30 June 2008
News and Comments - 06/30/08
Posted by Roy Bischoff under: What's News .
A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.
10 Comments so far...
Jesse Says:
30 June 2008 at 2:36 am.
Stock, Bond Slumps Signal Worse Than ‘94 as Inflation Says ‘74
By Michael Patterson
June 30 (Bloomberg) — It’s been 14 years since investors suffered as big a retreat in stocks and bonds and some of the largest money managers say the losses may have more in common with the 1974 bear market before the worst is over.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 3.4 percent since March and investors in Treasuries lost 2.88 percent, the steepest combined plunge in 14 years, according to data compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bloomberg. Equity and debt markets fell in tandem for only the sixth time since the savings and loan crisis of the 1990s as oil closed at a record 19 times and concern grew that inflation will cut the value of bond payments.
Dreman Value Management LLC, BlackRock Inc. and Cambiar Investors LLC, which together oversee $1.38 trillion, are buying banks, phone companies and oil producers to weather more declines in benchmark indexes. David Dreman, whose DWS Dreman Small Cap Value Fund beat 90 percent of its peers over five years, bought Cleveland-based KeyCorp as financial firms fell to a 10-year low last week. BlackRock added AT&T Inc. for the best dividend yield since 2006. Cambiar says Marathon Oil Corp. is inexpensive.
“Between inflation and the liquidity crisis, this is one of the toughest markets I’ve seen,” said Dreman, who oversees about $15 billion in Jersey City, New Jersey. “But it’s not a market you sell into. Any losses you take by being too early will be more than offset by buying cheaply.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMSozuERKuDo&refer=home
Cameron Says:
30 June 2008 at 5:59 am.
Medicare fees to doctors fall Tuesday
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 30, 3:25 AM ET
WASHINGTON - One unpleasant task lawmakers will have over the July 4 recess is explaining to seniors why they didn’t stop a 10 percent fee cut, going into effect Tuesday, for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Physicians have been running ads hinting that patients may find doctors less willing to treat them.
In a particularly vitriolic exchange, Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for what Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said has put the country “at the brink of a Medicare meltdown.”
“Seniors need continued access to the doctors they trust. It’s urgent that Congress make that happen,” the AMA said in ads taken out in Capitol Hill newspapers read by members of Congress and their aides.
One near-certainty was that lawmakers, not willing to face millions of angry seniors at the polls in November, will act quickly when they return to Washington the week of July 7 to reverse the fee cut and provide retroactive payments to doctors for losses they incur after July 1.
Just two years ago, after a cut had taken effect, Congress froze payments retroactively at the previous year’s levels. In 2002 doctors had to live with a 5.4 percent cut.
The likelihood of retroactive relief didn’t deter dire predictions last Thursday after the Senate fell just one vote short of the 60 needed to proceed to legislation that would have stopped the fee cut.
Doctors have complained for years that Medicare payments have failed to cover rising costs. “Many more physicians will reluctantly retire early or reduce clinical practice time. This hurts access to fragile senior populations,” said Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive officer of the American College of Cardiology.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_go_co/congress_medicare
Cameron Says:
30 June 2008 at 9:45 am.
America’s Shrinking Food Wraps
By KATE PICKERT
American supermarkets are epics of excess: it often seems like every item in the store comes in a “Jumbo” size or has “Bonus!” splashed across the label. But is it possible that the amount of food Americans are buying is, in fact… shrinking? Well, yes. Soaring commodity and fuel prices are driving up costs for manufacturers; faced with a choice between raising prices (which consumers would surely notice) or quietly putting fewer ounces in the bag, carton or cup (which they generally don’t) manufacturers are choosing the latter. This month, Kellogg’s started shipping Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks containing an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per box.
Similar reductions have recently happened or are on the horizon for many other products: Tropicana orange juice containers are shrinking from 96 ounces to 89; Wrigley’s is dropping its the 17-stick PlenTPak in favor of the 15-stick Slim Pack; Dial soap bars now weigh half an ounce less, and that’s even before they melt in the shower. Containers of Country Crock spread, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Edy’s and Breyer’s ice cream have all slimmed down as well (although that may not necessarily be a bad thing).
