Inflation

In the last couple weeks, I’ve tried to extract extra political meaning out of all sorts of stuff — Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s growing back his mullet (for a presidential run in 2012?), Al Franken’s traveling to D.C. (to cast a provisional ballot against U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s committee chairmanship?), and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s playing with [...]

Neither supply nor demand is the main driver of recent oil price spikes. It’s the weakening dollar, which, as it loses value causes us to pay more for anything we buy from other countries — including oil. The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut a discount interest rate and bail out the Bear Stearns investment company [...]