The economy is getting worse.
The country’s economic health deteriorated further in the early spring as shoppers buckled under the strains of the housing and credit debacles and a weaker employment climate.
Manufacturers and others businesses, meanwhile, were walloped by zooming prices for energy and other raw materials. However, their ability to jack up retail prices to customers was mixed, with some companies restrained by competitive pressures, according to the Federal Reserve’s new snapshot of nationwide economic conditions released Wednesday.
“Economic conditions have weakened,” the Fed report stated.
Food and energy prices are going up.
Consumer prices pushed higher last month as increases in energy, food and airline tickets overwhelmed the biggest drop in clothing prices in nearly a decade.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in March after being unchanged in February.
Gas hit a new high (and it isn’t summer yet)
Oil prices rose to new heights Tuesday, surging to almost $114 a barrel after the U.S. dollar fell and worries mounted about the global oil supply.
A report from the International Energy Agency said Russian oil production dropped this year for the first time in a decade. Crude oil shipments along one U.S. pipeline were said to be moving below capacity. And Italy’s ENI reported a 5,000 barrel per day reduction in production at one of its facilities in Nigeria.
This is clearly the sort of environment where we should elect yet another Republican who doesn’t know a thing about economics and surrounds himself with believers in supply side economics that don’t work.
Surely.
But McLame wants to eliminate the gas tax and save everybody 18 cents a gallon!!! So instead of paying $3.50 a gallon (or likely $4.00, if not more, by Memorial Day), you’ll only pay $3.32 (or $3.82). He’s got my vote with that!
/snark
It’s getting so bad the movie box office is being hit. And the box office is usually pretty resistant to these changes.
meanwhile, as everyone enjoys the gas-tax holiday…major and minor road projects are left unfinished or not started at all. thus leaving more motorists in gridlock and traffic jams causing additional gasoline to be consumed.
so really, the only folks who benefit from a gas tax holiday would be the oil companies who invest $30/barrel for exploration and extraction and receive $114/barrel at the wholesale level.
i would rename this post the “republican DEPRESSION watch”
Cable news never allows Keynesians like Ravi Batra on the air to talk about the failures of the Republican Reaganomic model. Regressive economic policies are “pro-growth” to the beltway bumpkins
Obviously Americans like paying a lot for gas.
When George Bush started the war in Iraq, oil was 33 dollars per barrel & has more than tripled since then. A vote for McCain is a vote for even higher gas prices & more Republican Recession.
Oh! Don’t get me started on gas after this past weekend. My local spot went up from $3.98 to $5.98!