“People are just more sensitive to changes in price than changes in quantity,” says Harvard Business School Professor John Gourville, who studies consumer decision-making. “Most people can tell you how much a box of cereal costs, but they have no clue how much is actually in it.” Other segments of the economy have made similar moves to pass on their higher costs to the consumer without raising prices directly. American Airlines announced in May that it would charge $15 each way for a single checked bag, part of what airlines have dubbed “a la carte” pricing, which - along with the industrywide drive to put price tags on former freebies like soft drinks, meals and headphones - some airline observers say is really an effort to avoid increasing base ticket prices.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080630/us_time/americasshrinkingfoodwraps
Cameron Says:
30 June 2008 at 10:08 am.
Oil prices pass $143 a barrel; US gas hits high
Monday June 30, 8:33 am ET
By Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press Writer
Oil rises above $143 a barrel, gas hits new high on tensions in the Middle East
Oil prices surged past $143 a barrel for the first time ever Monday, and the price for a gallon of gas hit an all-time high in the United States.
Supply concerns and a fragile global economy continue to drive the price of oil to new highs, as well as continued tensions in the Middle East.
“The main factors behind the rise today are the U.S. dollar remains fragile and geopolitical tensions, particularly surrounding Iran,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. “That’s unsettling for the oil market.”
The European Central Bank may raise interest rates at its next meeting on Thursday, a move that would help strengthen the euro against the dollar, Moore said.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $3.46 to $143.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, by midday in Europe. Those prices fell to $142.17, but a barrel was still up $1.96 in early trading.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080630/oil_prices.html?.v=3
Angela Rogin Says:
30 June 2008 at 10:10 am.
This is getting ridiculous and it is so maddening because it doesn’t have to be this way. Speculators are what ruined the housing market and now this.
Mac Says:
30 June 2008 at 10:14 am.
Ouch! I want my mommy (to make them lower the stinking prices)
Morning Angela and Cameron.
Benjamin Says:
30 June 2008 at 10:51 am.
Ouch is right, Mac. Here is the latest in a string of excuses for high prices. We aren’t that dumb you stupid oil companies.
Majors say speculators not to blame for oil price
MADRID (Reuters) - The heads of some of the world’s biggest oil companies countered on Monday OPEC claims that speculators were driving high oil prices, blaming instead a dearth of new supplies.
The chief executives of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L), BP Plc (BP.L) and Spain’s Repsol YPF (REP.MC) told the oil industry’s biggest gathering in three years that restrictions on where they can invest and high taxes meant they could not help boost supplies as much as they might.
BP’s CEO Tony Hayward said the argument that financial investors buying oil futures were behind a four-year rally that pushed oil prices to new records above $143/barrel on Monday was a “myth.”
He said the problem was a failure of supply growth to match demand growth. “Supply is not responding adequately to rising demand,” he told thousands of delegates at the World Petroleum Congress.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080630/bs_nm/energy_congress_speculators_dc
Benjamin Says:
30 June 2008 at 10:52 am.
9 in 10 see rising gas prices causing family hardship
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four dollar a gallon gas has stolen a beach vacation in South Carolina from Julie Jacobs’ family and exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford. Phil English had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup.
Like a plague that does not discriminate by economic class, race or age, soaring gas prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 are expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half year, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll said Monday.
Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-gas-prices
Joy Bischoff Says:
30 June 2008 at 1:17 pm.
Here is some unpleasant but important info Peter Anderson sent to me. I don’t have the link but this is the governor of Wyoming speaking on Meet the Press:
GOV. FREUDENTHAL: It is only a partial answer, which is, which is why if, if this country doesn’t come to grips with the fact that you’ve got to have a diverse energy portfolio, and one of those elements is energy conservation, we’re going to stumble and we’re going to stumble hard. People are going to be stunned, I think, by the price increases in their utility bills over the summer in the Southwest as they deal with air-conditioning and in this part of the country. Currently, the–the current filings for utility rate increases in Wyoming are about 70 percent increase in the fall.
Pickles Says:
30 June 2008 at 2:03 pm.
Joy, i read that to my mom and she about swallowed her tongue. then she said some words i won’t repeat.
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