commodities

In a time when there is much discussion of peak oil and the idea that other commodities are less abundant or more costly to access, one issue that might not get enough attention among investors is the shortage of water. Some political…

Below are some monthly lists of items removed from the monthly Consumer Price Index Summary calculation and the excuses for doing so. (The lists were cut-and-pasted from the BLS website at the time. It looks as though the BLS only posts…

Emerging markets are seeing a lot of imported price pressures, causing their economies to overheat and increasing food price pressures. Rahul Bajoria, regional economist at Barclays Capital, sees strong food price pressures in the…

Jeff Clark looks at the big moves in silver in the current bull market, and what those moves might suggest about a “safe” price range to re-enter the market. That said, given yesterday’s market action, it would appear that the correction…

by David Galland Dear Reader, Despite not intending to be at the helm today, I found a bit of extra time lying around this morning, and so here I am. In yesterday’s missive, we kicked off with what I hope were some useful thoughts on the…

Ever since Fred Sheehan published his post on the bifurcated view on "The 'Flations", I have been using this as a baseline way of talking about prices. Easy monetary policy is geared to raising prices. However, if the secular…

by David Galland As I write, the markets are taking a drubbing – and by “markets,” I mean pretty much all of them. Given the lack of time and our only tangential interest in the broader equity markets, I’ll comment only on the precious…

I caught this at the bottom of Andy Lees' morning note: China – To limit inflation China will impose price controls on food according to the NDRC, and will severely punish anyone found speculating on corn or cotton. “The policies that…

Morgan Stanley had a note out yesterday on the pass-through of commodity price inflation into consumer price inflation. Their conclusion is that the pass-through will be weak. But, at the margin this will keep the U.S. from tipping into…

This is a must-see video that runs 30 minutes. Take the time to watch the whole thing. It is a real coup that CNBC got Grantham on their program.  Overall, Grantham's view is the same as mine. The Fed should get out of trying to use…