Consumers Slammed Again

[VJW]

ROUNDUP OF THE LATEST CONSUMER NEWS

(Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices soared 1.2 percent last month, the biggest gain in more than 25 years. The increase in the consumer price index was the largest since March 1980, the Labor Department said.

The steep energy price rise has pushed overall prices up 4.7 percent over the past year, the biggest jump since 1991. The blow to the U.S. energy industry was evident in a report from the Federal Reserve that showed industrial production plummeted 1.3 percent last month, the biggest drop since January 1982.

The University of Michigan's preliminary index of consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly (?) in early October to its lowest level in 13 years, extending a September decline, according to sources who saw the subscriber-only report.

The consumer price report showed energy prices leaped 12 percent last month, the biggest advance on records dating to 1957. Gasoline prices, which hit an all-time high in the week after Katrina struck, jumped a record 17.9 percent, while natural gas and fuel oil costs each rose more than 12 percent.

Over the past 12 months, energy costs have climbed 34.8 percent, the biggest 12-month gain in more than 25 years. Gasoline prices are up more than 50 percent.

Those soaring energy costs have hit household pocketbooks hard, knocking inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings down 1.2 percent last month, according to a separate Labor Department report.

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[jmjj215]

Re: Consumers Slammed Again

How much thanks do we give the hurricaines for this?

VJW - what type of solution do you propose for reigning in energy cost?

[VJW]

Re: Consumers Slammed Again

How much thanks do we give the hurricaines for this?

Some, but energy was already up dramatically prior to the hurricanes.

VJW - what type of solution do you propose for reigning in energy cost?

I would invoke antitrust laws against the oil companies. They have quite clearly been engaged in fraudulent practices, just as they were previously caught removing gasoline stocks from inventories to create false shortages.

A windfall profits tax would be appropriate. The revenue could be used to provide incentives for Americans to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles and to remove less fuel efficient and heavily polluting vehicles from the streets.

Having an administration that would actually enforce regulations instead of whoring for Corporate America would be a big help as well. We effectively have no FTC, FDA, or EPA under this administration.

I would have the federal government build and operate a base number of refineries on federal property that the military has abandoned and failed to clean up, as a part of a strategic national security angle, in response to the fact that the oil companies closed more than half of the refineries in the country during the ‘90s.

And of course, I would increase the CAFE standards for vehicles, and eliminate the massive loophole that considers SUVs as trucks.

This is yet another case of where deregulation promised lower prices but delivered higher prices and surprise, surprise, outrageous profits for Corporate America.

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