Excuse me while I pass gas at them:
"Lower gas prices spark fueling frenzy; Per-gallon cost reflects a steadily downward trend" by Jay Fitzgerald | Globe Correspondent October 14, 2014
Gas price wars are breaking out in Eastern Massachusetts, with pump prices at several stations falling below $3 a gallon for the first time in years.
Not even three words in and I'm already having the issue framed with self-internalized war lingo.
“My employees are really tired,” said John Mancuso, owner of Bay Village Auto in Bourne, which featured full-service pump prices on Friday of $2.89 a gallon. “We’re doing tremendous sales.”
The demand was so great, the station ran out of fuel during the weekend.
“It’s been crazy busy,” said Sal Succar, owner of Sal’s service station in Holbrook, where cars have lined up to buy regular gas at $2.88 a gallon.
Average gas prices in the state remain above $3 per gallon, but the trend nonetheless has been steadily downward. The average price of regular unleaded in Massachusetts on Monday was $3.30 a gallon, down from $3.45 at the end of the summer and $3.70 at the end of June, according to AAA and its local affiliate, AAA of Southern New England
Mary Maguire, spokeswoman for AAA Southern New England, said the last time the state average for regular gas fell below $3 a gallon was in December 2010, when it hit $2.99. She said it was unclear whether the average price will slip below $3 again but she expects it to decline another 10 to 20 cents per gallon by the end of the year.
One thing is for sure: Consumers love paying less at the pump.
“I’m so excited about these prices,” said Betty Parham, 54, a Dorchester resident who was in Holbrook when she noticed Sal’s posted prices. “I almost had a full tank but had to stop anyway.”
The drop in gas prices follows a similar plunge in the price of crude oil, which closed below $86 a barrel Monday, down from about $106 in June. Economists attribute the decline to booming US production and fears of a global economic slowdown, which reduces demand.
Stock markets, meanwhile, have also taken a dive over concerns of a weakening global economy. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 223 points Monday to 16,321.
Related: Stock Market Swings
Down another 150+ today, too.
“The rough rule of thumb is that for every $10 change in the price of crude oil, you’ll see a 25 cent change at the gas pump — and that’s what appears to be happening,” said Richard Newell, an energy and environmental economist at Duke University and the former head of the US Energy Information Agency.
It isn’t only gas prices that are falling. The average prices of home heating oil in Massachusetts, for instance, slid to $3.60 late last month, down from $3.78 cent a year ago, according to the latest data compiled by the state.
Then why are rates spiking this coming winter?
Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association, a trade group made up mostly of heating oil dealers, said it is too soon to know if the lower prices will hold, or fall further, through the winter. If the region is hit by severe cold snaps, prices could always skyrocket, he said.
I'm tired of being gouged by energy companies with their $elf-created fal$e $hortages.
Still, New England appears in good condition heading into winter, with regional supplies of heating oil now at about 5.7 million gallons, up from 5.3 million gallons at this time last year, Ferrante said.
Why would we need it in this age of global warming, huh?
Meanwhile, gasoline price skirmishes are breaking this fall. In Holbrook, other gas stations have followed Sal’s and lowered gas prices below $3 a gallon.
In Jamaica Plain and Brockton, service stations also have lowered prices below $3 a gallon, according to MassachusettsGasPrices.com, an online gas survey site.
That’s good news for consumers, who, at a time when wages are barely growing, could use a little extra money in their pockets.
“The money we’re saving we can spend on the house,” said Jim Lemire, 61, a Holbrook resident who recently purchased gas at Sal’s.
Yeah, let's go over and hang out at the gas station to get a story.
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The reason the price is dropping:
"Saudi Arabia and Iran, both OPEC members, are discounting their main crude export grades to Asian buyers by the most in almost six years, prompting speculation that some OPEC nations are competing for market share. US oil output increased to 8.88 million barrels a day during the week of Oct. 3, the most since March 1986. US production has increased 65 percent in the past five years as companies have used horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to tap into hydrocarbon-rich layers of underground shale rock. The International Energy Agency in Paris lowered its oil-demand forecasts for this year and next in its monthly report on Sept. 11."
