Main Street 9

Only good economic news lately has been the collapse of oil prices. At the beginning of July, just five months ago, the price of a barrel of was more than $140. By the beginning of December, it was down to about $45. That’s a drop of more than two-thirds. In the U.S., we consume about [...]

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The White House said a disorderly bankruptcy in the motor industry would be a huge blow which the US economy could not withstand.
Meanwhile General Motors said it was temporarily stopping some production.
And Honda is also to cut back output in North America.
GM, which has been pleading for an emergency government loan to avert collapse, said [...]

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Nearly a quarter of U.S. fuel production had been shut down due to the approach of Hurricane Ike, according to a government assessment released Friday.
By 10:00 A.M. ET, 13 of the 26 Texas refineries, representing a production capacity of 3.6 million barrels of fuel a day, had been shut down, the Energy Department said.
Texas accounts [...]

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Federal regulators said Thursday they could not determine after a lengthy review how much speculators have influenced commodity prices, especially the runup earlier this year in oil prices.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a much-anticipated report examining the activities of large index investors and so-called “swap” traders - those who trade on behalf of banks [...]

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The federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may save the battered real estate market from a complete meltdown. But financial experts say the bailout won’t lead to a housing recovery just yet.
Instead, some on Wall Street said the housing sector is in as tough shape today as it was before Sunday’s rescue [...]

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Investors looking for a silver lining to the weak jobs picture in the United States should consider this: the recent rise in unemployment may move the U.S. further away from the danger of stagflation.
At least that will be the case if the historical relationship between the jobless rate and inflation holds up. It suggests that [...]

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