Gas Price Colluding? Never!
I was amused to see that the Competition Bureau has charged several gas station owners in Quebec. They have been charged with price fixing for gas. I am astounded how is this possible? I really must learn what is the correct font for sarcasm. When every gas station has the exact same price in an area, what might cause that? Inelastic demand? No, I think price fixing is a little more likely.
Food Prices only up 1.2% Over Year in May 2008
That is what Stats Canada is saying, that our food prices have only gone up 1.2% over the past year, which is interesting, given the cost of gas sky rocketing, where is this cost being buffered in the system?
Overall, consumer prices for food consumed at home in Canada have risen only 1.2% in the 12 months ending in May 2008. Food prices increased 7.1% in the European Union and 5.9% in the United States during the same period. Countries in Asia with rice-based diets are experiencing the fastest increase in food costs, as the price of rice doubled early in 2008.
Interesting.
Canadians Love the Internet
And I for one am glad of it. Keep going on line and keep visiting interesting blogs, like this one! 🙂
Among people who used the Internet at home, 68% went online every day during a typical month and 50% for five hours or more during a typical week. On average, men were online more often and for longer periods than women.
Nortel Sky Rockets
NT is up over $2.00 in the past two days on the statement that they will be doing as they said they would in terms of sales and they are concentrating on LTE wireless technologies (shunning Wi-Max). What does this mean? Hopefully Canada’s former tech darling is starting to get back on their feet and can stop being referred to as “The Former Tech Titan Nortel”. Stay tuned, no this is not me saying go buy this stock, I do hold the stock in a very small way.
Yahoo and Google Get Chummy
Yahoo is now completely killed the Microsoft deal, signing an agreement with Google about search technology sharing and such. This means Yahoo most likely will disappear slowly over time or simply become a part of the Google Monster. Interestingly, at one time, Google was the “upstart” company, and Yahoo was the Monster; High Tech is always an interesting world to watch.
I want an iPhone
Yes, the new iPhone 2.0 has been announced by Apple, and it looks really cool to me. They have resolved the issues that I had with it not having a high speed wireless interface (HSDPA 3G) but that is remedied and there are many other really cool applications too. Anyone wishes to have me do a review, please send me one, and I promise to run it through it’s courses (Mrs. C8j will not allow me to buy this High Tech toy, so that is my only chance for now). The cost of the data subscription rate is enough to make me cringe.
Consumer Price Index 2008
- Inflation was lower in January 2008: some better news to start the New Year?
- February 2008 Inflation was at 1.8%
- March 2008 Inflation dropped to 1.4%
- April 2008 CPI jumped to 1.8%, uh oh
- May 2008 and Inflation is at 2.2%? Ouch!
- June 2008 Inflation Jumped to 3.2% thanks to Gasoline!
- July 2008 CPI at 3.4%? Holy Moly!
- Inflation at 3.5% for August 2008 : Learn about the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for August 2008. Gain insights into inflation rates and economic indicators.
- September 2008 saw CPI at 3.4% down a very slight amount.
- CPI drops to 2.6% in October 2008: CPI for that month seems to be getting better.
- Consumer Price Index at 1.2% to end 2008. Analyzing the December 2008 Consumer Price Index: Dive into the major factors affecting the CPI, including plummeting gas prices and deflation.
Maybe we’re buffered from higher food prices on account of our dollar moving toward parity. Since we import most of our produce from the US, and we can pay for that in cheaper US currency, our overall food prices are more stable.
The increase in gas prices must have the opposite effect(increasing the price we pay), like you mention.