Yup, fracking is great and Saudi overproduction meant to hurt Russia is what is dropping the price.
Should have invested in clean tech instead:
"Investors partly feel betrayed by the billions of dollars they lost on the clean-tech boom and bust, when backers of solar panels, algae biofuels, and futuristic batteries promised to change the world, but the companies mostly flopped. But there is a growing feeling, investors say, that Silicon Valley has been avoiding the world’s more difficult problems."
Or creating them.
At least the clean tech $cam enriched some well-connected interests and concerns.
"Startup Institute, a for-profit education business spun out of the TechStars Boston entrepreneurship program, recently raised $3 million from Silicon Valley Bank and now operates an eight-week “boot camp” for people who hope to get jobs with startups in five cities. There’s also an online program called RampUp."
More war references, and Silcon Valley has its own bank?
Time to swing on over to the IMF/World Bank meetings:
"Obama sees progress on bank reform; Still, regulators urged to finalize more new rules" by Jim Kuhnhenn | Associated Press October 07, 2014
WASHINGTON — A year after prodding financial regulators to act more swiftly to rein in Wall Street, President Obama on Monday claimed progress in toughening banking rules but urged bank overseers to consider additional ways to prevent the kind of risk-taking that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.
He's disgusting.
Obama met Monday with top financial regulators at the White House, including Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, to discuss the pace of implementing the four-year-old regulatory overhaul that Obama signed into law in 2010.
‘‘The president has been pleased with the progress that the regulators have made in implementing the law,’’ White House spokesman Josh Earnest said following the meeting, offering a more upbeat assessment of the law than Obama did in August 2013.
A year ago, with regulations behind schedule and major pieces of the law not yet in place, Obama voiced concern about the slow pace and urged regulators to exhibit urgency in adopting new rules. At the time, regulators had completed rules on only 40 percent of the nearly 400 regulations required by the law.
So far this year, 55 percent have been finalized and rules have been proposed for 21 percent. Nearly a quarter of the regulations called for in the law have not yet been proposed, according to an analysis by the law firm Davis Polk, which has been tracking progress on the bill.
What hell of a law did they pass anyway? If there were no rules it wasn't really a law, was it? It was just a big fraud to convince us that the bought and paid members of Congress were taking action. Looks like it wasn't sufficient, either, given the current state of the stock market.
Among rules enacted since Obama pushed for action last year is a ban, in most cases, on the largest banks trading for their own profit. That regulation, known as the Volcker Rule, is considered one of the more significant changes because it seeks to rein in high-risk trading on Wall Street. Though adopted, however, that rule will not take effect for the biggest banks until mid-2015.
In other words, it's BU$INE$$ as USUAL down there!
Regulators continue to work on additional requirements that would address executive pay and set standards for the amount of money and assets that banks would have to hold to avoid becoming over-extended.
It's been four years. What is taking so long?
******************
The meeting was Obama’s first with Yellen since she became Fed chairwoman in February. Obama nominated Yellen to the post last year and she was confirmed early this year, becoming the first woman to head the central bank.
How is she doing these days? Pretty good, huh? Helps when you can serve yourself.
Yellen has signaled an aggressive stance by the Fed toward regulation of big banks, suggesting that the current regime of rules under the 2010 legislation may not be sufficient to prevent the kind of risk-taking that touched off the financial crisis and nearly toppled the banking system.
No kidding? What a $hocking $urpri$e!
Yellen said recently that the biggest banks operating in the United States may need to hold additional capital to withstand periods of financial stress, and that companies that are not banks but have deep reaches into the financial system might also need to meet tougher rules. That includes money-market mutual funds and private equity and hedge funds.
