Our fearless leader called Wednesday for "wealthy" Americans to "give a bit more back" as he seeks to further
redistribute income. Well, in this miserable economy, it appears everyone is giving
more than a bit back.
More expensive gas pushed wholesale prices higher last month, although pricier cars and furniture also contributed to increase.
The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, rose 0.7 percent in March, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's down from 1.6 percent in February. The index has increased 5.8 percent in the past year.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, prices rose 0.3 percent — the second-highest increase in the past year. The price of new cars rose by the most in nearly two years, while the cost of some types of furniture jumped 6.5 percent. Still, core prices are only up 1.9 percent over the past year, a relatively tame rate of inflation.
In Obama own home town, everyone's giving more than a bit back since gas prices are now at their highest in
nearly three years.
Gas prices across Illinois and Indiana continued to climb in April from continuing unrest in the Middle East and the annual switchover to a more expensive summer blend of gasoline, according to AAA Chicago. It marked the first time the monthly average has been above $4 a gallon since July 2008.
Monthly average prices in Illinois and northern Indiana reached $4.02 and $3.90 respectively, AAA said this morning in its Fuel Gauge Report. In Illinois, regular unleaded gasoline has increased 39 cents during the past month and per-gallon prices are $1.02 higher than last year.
Of course Obama would just say "hey, why don't you just trade in your vehicle" for something
more fuel-efficient. That would be all well and good except now the prices of fuel-efficient cars is
rapidly rising.
"Gas prices are definitely starting to ripple in the used car market right now," says Bill Visnic, analyst and senior editor at Edmunds' autoobserver.com. Visnic notes that in addition to the gas situation, the shortage of parts in Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami have added to pressure on car prices. In addition, the fact that the economy is improving is sending all used car prices higher, not just for small cars.
The economy is improving? Really?
But smaller cars are taking the biggest hit. According to Edmunds' proprietary measure of car prices, a three-year-old Honda Accord has soared in value by 24% since last September. A similarly aged Hyundai Sonata is up 22%, the Honda Civic is up 13% and the Nissan Sentra has risen 12%.
1 comment:
And we still aren't drilling for Oil where we KNOW it is. Instead, the energy dept (or whoever it is) issues permits to explore in areas that the Oil Company geologists insist has NO crude. This is exactley how Omama gets to have it both ways. He claims to be pro-drilling all the while issuing permits for exploration where there's NO oil. It's a huge scam.
All the while ANWR is being considered untouchable and the Gulf just sits there getting sucked dry by foreign companies who are laughing at our stupidity. This is madness by any definition.
It's almost as if we're commiting a form of national energy policy suicide all in the name of Political Correctness. If we don't reverse course in the next five years it will probably be too late. Perhaps it already is.
Post a Comment