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WASHINGTON -- The fuel ethanol boom and high crop prices will cut U.S. farm subsidy spending by $31 billion through 2016, a dramatic drop in the cost of the farm program, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. In a semiannual report, CBO estimated farm subsidies would cost $10 billion this year and the annual cost "will range between $8 billion and $10 billion over the next decade." The forecasts are expected to constrain this year's overhaul of farm policy by Congress. The 2002 farm law, which allocates about $20 billion a year on farm supports, expires in the fall....

Commodities expert Jim Rogers says that, while he can't pinpoint the exact timeframe, oil will reach $100 a barrel after a "correction." Readers will remember that Rogers predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999. "I'm just not smart enough to know how far down it will go and how long it will stay, but I do know that within the context of the bull market, oil will go over $100," Rogers said in a Tokyo interview. "It will go over $150. Whether that is in 2009 or 2013, I don't have a clue, but I know it's going...

Ask Jim Rogers what to leave the next generation, and he will tell you what is in his three-year-old daughter's portfolio: commodities and Swiss francs. Mr. Rogers, 64, is a longtime bull on commodities who, for many years, seemed early to the party. But commodities prices were creeping up even in the dot-com years and have soared in the past few years -- largely driven by China's massive appetite for everything from gold to concrete. It has given him plenty of chances to say, "I told you so." The question he faces now: Is it still a boom when prices...

Nov 3 (Reuters) - Delegates from 48 African countries are attending the Nov. 3-5 China-Africa ministerial summit in Beijing. Here is an overview of China's developing energy links with Africa: GROWING DEMAND: - In 2003, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest oil consumer after the United States. - China says it will build up emergency strategic oil reserves of about 100 million barrels (16.2 million cubic metres) over the next five years. - In October 2006, it confirmed it had begun pumping crude into tanks near its largest refinery, Zhenhai, in eastern Zhejiang province. - China plans to...

Commodities had a miserable third quarter and many on Wall Street say they have further to fall. That theory was bolstered last week as oil prices sunk to their lowest level for the year. If commodities prices do sink further, it will be bad news for emerging markets and the investors who have poured billions of dollars into them over the past three years. Commodities prices tend to have a domino effect - lower oil prices often drag down gold prices, for instance. And lower commodities prices tend to push down stocks in emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil,...

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Russian banks could be saddled with millions of dollars in bad loans if a drop in oil prices hits the incomes of middle class Russians who have been gorging on a glut of consumer credit. The spot price of Urals , Russia's export blend, has fallen from a peak of $73.65 per barrel in July to $55.12 on Wednesday, and analysts predict a sizable fallout for Russia. "My two major concerns about the Russian economy are the 2008 election and bad loans," said Tim Ash, analyst at Bear Stearns, referring to the vote to elect...

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - U.S. and world emergency crude oil reserves could replace a complete shut-off of Iranian oil exports for 18 months, avoiding an estimated $201 billion in damage to the American economy, the Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday. There has been concern among energy traders that tough action by the United States and other western countries against Iran's nuclear program could cause Tehran to retaliate by cutting off the country's oil exports. Iran is the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, selling about 2.7 million barrels a day. Such a disruption would remove close to 1.5 billion...

Latest Light, Sweet Crude Oil Futures 2006-Oct Stock Trade Type Size Price Date Tr.Time Units 63.75 14/09/2006 12:27 USD More Light, Sweet Crude Oil Futures 2006-Oct share trades

Enron and Today's Oil and Gas Prices August 9th, 2006 If a Senate study concluded that legislation signed by George W. Bush and supported by Halliburton was partially responsible for todayÂ’s high oil and gas prices, do you think you would have heard about it?Well, such a report was released by the Senate. However, the president that signed the law in question was William Jefferson Clinton, and the company that strongly lobbied for its passage was Enron. Yet, mysteriously, this study was almost completely ignored.On June 26, Senators Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan) released a comprehensive report detailing...

LONDON, July 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A UK fertility clinic has been given the green light by the country’s fertility authority to allow women undergoing in-vitro fertilization to trade costs of the treatment in exchange for any surplus eggs. The eggs are to be fertilized, and the resulting embryonic babies mined for cells to be used in research. The decision marks the first instance where human eggs are being legally sold as items of commerce. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority licensed the North East England Stem Cell Institute to exchange embryos in lieu of payment for IVF services. The...