At a Senate hearing last month, Daniel Tarullo, a Fed governor, outlined several proposals that would push the biggest US banks to shrink and become less of a risk to the financial system. The proposals include imposing additional capital requirements for the eight largest banks that exceed the levels mandated by international regulators.
The coming midterm elections could affect the pace and direction of the new regulatory regime.
It's a regime. Obviously, the propaganda pre$$ and mouthpiece media do not like rules.
The Republican-controlled House has passed measures to roll back regulations that GOP members believe are too onerous for banks and hurt the economy.
And soon they will have the Senate.
Those efforts stalled in the Democratic-run Senate, but could find new life if Republicans win control of the Senate.
Obummer better damn well veto then. Or while he bow down before the bankers once again?
Representative Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, reflected much of the Republican view Monday when he compared the bank regulations to Obama’s health care law.
‘‘Another White House meeting between President Obama and an army of Washington regulators won’t do anything to help stressed families,’’ he said in a statement.
What a "choice" we have in this country.
Obama’s meeting came ahead of an International Monetary Fund gathering in Washington this week and a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting next month in Australia.
Didn't they meet there last month?
‘‘The president’s meeting with regulators today was important from the standpoint of emphasizing that full implementation of financial reform remains a top priority, and also to signal to foreign regulatory authorities meeting in Washington later this week that the United States will continue to lead the policy response to the 2008 financial crisis,’’ said John Dearie, the executive vice president at the Financial Services Forum, a group representing the nation’s largest financial institutions.
He's their friend, but he's cracking down on them.
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Had the government not repealed Glass-Steagall it never would have happened.
So how did the world react?
"Finance leaders vow to prop up recovery efforts" by Harry Dunphy and Martin Crutsinger | Associated Press October 13, 2014
WASHINGTON — World financial leaders are pledging to act boldly and ambitiously to give a weak and uneven global recovery some momentum, but they have often fallen short when trying to follow through on their promises.
The pledge from the International Monetary Fund’s policy committee comes after a week of volatile swings in the financial markets, powered by concerns that parts of Europe may be sliding into another recession.
The IMF called increasing economic growth an ‘‘utmost priority’’ during the fall meeting of the IMF and World Bank. In a closing statement Saturday from the steering committee of the 188-nation IMF, the finance leaders also committed to making the necessary structural changes that would boost growth.
These are the guys who destroyed the world economy while enriching themselves. We should trust them.
Officials also endorsed the IMF’s efforts to support three West African countries battling the Ebola crisis, which could be added to the ministers’ usual concerns about interest rates and budgets, particularly if the virus becomes widespread.
Managing director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference that the IMF has made $130 million available to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and that the IMF and other international agencies stood ready to do more.
‘‘If more is needed, it will be there,’’ Lagarde said.
Warm-hearted bankers. They are such good people. She and her ilk are all corrupt $cum, but not in the agenda-pu$hing mouthpiece that is my Bo$ton Globe. This is $ickening $hit.
In addition to the $130 million in interest-free loans being provided by the IMF, the World Bank is providing $400 million for the Ebola efforts.
OMG, these guys know nothing but debt en$lavement as $olution to problems.
In its closing statement, the World Bank policy committee said that ‘‘swift and coordinated action and financial support are critical to contain’’ the deadly disease.
The World Bank’s president, Jim Yong Kim, said that a Thursday meeting sponsored by the bank to highlight the funding needs was useful but he stressed that the situation remained critical.
‘‘We call on all countries that are watching, if you have any sense that you want to help with this epidemic, do it now,’’ Kim told reporters at a closing news conference.
International relief agencies stressed that time was urgent.
‘‘The speed and amount of governments’ pledges will make the difference between Ebola containment or pandemic,’’ said Nicolas Mombrial, an official with Oxfam.
I'm really beginning to smell an agenda-pushing rat when it comes to Ebola. The pre$$ coverage is the giveaway. It's a prelude to martial law with mandatory vaccinations so pharmaceuticals can get rich.
