Firms demand action on fuel price

UK makes sure queen's head will grace its stamps
LONDON - Even if Britain's Royal Mail is sold to a foreign buyer, Her Royal Highness will still grace its stamp, the U.K. government said Sunday. Sculptor Arnold Machin's depiction of a youthful Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on billions of stamps since it was commissioned in 1967 and has become a classic of British design. So there was disquiet when media reports suggested that plans to part-privatize the Royal Mail could mean that the queen's head would disappear from Britain's letters ...

Cameron says banks must curb bonuses
David Cameron was accused of “standing idly by” over Controversial bank payments after the Prime Minister said he did not want to micromanage the Financial Sector ahead of the annual Bonus season. Mr Cameron told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that banks should pay out a lower total figure to staff than they did a year ago. The part-nationalised banks, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, had a particular responsibility to restrain their pay-outs, he said. EDITOR’S CHOICE Westminste

Cameron warns RBS over bonuses
Royal Bank of Scotland should not be "leading the way" when it came to Bankers' bonuses, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, said today. However, Cameron warned against "banker-bashing", saying it was too easy to make banks the scapegoats for the Recession. His comments came after it was reported that the RBS chief executive, Stephen Hester, will take home an estimated £6.8m in bonuses, Salary and other payments this year. Today, Cameron said the details of Hester's pay packet were "pure spe...

Kosovo PM's party wins vote rerun, but margin cut
By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA | Sun Jan 9, 2011 7:56pm EST PRISTINA (Reuters) - The party of Kosovo's Prime Minister enjoyed big leads in two regions holding election reruns Sunday, according to observers, but was still expected to see its overall national margin of victory go down slightly. The now independent former Serbian province held partial election reruns in several areas after allegations of Fraud and irregularities in the national vote last month. The outcome could impact the formation o...

Kosovo PM's party wins vote rerun, but margin cut
By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA | Sun Jan 9, 2011 6:55pm EST PRISTINA (Reuters) - The party of Kosovo's Prime Minister enjoyed big leads in two regions holding election reruns Sunday, according to observers, but was still expected to see its overall national margin of victory go down slightly. The now independent former Serbian province held partial election reruns in several areas after allegations of Fraud and irregularities in the national vote last month. The outcome could impact the formation o...

David Cameron must put an end to banker-bashing
British banks must be allowed to set bonuses at a level that enables them to compete for the services of top-of-the-range executives. ...

Alaska pipeline closed, oil prices rise
By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Sun Jan 9, 2011 7:11pm EST ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The Trans Alaska Pipeline was shut for a second day on Sunday because of a leak, with no indication of when it would reopen, sending Oil Prices higher on fears that a prolonged closure would restrict U.S. supplies. The leak was discovered at the start of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, forcing Oil companies to cut production to 5 percent of their average 630,000 barrels per day. The shutdown of one of th...

Alaska pipeline closed, oil prices rise
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The Trans Alaska Pipeline was shut for a second day on Sunday because of a leak, with no indication of when it would reopen, sending Oil Prices higher on fears that a prolonged closure would restrict U.S. supplies. The leak was discovered at the start of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, forcing Oil companies to cut production to 5 percent of their average 630,000 barrels per day. The shutdown of one of the United States' key Oil arteries, which carries about 12 percent...

Commodities show ties that bind
By Emily Kaiser WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If there was any doubt that the Global Economy remains tightly intertwined, rising Commodity Prices should put it to rest. Both the U.S. Unemployment Rate and the amount of idle factory space are abnormally... Properly positioned for growth? WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If there was any doubt that the Global Economy remains tightly intertwined, rising Commodity Prices should put it to rest. Both the U.S. Unemployment Rate and the amount of idle factory space are...

Alaska pipeline closed, oil prices rise
By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Sun Jan 9, 2011 7:11pm EST ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The Trans Alaska Pipeline was shut for a second day on Sunday because of a leak, with no indication of when it would reopen, sending Oil Prices higher on fears that a prolonged closure would restrict U.S. supplies. The leak was discovered at the start of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, forcing Oil companies to cut production to 5 percent of their average 630,000 barrels per day. The shutdown of one of th...

Sudanese vote to create a new nation
A Referendum worker prepares a Polling Station in Kadugli, near the border between the northern and southern regions of Sudan. Southerners will vote all week on Secession from the north One of the world's most bizarre yet uplifting exercises in Democracy begins in southern Sudan today when millions of people who have suffered decades of war vote to split from the north and form a new nation. If, as expected, they succeed, Africa's largest country – equivalent in size to Germany, Italy, Fra...

60133
Over the past decade, the American public has been presented with the case against Saudi Arabia, and it's a damning indictment: oil (dirty), Terrorism (evil), fundamentalist Islam (dangerous), Human Rights (shockingly bad). President Barack Obama has spoken of the need to "get off Middle East oil" so that America is no longer beholden to the "whims of oil-rich dictators" -- Rhetoric that will inevitably increase as Oil Prices approach $100 a barrel for the first time since 2008. Former CIA Direc...

Properly positioned for growth?
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent LONDON | Fri Jan 7, 2011 9:58pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Investors have entered 2011 eager to embrace riskier, higher-yielding assets, but happy to dump them at the first whiff of anything negative. It portends rocky but potentially Bullish market sentiment in the coming week with a new U.S. earnings season getting underway and signs that the world's biggest economy is mending. Positive U.S. economic news -- including an improvement in the labo...