OIL PRICES will soar to well over US$100 a barrel and stay high as part of a sustained commodities bull run that has another 15 years to run, billionaire United States investor Jim Rogers told Reuters in an interview. One factor that could bring down the price would be a bird flu epidemic, which would send all asset classes plummeting, he said, although oil would probably fall less than other markets. "We're going to have high oil prices for a very long time. The surprise is going to be how high it goes," Rogers said. Reiterating earlier comment oil prices...

With oil now hitting record highs and gold well off mid-May levels, the gold-oil ratio continues to shrink. Today, one ounce of gold only buys 8.57 barrels of oil - a ratio of 0.11.Oil hit a fresh record high of $75.78 a barrel today, boosted by strong demand in the United States and global tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's missile tests. Prices drew early support from a U.S. government report yesterday showing gasoline demand grew by 1.4% in the last four weeks from a year ago, with summer driving months still head. But rebel attacks in...

See for example this thread first. The price of oil and metals fell to which I shrug and say "Oh, well" It's no wonder why-- their price was just sky-high and the folks who just bought now cry "SELL!!!!"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil and metals prices may extend their sudden slide as economic worries trigger a speculative rout, but the record rally in energy and commodities isn't dead yet, experts said. Crude and metals prices have smashed records this year as hedge funds seeking to cash in on their searing returns poured billions of dollars into the sectors, and Monday's setback signals a correction, not a meltdown. Crude futures, which fell 3.7 percent to $69.41 a barrel on Monday, could drop as low as $60 a barrel, according to hedge fund managers and analysts, but a rebound is...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil and gold fell more than two percent and copper dropped nearly nine percent on Monday as investors feared a rally that has taken many commodities to or near record highs may slow economic growth.

Gold is through $700 an ounce for the first time in a quarter of a century. Platinum prices have gone through the roof. Copper is now so expensive that the metal in a two-pence coin, as my Guardian colleague Richard Adams noted last week, is now worth 3p. Oil is trading between $70 and $75 a barrel; stock markets in New York and London are at their highest levels in six years. The MSCI - an index of 49 stock markets in 49 developed and developing countries - hit an all-time peak. So beware: all of this has bubble written...

The US dollar suffered a severe sell-off on Friday, taking it to its weakest level against a trade-weighted basket of currencies since October 1997, as fears about the US current account deficit crossed world markets. Worries about US inflation, which have intensified since this week's meeting of the US Federal Reserve's rate-setting open market committee on Wednesday, sparked further sharp losses for US stock markets. The Nasdaq Composite fell a further 1 per cent in morning trading after its 2 per cent fall on Thursday.

With gold at a 26-year high, buyers and sellers in Madison have taken note and are trading briskly in the precious metal. Small investors are cashing in their holdings while buyers are scrambling in hopes that prices will continue to rise. Gold hit $728 an ounce Thursday, up from $525 in January. Prices dipped on Friday, closing at around $711 an ounce. "You're probably going to see it crest over $800 (an ounce)," said Mark Hermanson, co- owner of Capital City Coins & Jewelry in Monona. "There hasn't been much interest in gold and silver bullion. Three years ago when...

President George W. Bush joined the gas-prices-are-too-high chorus in Washington by calling for an investigation of possible price-fixing by oil companies. He also suspended shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and relaxed environmental regulations that require fuel additives such as ethanol. The latter two moves should reduce gas prices temporarily but what good is a price-fixing probe? Every time the price of gas goes up, politicians pander to constituents by demanding a gas-gouging investigation. Crude oil prices have soared recently to more than $73 a barrel, so is it any mystery why gas prices are nearing $3 a gallon? According...

What to think. Confirmation that the ongoing rise in commodity prices is of economic origin and not a worrisome monetary phenomenon comes from a Kudlow & Co. survey of 51 of the world’s larger economies, representing approximately 94 percent of global GDP. The data reveal a strong tandem relationship between the commodity price swings of recent years and the contraction and expansion of the global marketplace. Nominal GDP for the economies surveyed ended 2005 at $41.6 trillion (in current U.S. dollars), up 0.4 percent from the prior quarter and 5.1 percent above its year-earlier level. More significant, since the global...