Protesters gathered outside the bank at midday to complain that some of its projects harm the environment but their number was nowhere near the thousands that used to gather when financial crises wracked parts of the world.
I'm surprised the paper even mentioned the controlled-opposition protests (with dig).
The IMF and World Bank meetings were preceded by talks among finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging nations, which make up 85 percent of the global economy. The G20 focused on measures they could implement to strengthen the global economy and make the recovery more robust.
For themselves, of course.
In a comment clearly aimed at Germany, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told finance ministers that European countries with ‘‘external surpluses and fiscal flexibility’’ needed to do more to address weakness in demand that was holding back growth.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, ran a large trade surplus last year.
Well, Germany's economy has gone into the toilet because of the Ukraine crisis, so don't look their Jew.
He also called on China, now the world’s second-largest economy, and Japan, number three, to make the necessary policy adjustments to increase their own growth.
Actually, I heard China was now the world's largest economy, and I'm believing what I heard, not what I'm reading. Sorry.
A string of weak reports on economic activity in Germany jolted financial markets this past week.
Didn't I just say that?
US stocks ended their worst week since May 2012, and the market turbulence served as a backdrop for the finance meetings.
Bastards are scrambling!
While Germany came under pressure at the meetings to move to support greater government spending to boost growth, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted in his remarks to the IMF that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government still believed the emphasis needed to remain on reducing deficits.
He said that this effort ‘‘will make the economy more robust and shock resistant and thus contribute to improved global financial stability.’’
You guys are f***ed because neither failed solution will work. Debt needs to be wiped out because it was brought upon us by lying, looting, usurious banking institutions like those meeting in Washington.
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Also see: Ahead of IPO, Jimmy Choo is valued at up to $1 billion
Jimmy Choo is a British shoe?
IPO Abracadabra
The money disappears, but just say alibaba or jackma if you want to be a millionaire.
And everything is fine down on Wall Street:
"Corporate deals set to return to pre-crisis levels" by Pan Pylas | Associated Press October 07, 2014
LONDON — In a year that’s been awash with multibillion-dollar corporate deals, the number and value of mergers and acquisitions is set to grow further, reaching pre-crisis levels over the coming 12 months, the consulting firm EY said Monday.
In its biannual Global Capital confidence barometer, EY said global merger and acquisition activity is on course to return to 2006 levels in the next year, thanks to improvements in market conditions.
This was a week ago, before the dump began.
Companies started getting reluctant to do deals in 2007, when the credit crunch really started. The following year’s global financial crisis and subsequent recession saw deal activity come to a near standstill.
However, the appetite for dealmaking has picked up over the past couple of years as the world economy has improved and stock markets, particularly in the United States, have bounced back on growing confidence about the future....
That was before the recent roller-coaster ride.
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At least you are getting paid more, right?
"US wage hikes lagging job growth" by Josh Boak | Associated Press October 07, 2014
WASHINGTON — Where are the pay raises?
Employers in the United States are hiring at a brisk pace.
PFFFFT!
Unemployment has sunk to a nearly healthy rate. Jobs are being filled across a range of industries.
Yet the September jobs report released last Friday contained a puzzling fact: Paychecks still aren’t growing.
It means all that was shoveled before is bull$hit!!!!!!
Economists regard stagnant wages as a red flag for the five-year-old recovery.
What recovery?
Robust job growth has typically fueled rising wages. And without higher pay, workers have less money to spend and save — and that, in turn, keeps the economy from strengthening further.
Whatever meager pay raises most workers have received in this recovery have been all but eaten up by inflation....
So why hasn’t vigorous hiring led to better paydays?
Like this piece of crap is going to tell us the real reasons.
The whole $y$tem is designed to send wealth to the 1%, period!
Of course, Boak knows "the top 1 percent has thrived while gains have flowed mainly to the wealthiest."
******************
Economists note that wages are generally a ‘‘lagging’’ indicator.
