Free Republic

As it appears GDP will be seasonally adjusted again, I find myself wondering just one thing: why? Earlier GDP figures showed the US economy on the brink of recession for the first two quarters of this year. Now, with more fudging going on, who knows what it will show. The government appears to be following the Hollywood mantra: if you can bend perception enough, it will become reality. Look no further than the Federal Reserve, which continues to raise expectations of higher interest rates in the second half of this year, in hopes of inducing faster growth.

Get ready for the White House to ignore their own science experts again. The Department of Energy commissioned a study by the National Petroleum Council which was meant to help determine our long range energy strategy. Their conclusion? We need to head on up to the Arctic basin and drill baby drill.

The euro slipped to a fresh 12-year low against the US dollar on Thursday as the common currency continued to buckle under pressure felt since the European Central Bank launched its massive quantitative easing scheme at the start of the week.

Oil traders are well aware of the supply glut but oil producers seem largely oblivious. With West Texas Intermediate crude breaching the $50 US a barrel threshold for the first time since April 2009 on Monday, the collapse in the price of oil that began last June resumed after the Christmas holiday and set the stage for continued volatility in 2015. Despite forecasts for lower drilling activity and oilsands investment in the year ahead after a 50 per cent decline in oil prices in six months, Canada is one of a number of the worldÂ’s largest producers pumping record volumes...

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi also said he wasn't conspiring to take out rival producers by driving down the price. "These rumors or whoever generated them, is completely mistaken," he said. U.S. crude prices have slumped by nearly 50% in six months, the sharpest fall for many years. That has unsettled stock markets, accelerated a financial crisis in Russia, raised the risk that Venezuela will default and forced some U.S. producers to shed jobs and scale back investment. Depending on which conspiracy theory you subscribe to, Saudi Arabia is waging an oil price war...

OPEC is pointing the finger at speculators as well as Non-OPEC countries, but especially US shale producers for the crude price crash. Let's explore that idea in a series of charts. But first let's take a look at the allegation. The Wall Street Journal reports Gulf Oil Exporters Blame Non-OPEC Producers for Glut. Gulf oil officials on Sunday defended OPECÂ’s decision last month to keep its production ceiling intact, blaming producers outside of the group for the glut of oil on the market that has depressed prices. Speaking at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi...

One piece of the jigsaw puzzle is missing to complete the deflation landscape across the West: a slide in oil prices. This is becoming more likely each month. Turmoil across the Middle East and parts of Africa has choked supply over the past two years, keeping Brent crude near $110 a barrel despite a broader commodity slump. Cotton and corn prices have halved, as has the UBS index of industrial metals. Such anomalies rarely last. "We estimate that crude oil is now the mostly richly priced commodity in the world," says Deutsche Bank in a fresh report. Michael Lewis, the...

MMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's oil minister warned Arab producers Sunday not to expect continued growth in prices and demand for oil. Ali al-Naimi said prices could plummet if an economic crisis drives industrialized nations to find other sources of energy, citing the 1980s -- when oil prices dropped by 80 percent after such nations reduced their dependency on oil and turned to alternative energy sources. Global economic growth may not continue at the same good momentum for years to come," al-Naimi said at the opening of a four-day conference of Arab energy ministers in Amman. "We should be...