America's LargestPosts Tagged economy
Green Jobs Update: Where Are they and What do They Pay?
A significant portion of the Obama stimulus package has been earmarked for clean energy development. Along with the obvious goals of reducing fossil fuel dependence and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, it’s hoped that millions of new jobs will be created in green industries. How much money will go where and how much good can [...]
Read More »Investors Focus on Bullish News, Oil Prices Close Higher
First the bad news: the swine flu continues to spread (claiming its first US fatality today), the US economy contracted by a whopping 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, and crude inventories increased by 4.1 million barrels last week which indicates overall US oil demand is still in the dumps. On the positive [...]
Read More »Oil Prices Sink on Strong Dollar, Weak Economy
Oil prices closed substantially lower today, as they were unable to recover from this morning’s losses that were inflicted by a more valuable dollar and persistent fears that economic recovery is not coming anytime soon. The May crude contract expires on NYMEX tomorrow, which also pushed down prices as traders looked to unload expiring contracts [...]
Read More »Crude Down, Heating Oil Up Slightly on Flat Stock Market
The price of crude sunk and the price of heating oil rose slightly today as the week’s economic factors balanced out to make for a flat stock market and still-weak dollar. The April 2009 contract for crude ended at market’s close today down 1 percent to $51.06 a barrel. The price of heating oil closed [...]
Read More »Oil Prices Hold on to Early Gains, Crude Closes at 2009 High
The declining value of the US dollar and a plan for the US Federal Reserve to buy up government debt kept oil prices above their opening positions all day today. The price for a barrel of crude rose 7.2 percent to close at $51.61, the highest closing price of the year. The price [...]
Read More »Oil Prices Recovering from Monday’s Fall
The price of crude followed up yesterday’s 10 percent drop with a 3.9 percent rise this morning, boosted by data that showed oil supplies from OPEC fell in February for the sixth straight month. Expectations of another round of output cuts to come out of the cartel’s March 15 meeting in Vienna continued to [...]
Read More »ANALYSIS: Obama is Serious About the Energy Revolution
While speaking to reporters on a conference call last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar prophesied, “you are literally going to see an energy revolution.”
That’s a bold statement, but not a surprising one from an Obama appointee, considering the strong rhetoric in favor of energy reform that the President utilized countless times during his campaign. But [...]
Obama Sets Ambitious Green Energy Goals, Ties them to Economic Recovery in Address to Congress
President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last night to promote his plan for U.S. economic recovery. His speech included several statements linking the growth of clean energy and energy efficiency to economic recovery and future prosperity. He set two specific energy goals that would receive funding from the recently-passed stimulus bill: to double [...]
Read More »Stimulus Package Provides Boon to Green Energy
Yesterday in Denver, President Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.
This historic moment took place at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, a public building that uses solar panels installed in the roof to generate green energy. The location choice was no accident–by selecting the museum, Obama made a [...]
Crude Prices Up on Stimulus Hopes, OPEC Demand Forecast Cut, Contract Sell-Off; Heating Oil Down
The price of crude posted big gains today, feeding off of optimism that the final version of the stimulus package that passed the House today will succeed in kick-starting the American economy. The price of heating oil declined moderately as the end of the heating season drew nearer.
OPEC’s substantial reduction of its 2009 oil [...]
More Gloomy News on Economy Drives Down Oil Prices
The price for a barrel of crude dropped off sharply today, losing 9% to close at $41.58 a barrel on NYMEX. New Labor Department data showed a spike in unemployment in December of 2008 and a private research firm showed U.S. consumer confidence at an all-time low. The new but familiar economic news in the [...]
Read More »Oil Prices Slip Downward on Economic Woes
The price for a barrel of crude was down 2.4% to $42.63 a barrel as of 9:12 am eastern time this morning and heating oil was down just 0.2% at 9:10 am. Crude had fallen to $41.93 a barrel earlier, but received support from the consulting firm Petrologistics’s report that OPEC nations are meeting [...]
Read More »China Set to Weigh Down Long-Term Oil Prices
Image: AP/Wall Street Journal
Although oil prices surged today, the $70 per barrel price is nearly 25% lower than this time last year and 50% lower than the peak of $147 reached in July. This morning, investment bank Credit Suisse made the case that oil prices will continue to drop for months to come. Th bank [...]
Falling Oil Prices Could Hinder Iraq’s Reconstruction
Last week, we posted an article here that examined the negative effects falling oil prices would have on anti-American regimes in three countries: Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. The post described how lower oil prices would adversely effect those nations’ economies, reducing their influence on the world stage–a good thing for the US. As it turns [...]
Read More »Falling Oil Prices Sap Power of Anti-US Regimes
Image: Claudio Munoz/The Economist
While rapidly-declining oil prices are bad news for the world economy, we often note here at the Zone that the upside of cheaper oil around the world is cheaper heating oil and gasoline here at home. There is another upside–a factor that affects international relations rather than Americans’ pocket books.
Three anti-US nations [...]
Heating Oil Thefts Popping Up Throughout Northeast
With a slow economy thinning out Americans’ wallets and high energy prices foreshadowing an expensive winter, a new criminal trend is emerging: heating oil theft. A handful of cases have been reported since last winter, with new incidents in Mount Pleasant, PA, Brockton, MA, Sherrill, NY, and Jefferson, NH occurring in just the last two [...]
Read More »Oil Prices Slowly Dropping as Nation Waits for Bailout Deal
Crude oil prices continued to drop this afternoon as the business community held its collective breath and lawmakers continued to squabble over the scope and structure of the potential bailout of the financial sector.
The bailout question continued to dominate the oil market, and is generally seen as the most important factor in determining price changes. [...]
Crude Oil Prices Continue on Yo-Yo Trajectory
After a record breaking one-day gain on Monday, a big drop-off on Tuesday, and a small loss on Wednesday, Crude oil prices rose modestly on Thursday, ending just shy of $108 a barrel, as reported by CNNmoney and wsj.com. Stocks rose and the dollar strengthened as traders showed optimism that the $700 billion government bailout [...]
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