The Economy Guy

Issue: 11/05/07 Monday

The entire market went sideways today.  The Dow went down 52 points because the sellers got scared about Citibank losing more money.  Nothing much else of significance happened.

The Citibank story of their declaring they are probably going to write down an additional amount somewhere between $8B and $11B just sounds really screwy to me.  How could they not know about the $3B in between those two numbers?  That’s a lot of money.  Is it sitting in someone’s closet?  Or just lost in a bank account?  Or does Citibank have to admit they don’t understand the risks involved in investing in those sub-prime market notes?????

I’m in Mississippi right now, and just paid $3.00/gallon for gasoline here.  That’s a lot!!!!!!!

The national average price for gasoline rose about 16 cents over the last two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.   The average price of regular gasoline on Friday was $2.96 a gallon, mid-grade was $3.08, and premium was $3.19, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said.  The nation’s lowest price was in Newark, N.J., where a gallon of regular cost $2.73, on average. The highest was in San Francisco at $3.28, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide.

Don’t get afraid to get mad about these prices.  You are being screwed, and you should be upset.

Here are Monday’s closing details:
DJ30 – 13,554 (Down 52 points)
10 year US Treasury Bond – 4.32%  (Up 0.03%)

Euro 1.4469
Gold closed at $811 per ounce. (Up 3)
Oil Closed at $93.98 (Down 1.95)
Gasoline is $2.38 (Down 0.06)