The price difference between a refined petroleum product—such as gasoline or diesel—and the crude oil used to produce it is known as the crack spread. It is a widely used measure of refining margins and provides a useful way to examine how the relationship between crude oil costs and finished-fuel prices changes over time. Key […]
Tag Archives: economy
About the Price of Oil: The Price You Don’t See
What Does a Barrel of Oil Cost—and What Does It Mean to You? When you hear the price of oil reported on the news, you are usually hearing the futures price. But what does that number actually mean? The futures price is essentially a “paper” price. Very little physical oil actually changes hands through the […]
Posted in Business, Energy, Finance, Government, Politics, Security, Society, War And Peace
Tagged economy
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Inflation Is Moving From Diesel to the Consumer
esterday brought the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) measure of inflation. Today, the focus shifts to consumer inflation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August 2026 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, showing headline consumer inflation rising 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis and increasing 3.4% over the past 12 months. Core […]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Energy, Finance, Government, Politics
Tagged economy
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Inflation’s Fiscal Engine: How Government Spending Keeps Price Pressures Alive
How Fiscal Policy Is Becoming a Driving Force of Inflation The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its August 2026 Producer Price Index (PPI) report on September 10, revealing a renewed acceleration in wholesale prices. According to the report, headline PPI rose 0.4 percent month over month and climbed 5.4 percent over the year, […]
How Is Climate Energy Hitting You? Socio-Economic-Ecological Feedbacks
by Daniel Brouse From Biodiversity to Monoculture: The Socio-Economic-Ecological Feedback Loop Climate change is often described as a problem of rising temperatures, but temperature is only one expression of the additional energy entering the Earth system. That energy moves through the atmosphere, hydrologic cycle, soils, vegetation, ecosystems, agriculture, forests, and human economies. As each system […]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Government, Politics, Science, Society, Trees
Also tagged climate change
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Where’s the Beef? Tariffs, Inflation, and the Climate Cost of Meat
On August 21, 2026, President Donald Trump announced a temporary 90-day waiver of out-of-quota tariffs on imported ground beef, allowing up to 300,000 metric tons to enter the U.S. market tariff-free in an effort to reduce grocery prices. The president said he had secured a commitment that the imported meat would be sold at 25% […]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Environment, Finance, freedom, Global Warming, Government, Politics, Science
Also tagged climate change
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Treasury Doubles Bond Buybacks as U.S. Bond Market Volatility Deepens
The U.S. Department of the Treasury intervened on August 19, 2026, announcing that it will at least double the size of its liquidity-support bond buyback operations in an effort to calm a highly volatile Treasury market. Under the direction of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the maximum repurchase limits for longer-dated nominal coupon securities will increase […]
The Bleeding Edge of Climate Change
by Daniel and Sidd While Sidd was in town, I took some notes. Somehow, they turned into this: Climate Change: The Big Picture There are many ways to look at climate change. From a micro perspective, there are millions of individual feedbacks operating throughout the Earth system. From a macro perspective, there is the climate […]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Education, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Government, Science, Security, Society, Trees, weather
Also tagged climate change
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Demand Destruction: Bad News for the Economy, Good News for the Environment
U.S. retail sales fell unexpectedly by 0.6% month over month in July 2026, coming in well below the forecast of a 0.1% increase. The data, released this morning, points to a significant slowdown in American consumer spending and a reversal of the momentum seen in previous months. Key Figures From the July Report Bad News […]
Posted in Agriculture, Business, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Politics, Science, Society
Also tagged climate change
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U.S. Fiscal Deficit Surges as 30-Year Treasury Yields Hit 25-Year High
by Daniel Brouse The U.S. federal budget deficit reached a record $432 billion in July 2026, the largest deficit ever recorded for the month of July and the widest monthly shortfall since March 2021. The July surge pushed the cumulative deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026 to approximately $1.8 trillion—already exceeding […]