Inflation

(Newser) - Optimists can easily chalk up Friday's disastrous day on Wall Street to a skittish market overreacting to lousy news about oil prices and unemployment. The problem, writes Ben Steverman in BusinessWeek , is that many analysts are lining up in the pessimists' camp, which holds that something more "fundamental" is awry. The credit crunch is easing, but rising inflation and an increasingly "fragile" economy could spell long-term trouble. More »

(Newser) - Stocks ended mixed after a seesaw session today, with strong performance by tech and energy shares contrasting with bad news on consumer spending and incomes, MarketWatch reports. The Dow closed down 7.90 at 12,638.32. The Nasdaq gained 14.34 to 2,522.66, while the S&P 500 ticked up 2.12, ending at 1,400.38. More »

(Newser) - Skyrocketing energy costs prompted Dow Chemical to bump prices up to 20% yesterday on compounds that are the building blocks for thousands of consumer products, fanning inflation fears. Dow, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, ripped Washington for an energy policy it says has raised its energy costs 42% from a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. More »

(Newser) - Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s aggressive actions in March to douse the fire consuming financial markets won him fans on Wall Street and elsewhere, but created a cadre of critics who say the “Bernanke Doctrine” fuels inflation and hurts the dollar, the New York Times reports. “It has been a really head-spinning range of unprecedented and bold actions,” said one expert. More »