Rush for silver if you want to make moolah! You know this time around white metal may prove to be a better option for you to invest than in yellow metal. There are several reasons for that. Mainly, according to Jason Homel’s Silverstockreport.com, silver has all the monetary properties of gold, and more. It is interesting to know this. If you want know the enviable properties of silver, read on. The historic price ratio of silver to gold shows that about 10 ounces of silver would buy one ounce of gold, a 10:1 ratio. Recently, the ratio is about a 50:1 ratio (with silver at $20/oz., and gold at $1000/oz.) As the silver to gold ratio returns to historic values, from 50:1 to 10:1, you may make over 5 times more money investing in silver, than gold!
China moves in on world resources BP is the latest company targeted by Chinese sovereign wealth funds that are investing in natural resources around the world. And, unlike other countries, Britain is welcoming such investors with open arms. Stephen Foley reports. It was a neat coincidence that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, was in Beijing yesterday for what was being billed as a China-UK "economic and financial dialogue". Because yesterday was the day that it emerged there has been a bit of dialogue going on between the Chinese government and BP, the jewel in the crown of the British oil industry. China's central bank, it seems, has amassed a £1bn stake in BP, giving it about 1 per cent of the company and underscoring, as if it were needed, the growing financial power of the Chinese state and the "sovereign wealth" that it is putting to work around the globe.
U.S. March consumer prices rise on food, energy Inflation rose in March, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, as energy and food prices gained. After virtually no change in February, the consumer price index in March rose 0.3%, matching estimates from analysts surveyed by MarketWatch. Energy prices in March rose 1.9%. In the prior month, these costs declined 0.5%. Food prices gained 0.2% in March, compared with 0.4% in the prior month. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.2% in March - matching analysts' estimates -- after no growth in the prior month. Prior to the release of the data, analysts had been expecting higher headline numbers due to gains in food and energy prices.
Oil hits new record as investors flee the falling dollar Weaker dollar sends oil prices to record high above $114 a barrel as dollar tumbles. Oil prices surged to record highs Wednesday as the weakening U.S. dollar drove up investments in commodities. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose as high as $114.53 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating to $113.74 by the afternoon in Europe, down 5 cents. Analysts said the oil increases were being caused by record lows for the dollar -- $1.5966 per euro -- as higher inflation in the euro zone practically eliminated the chances of an interest-rate cut by the European Central Bank. Annual inflation in euro nations rose to a record 3.6 percent in March, boosted by higher prices in transport fuel, heating, dairy products and bread, said Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency. It is the highest inflation rate in 16 years.
Housing starts plunge to a 17-year low U.S. home builders started the fewest number of homes in 17 years, as housing starts plunged 11.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000 in March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. March's rate was the lowest for housing starts since March 1991. Starts were down 36.5% compared with March 2007. Also, building permits dropped 5.8% to 927,000 in March, 40.9% below the same month a year ago. The starts figure was much lower than expected on Wall Street, where economists were looking for a drop to 988,000 annualized units. The stunning drop in home construction indicates that there is still no end in sight to the housing downturn, with builders trying to reduce the excess inventory of unsold homes on the market.
Bailing Out Banks There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about the Federal Reserve and the actions it has taken over the past few months. Many media pundits have been bending over backwards to praise the Fed for supposedly restoring stability to the market. This interpretation of the Fed's actions couldn't be further from the truth. The current market crisis began because of Federal Reserve monetary policy during the early 2000s in which the Fed lowered the interest rate to a below-market rate. The artificially low rates led to overinvestment in housing and other malinvestments. When the first indications of market trouble began back in August of 2007, instead of holding back and allowing bad decision-makers to suffer the consequences of their actions, the Federal Reserve took aggressive, inflationary action to ensure that large Wall Street firms would not lose money.
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