Oil Closes Near $52 on Winter Fuel Fears .....(up 60% this year)

[cthrumatrix]

Oil Closes Near $52 on Winter Fuel Fears

46 minutes ago Business - Reuters


By Richard Mably

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended record-setting highs close to $52 a barrel for U.S. crude on Wednesday, fueled by the impact of Hurricane Ivan on U.S. winter inventories.

U.S. light crude climbed to a peak of $51.85 a barrel before easing to $51.45, up 36 cents on the day. London Brent, the benchmark for European imports, set a record $47.85.


Oil has surged almost 60 percent since the start of the year, driven by the strongest demand growth in a generation and a thinning cushion of spare capacity to cope with supply outages.

snip

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20041006/bs_nm/markets_oil_dc

but there is no inflation...

[kurt_cagle]

1. Nope, no inflation

The price of cars, washing machines, computers, etc. all continue to go down - the things that make up the "latest" basket of goods used for determining the inflation numbers.

Energy and food prices are of course too volatile (never thought about that term in a political context before) to be included in that mix, and of course services (such as health care and education) are not included in those numbers. Add into that mix stagnating wages due to outsourcing and automation which means that there is an additional drag on wages even before the "nominal" inflation rate is figured in. Oh, and don't forget housing costs, which have also sky-rocketed due to our lovely little credit bubble.

Maybe when Kerry/Edwards are in office, we'll actually get a chance to see what the REAL numbers are, not these rum-soaked fantasies that emerge from the bowels of the administration. Something tells me the real numbers are closer to 12% than 3% ...