That means you get your money last, slave.
What they mean is that pay typically starts rising well after the job market has shown significant improvement. As the economy takes off, employers eventually need more workers to meet customer demand. Unless those companies boost pay, they often won’t attract enough qualified candidates for the jobs they want to fill.
Some economists think we might be close to that point already but say we might not know until months after the fact.
What rationalized garbage trotted out. What lame-ass excuses for $tatu$ quo looting. We don't know! Then WHY ARE WE SEEING YOUR NAMES and OPINIONS in PRINT?
‘‘We may find out six months from now that 6 percent was the trigger point,’’ said Maury Harris, an economist at the bank UBS.
And yet inventories are up and the banker poo-bahs are complaining of slower growth.
******************
Based on the jobs report, more young workers are flooding the job market and are willing to work for less, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.
Really?
Employers can reduce costs by hiring more twentysomethings who don’t have families to support. Or, they can dangle the possibility of replacing their older workers with younger ones to limit pay hikes for their existing employees.
But work hard because we are all in this together! What a bunch of GREEDY SCUM!!!!!!!!!!!
A hangover from the recession — After the most destructive economic slump since the 1930s, it can take years to heal.
Didn't always, and this $elf-$erving sophistry of corporate $will has to stop.
Of course, the party never stopped for the 1%.
In a speech in August, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen floated an intriguing explanation for lackluster wage growth: Employers seldom cut wages during a recession, even though it might, in theory, make financial sense to do so.
An intriguing pile of $hit, wow!! OMG. This is HORRIBLE "journali$m."
The reason they don’t is that wage cuts can break employee morale and possibly disrupt business.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
OMG, maybe you richers need to tell yourselves these things through the goddamn popper, but this is offensive and insulting to any thinking person.
What CRAP! No wonder the propaganda pre$$ is imploding!
Since employers shouldered higher wages than they wanted to during the recession, they might be making up the difference by paying workers less during the recovery.
She's now a joke!
What’s more, lots of people have given up looking for work after being laid off during the recession....
Yeah, "what's more."
Some of the unemployed gave up their job searches long ago. So the government no longer considers them part of the labor force.
It's called COOKING the BOOKS and FUDGING the NUMBERS and it allows politicians to point the numbers and say everything is great!!
Still, many of them might still be open to accepting a job if the right one emerges.
OMG!
Yup, we are all a bunch of intransigent bums out here.
F*** YOU!
This means employers might in theory have a deeper supply of possible workers to choose from than the jobs report indicates.
Oh, IN THEORY, huh?
The irony is that these long-term unemployed may be waiting to be offered higher pay.
PFFFFFT!
You monied pre$$titutes are really the limit.
Yet the potential for pay growth is limited when so many people need work.
And when youth is working for less.
‘‘The fact that wages remain stuck despite 48 successive months of job gains suggests that employers’ bargaining power remains exceptionally strong,’’ said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution.
No. Workers are simply sidelining themselves waiting for banker paydays. Aren't you paying attention?
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Maybe this would improve job production:
"Women, would you rather work only with other women? Men, are you in a better mood at the office when you’re surrounded by male colleagues? Yes and yes, according to a recently published study on gender diversity in the workplace. It found employees are happier when they work with people of the same sex. The slightly puzzling flip side? Single-sex workplaces aren’t nearly as productive as those where men and women earn their livings side by side. “We all think that we want to be in this pluralistic society in a diverse setting,” said Sara Ellison, a senior economics lecturer at MIT who co-authored the study. “But when push comes to shove, when our co-workers don’t think like we do, that can cause some friction.” Granted, all-male workplaces are rarer than they used to be back when men went to work and women stayed home, but the study zeroed in on a unique situation."
Meaning it is a totally biased and irrelevant study so why bother reading any more agenda-pushing divisiveness?
Also see:
Consumers Taking It in the Caboose
Growing Up During the Grand Depression
We are living it right now.
