The five busiest container ports in the United States said that imports in August 2011 were lower than or even with 2010 volumes. In Long Beach, the second-busiest container port by volume, August imports fell by 14.2 percent from August 2010.

Many analysts remain optimistic about a strong Christmas season anyway, prompting me to write ....

In other words, since June, trucking activity has been receding at a pace that would be expected to show up in other economic measures soon. Two or three more months like this would confirm an official recession

Swampman wrote:There are several "rumors" about the cause of the spike in gas prices.

1) the Koch brothers are speculating on oil futures to pay for the campaign pledges to overthrow Obama.

2) Oil companies are trying to recoup lost profits from the warmer than usual winter decreasing heating oil purchases.

3) The right wing wants to crash the economy before the election so that they can blame Obama and win in November. Gas at $5.00 a gallon will crash the economy. BTW, corporations are awash in cash in record amounts, yet they have not hired workers. How much do you want to bet that if a Repuke is elected President, the corporations will start hiring and the Sheeple will kiss the Repukes asses because they saved the economy, not like that Keynesian Kenyan in the White House now.

mcgowanjm wrote:

Picasso Moon wrote:Gasoline usage in the US is NOT the same as global gasoline usage. Usage in China and India is NOT falling off a cliff.

Yes. It is.

The BDI tells you that.

And who raises prices as Demand is falling off a cliff.
Note that Petroleum itself is not anywhere near setting
any new records.

Can't get over $101, even though EVERY DAY it's
'Iranian Fears raising Oil Prices!"

mcgowanjm wrote:The entire sytem is now seizing up.

Europe won't make it to Spring.

Once institutional customers understand that they have no rights in the event that management of a small broker-dealer absconds with client funds to pay bank margin calls and a broker-dealer fails, the ability of independent dealers to hold customer funds is going to evaporate.

thanx Corzine, Rubin, Greenspan...

mcgowanjm wrote:

We've got a new War for the Jews(War of the Top 5 Banks, War of Terror, War for Resources, whatever, it's a War and the Bottom 99 will be paying for it) to start.....

mcgowanjm wrote:For how long can the State, will the State, be quiet about this
Extraordinary Good News:

We've learned to Live & Grow the Economy while using
4 MMBD LESS in Oil.

30% less in Gasoline usage!

Why isn't Anyone celebrating

mcgowanjm wrote:For how long can the State, will the State, be quiet about this
Extraordinary Good News:

We've learned to Live & Grow the Economy while using
4 MMBD LESS in Oil.

30% less in Gasoline usage!

Why isn't Anyone celebrating

Oil hits 8-month high on Iran, China moves

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose on Monday, briefly hitting an eight-month high above $121 a barrel, as Iran halted exports to British and French companies ahead of a European Union embargo.

Brent crude was trading 84 cents higher at $120.44 a barrel by 1230 GMT, having hit a session high of $121.15 earlier.

In euro terms, Brent crude is nearing its record high hit in summer 2008, according to Reuters data.

U.S. crude hit $105.44 a barrel, its highest since May last year and it was trading $1.76 up at $105.00 around the same time. Volume was moderate due to a public holiday in the United States.

OPEC's second-largest producer, Iran, ordered a halt to its oil sales to British and French firms on Sunday in retaliation against tightening EU sanctions as its ties with the West remained strained over its disputed nuclear programme.

"Banning the tiny quantities of exports to the UK and France involves very little risk for Iran - indeed quite the opposite, it catches the headlines and leads to a higher global oil price, which is something Iran is very keen to encourage," said Caroline Bain, commodities analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

J.P. Morgan Chase raised its 2012 price forecast for Brent crude by $6 to $118 a barrel on supply risks and rising economic growth. It also raised its forecast for 2013 to $125 a barrel, up from $121.

Geopolitical issues in Iran, Syria, Sudan/South Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere are creating increased demand for crude stocks, analysts led by Lawrence Eagles said in a Feb. 19 note.

Speculators sharply raised their net long positions in the week to Feb. 14, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

March U.S. gasoline futures rose to slightly above $3 a gallon on Monday after a fire idled BP Plc's 225,000 barrel per day (bpd) Cherry Point, Washington, refinery.

Market analysts expect the outage to lift gasoline prices on the U.S. West Coast in the coming weeks.

While much of the rhetoric of preemptive invasion that America has been awash in these past few months is carefully crafted and disseminated by government entities whose intentions are far from honest, its effectiveness is mute without the helping hand of a thoughtless subsection of the public. Every decade or so, a new generation of idiot spawn comes of age to be willingly sacrificed on the chopping block of globalist conquest. This new decade brings with it the promise of not just more of the same, but perhaps the most costly tithe to the gods of war ever made in our country’s history. This is not our fight. This is a fight we are being conned into undertaking for the profit of others, and thus, it is a fight we cannot win. Perhaps when the blind mobs of this nation feel the abrupt sting of their foolishness in their narrow day-to-day existence, they will finally understand…

The U.S. economy has been structured around cheap oil.