inflation rose a mere 1.4% in May from a year earlier. While the consumer price index isn’t the Fed’s preferred inflation measure — the personal consumption expenditures price index is — the reading is a reminder that price gains are still well below the central bank’s 2% target. Economists at Macroeconomic Advisers say the CPI rise likely translates to an annualized gain of 0.7% in the second quarter — a very weak reading.

I know that this is difficult to believe, but petrol prices are probably going to decrease. This is the likely prediction that can be derived from a June 2012 study by one of the world's top experts on oil, gas, and energy, Leonardo Maugeri, entitled "Oil: The Next Revolution: The Unprecedented Upsurge of Oil Production Capacity and What It Means for the World" and published by the prestigious Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in America.The paper says that we expect a global growth in oil production "from 93 million barrels per day today to 110 million...

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The Democrats knew what they were doing when they deferred the implementation of most provisions of Obamacare until after the 2012 election. What is surprising, really, is that Obamacare has been so unpopular, given that most of its baleful effects have not yet been felt. But it won’t be long now. The Associated Press reports that health insurers are warning of massive price increases beginning next year: Some Americans could see their insurance bills double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.

A daughter is new car shopping for a Hyundai(they are supposed to be much better made now)and she used Consumer Reports to find the Invoice Price. She is nowhere near a seaport but the difference in Invoice & Sticker is only $200.... It has been a long time since i bought new and i though my Chevy Invoice was much lower than the sticker. I understood that knowing the invoice was a good baseline to bargain with the dealership. Do any FReepers know if her Invoice from Consumer Reports is bogus or is there a better place to find invoice...

President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress want to raise the minimum wage to improve the lot of the working poor. But they've got the wrong idea. The problem is not that these workers earn so little; it's that the things they buy cost so much. I propose instead to outlaw high prices. No one, after all, likes paying too much. So let's put a stop to it. Gas is too expensive? Make it $2 a gallon, max. Bread and meat take a big bite out of the family budget? Poor people could eat better if they had to pay...

Watch: “The Global Food Crisis You Need To Prepare For Is Now Imminent” Mac Slavo December 19th, 2012 Grocery stores may still be stocked with food and most Americans are still able to keep their family’s fed, but with 50 million Americans requiring government assistance to do so and prices on a seemingly never ending rise, how long will it be before the situation becomes unmanageable? The global food crisis you need to prepare for is now imminent. For the past six years the world has consumed more food than it has produced. As a result, global food reserves are...

Owning or Renting: High Risk or Tragedy of the Commons? The tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to their long-term best interests. Examples abound such as common grazing on public land, depletion of fish in the ocean and why public restrooms are usually filthy. Homeownership is an example of the “tragedy of the commons.” Public housing projects, such as the infamous Cabrini Green in Chicago, are an example. Public housing is often poorly maintained...

The Smartest Investment Of The Decade by Simon Blackon November 12, 2012 Here’s something crazy to think about. Roughly 200,000 people were born today. That’s net world population growth, births minus deaths. Each one of them constitutes a new mouth to feed. And when they come of age, those 200,000 people will consume, conservatively, about 1,250 Calories per day. Collectively, that’s 91.25 billion Calories per year for the entire 200,000 people that were born today. Where will they get that food from? Consider that a cup of rice contains about 300 Calories. An average annual rice harvest yields about 150...

Forget Fact Checking: Where’s the Logic?- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -In a real town hall meeting, the person asking a question gets to follow up. What we saw Tuesday night wasn’t a town hall meeting at all. The readers appeared to be simply mouthing someone else’s prearranged questions. There wasn't any passion. But what if the public was allowed to retort? Following are my thoughts on the lecture Barack Obama provided in response to the second question, a rather simple one which he has yet to answer. QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times...

When you pull up to that gas pump and nearly faint from how much it costs you to fill 'er up, you may be tempted blame the government for not doing enough to keep a lid on prices. Resist the temptation. The truth is the global nature of the world's energy supply means that no president has much power over what you pay at the pump. The question of whether the nation's chief executive can do anything to lower soaring energy costs has been a bone of contention between President Barack Obama and his GOP rival, former Mass. Gov. Mitt...