Bobby Delray

Remarks on Class Day 2008 by FED Chairman Ben S. Bernanke

I will focus my remarks today on two economic issues that challenged us in the 1970s and that still do so today--energy and productivity. These, obviously, are not the kind of topics chosen by many recent Class Day speakers--Will Farrell, Ali G, or Seth MacFarlane, to name a few. But, then, the Class Marshals presumably knew what they were getting when they invited an economist.

Interesting speech and good insight into the current mind set at the FED.

Follow the link in the clip for the full text of the speech.

clipped from www.federalreserve.gov

The oil price shock of the 1970s began in October 1973 when, in response to the Yom Kippur War, Arab oil producers imposed an embargo on exports. Before the embargo, in 1972, the price of imported oil was about $3.20 per barrel; by 1975, the average price was nearly $14 per barrel, more than four times greater. President Nixon had imposed economy-wide controls on wages and prices in 1971, including prices of petroleum products; in November 1973, in the wake of the embargo, the President placed additional controls on petroleum prices.²

In addition to creating long lines at gasoline stations, the oil price shock exacerbated what was already an intensifying buildup of inflation and inflation expectations. In another echo of today, the inflationary situation was further worsened by rapidly rising prices of agricultural products and other commodities.

One Block off the Grid Launches

Great idea. Hopefully this will catch on Nationally as a trend.

clipped from www.solarpowerrocks.com

One Block of the Grid is a competition in San Francisco to see which district can get the most San Franciscans to commit to getting solar energy on their homes, and they officially launch today, on the heels of the San Francisco Solar Incentive Program’s passage yesterday.

Health Costs After 65: Ouch, Even With Medicare

I talk to baby boomers in their late 50s and 60s all the time about medicare. They really don't have a clue about the program often assuming medicare has them covered.

I learned with my mother who is now 91 that theout of pocket costs just go up and up as you age and as benefits from Medicare decline. My mother who has lived a very healthy life now suffers from Alzheimer's. Prior to the onset of the disease she had never had a major illness or operation in her entire life.

Boomers will be shocked to learn what the term "donut hole " means.

Follow the clip link to read this very informative article.

clipped from www.usnews.com

These days, there's one milestone birthday plenty of people look forward to: the one when they become eligible for Medicare and can leave all their healthcare worries behind. That's the hope, anyway. But the reality is that turning 65 takes care of only a little more than half of subsequent medical expenses. Now a new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that a couple without employer-sponsored retiree coverage can expect to need anywhere from $194,000 to $635,000 to cover healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket costs during retirement.

A Tour of Risky Web Sites

Just over 4% of all Web sites are dangerous, according to a new report. But all bad sites aren’t created equal: Cyber bad guys are more likely to build their sites where it’s easy to do so.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

McAfee found that 5% of addresses that ended in .com are risky, which is about average. The real risk comes from Web sites within more obscure domains, like .info, where 12% of the sites are risky. Also, sites registered in different countries have different degrees of risk. Nineteen percent of sites that end in .hk, the domain for Hong Kong, are risky, according to the report. Among the reasons: In order to encourage people to register .hk sites, Hong Kong allowed people to sign up for multiple sites at a time without filling out multiple applications, offered a two-for-the-price-of-one sale on .hk sites, and promoted the .hk domain overseas.

Family Doctors: An Endangered Species

In an era when medical students are flocking to specialties with high pay and predictable hours, country doc and WSJ.com columnist Ben Brewer worries that family doctors are becoming “an endangered species.”

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

“What sustains me in my practice is the importance of the work and the satisfaction of seeing patients get well and the kids grow up,” he writes. “You can’t hide from your results as a country doctor. I see nearly everyone I treat around town, and I like it that way.”

At a school program, he bumps into a toddler he delivered eight weeks early and stabilized until a helicopter came to take him to intensive care; a woman he referred a while back for cervical cancer surgery was out riding her bike the other day, and waved to Brewer as she passed his house.

The fun is in the follow-up,” he writes. “Doctors who never see the rest of a patient’s life are missing out.”

What's Really Pushing Gas Prices? Subsidies.

At its hearings Tuesday on "energy market manipulation" (no assumptions of innocent till proved guilty, there), the U.S. Senate's Commerce committee was champing at the bit to regulate, well, anything really that had to do with oil trading.

clipped from www.forbes.com

Several of its witnesses dutifully pointed the finger at oil market speculators, though billionaire financier George Soros provided a reality check on how effective regulating them would prove (see "Soros Tells Congress To Pop An Oil Bubble").

Half the world's population benefits from energy subsidies, which translates into a quarter of the world's gasoline production, they say in a note to clients. Though three-quarters of the world's gasoline consumption is taxed, those taxes vary hugely around the world, resulting in a spread of prices at the pump from five cents a liter in Venezuela to $2.70 a liter in Turkey. (It is about $1 a liter in the U.S.)

At the end of 2006, when oil was trading at $60 a barrel, only 10.4% of the world's gasoline consumption was taxed. That has now risen to 22%, Jen and Bindelli calculate, and oil has similarly more than doubled in price.

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