Algeria debates food price cuts to quell riots
By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS | Sat Jan 8, 2011 6:40am EST ALGIERS (Reuters) - The Algerian government was due to hold a special meeting on Saturday to consider steps to reduce soaring food prices, in an effort to quell violent Protests which have broken out across the country. Algerians have taken to the streets since Wednesday in protest against high Unemployment and food price Inflation which has seen the cost of staple products like sugar, cooking oil and flour double in recent months. Authori...

Properly positioned for growth?
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent LONDON | Fri Jan 7, 2011 11:40am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Investors have entered 2011 eager to embrace riskier, higher-yielding assets, but happy to dump them at the first whiff of anything negative. It portends rocky but potentially Bullish market sentiment in the coming week with a new U.S. earnings season getting underway and signs that the world's biggest economy is mending. Positive U.S. economic news -- including an improvement in the lab...

Democrats, Republicans Teaming Up To Declare Oil Extraction Tax Cut Dead
With the State of North Dakota enjoying a tax revenue bonanza it seems as though the only talk in the legislature so far, in its first week of session, has been about how to spend it all. Tax relief is definitely on the back burner, including reform of the state’s sky-high, complicated oil extract tax. That tax is the third highest in the nation, and “triggers” based on the price of oil making the taxes paid by oil producers both high and unpredictable. Oil producers in the sta...

German imports hit all time high in November
German imports hit a record high level in November, slashing the national trade surplus as a global recovery drove up prices for oil and other commodities, official data showed on Friday. Imports soared by an annualised 33.3 percent to 75.1 billion Euros (97.5 billion US dollars), while exports gained a slightly less impressive 21.7 percent to 88 billion euros, the national statistics office said. "As regards imports, a higher value than in November 2010 has never been recorded since foreign tra...

Price of heating oil in R.I. climbs
The price of home heating oil in Rhode Island is at its highest point in more than two years and is expected to stay high for the foreseeable future because of increasing foreign demand for Crude Oil. As of Jan. 4, the average price for a gallon of heating oil was $3.24, according to a survey of 47 customers conducted by the state Office of Energy Resources. The survey reported a wide range of prices, with the high at $3.74 and the low at $2.93. The last time the energy office recorded an avera...

Algeria debates food price cuts to quell riots
By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS | Sat Jan 8, 2011 8:52am EST ALGIERS (Reuters) - Fresh Protests erupted in Algeria on Saturday against soaring food prices as the government considered measures to limit the cost of staple foodstuffs to quell the unrest. Algerians have held violent demonstrations across the country since Wednesday in protest against high Unemployment and food price Inflation which has seen the cost of staple products like sugar, cooking oil and flour double in recent months. Fresh pro...

What is Cornucopia? Boudreaux vs. DeLong, by David Henderson
Blogger and GMU Economics Professor Don Boudreaux has challenged blogger and Berkeley Economics Professor Brad Delong to a bet. Brad has turned down the bet and proposed his own bet, a bet that Don has not accepted. It seems to turn on the issue of what "cornucopia" means. It started out when DeLong, in his January 2 blog post, nominated Don, Mark Perry, and John Tierney for DeLong's "Stupidest Man Alive" award. This is a typical DeLong attack. Parenthetically, I don't think this is a good wa...

Oil prices drop after disappointing jobs report
Oil prices fell below $88 Friday after the government reported that the U.S. economy continues to add jobs, although not at the pace many experts had hoped for. The Economy added 103,000 jobs in December and figures for October and November were revised upward. More jobs means more cars will join the morning commute, which should boost Gasoline consumption in the U.S., experts said. Those who are commuting are paying the highest price for gas in the month of January since paying around $3.11 a g...

Crude oil prices settle session lower
Heating oil for February delivery tumbled 2 cents to $2.49 a gallon. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded Gasoline rose to $3.083 per gallon from Thursday's $3.079, AAA said. Jailed Gov. Ryan visits dying wife NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A judge has dismissed a Copyright-infringement Lawsuit brought by the estate of author Adrian Jacobs against the U.S. publishers of the "Harry Potter" novels. NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Crude Oil Prices closed down Friday on the New York...

Oil Prices Update
by CalculatedRisk on 1/07/2011 11:01:00 PM From Ronald White at the LA Times: Gasoline prices' rise evokes 2008 "It's just ridiculous. Every day it's another big bite out of my income. I've gone from $40 for a fill-up to $60 for a fill-up in just the past several weeks," said Eric Ott, a 47-year-old Valley Glen resident. ... Oil closed Friday at $88.03 a barrel in New York futures trading. ... "[W]e cannot expect brisk Economic Growth with oil at $120, $130, $140 a barrel and gasoline at $4 a...

Oil prices drop after disappointing jobs report
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil Prices fell below $88 Friday after the government reported that the U.S. economy continues to add jobs, although not at the pace many experts had hoped for. The Economy added 103,000 jobs in December and figures for October and November were revised upward. More jobs means more cars will join the morning commute, which should boost Gasoline consumption in the U.S., experts said. Those who are commuting are paying the highest price for gas in the month of January since p...

German imports hit all time high in November
German imports hit a record high level in November, slashing the national trade surplus as a global recovery drove up prices for oil and other commodities, official data showed on Friday. Imports soared by an annualised 33.3 percent to 75.1 billion Euros (97.5 billion dollars), while exports gained a slightly less impressive 21.7 percent to 88 billion euros, the national statistics office said. "As regards imports, a higher value than in November 2010 has never been recorded since foreign trad...