The global economy's recovery and the living standards of millions of people from the developing countries and from the third world are nowadays at risk from the sudden rise in oil and commodity prices. Gas at the pump is up, and going higher. Food prices are following. The consequences are catastrophic for the global poor as their costs go up while their income doesn't. It's menacing American workers too, who in large part have not seen a meaningful raise since the days of Reagan.
There are always scapegoats for this dramatic increase in prices: unrest in the Middle East and many African countries has been cited. Our media treats the oil business as just another mystical world of free market trading.
Is oil really getting scarcer, leading to price increases? Is the cost of food, similarly, a reflection of naturally increasing commodity prices? While it's true that natural disasters and upheavals in some strategic parts of the world play some role in this unchecked commodity price inflation , it also seems apparent that something else is attracting increasing attention. President Obama recently said there is nothing he can do about the hike in oil and food prices.
Critics say the problem is that government and media outlets alike refuse to recognize what's really going on: unchecked speculation!

Two crises have shaken the world over the past months: the political turmoil sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the Japanese earthquake. The country who seems to take the most advantages to increase its global importance seems to be Russia.
The political upheaval in MENA has led to a US$20 increase in oil prices to US$116/bbl over the past couple of months. Since Russia is a major oil and gas exporter, this will boost the country’s oil sales. There is a risk that if oil prices climbs too high, because this could trigger another global recession, which would menace Russia too.
The overthrow of long-time US ally Mubarak of Egypt and the weakening of pro-American regimes such as Yemen have made the United States seems powerless and confused. Russia could take advantage of political changes in the region to develop new relationships there.
The Japanese earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis have demonstrated the dangers of nuclear power, and could make many governments rethink their plans to build new atomic power stations. This will increase the desirability of fossil fuels, of which Russia has plenty.
The misunderstandings between the US and Europe and even among European powers over the conduct of the air war against Libya has exposed considerable rifts within the NATO alliance. . Although Russia has commercial interests in Libya, I suspect that many in the Kremlin are rubbing their hands with glee over the disunity within NATO. Furthermore, having the US/Europe bogged down in a third military conflict on top of Afghanistan and Iraq means that they will be less able to challenge Russian interests in the former Soviet Union.
Russia still faces tremendous obstacles to regaining its former superpower status . However, right now, matters have played to its advantage.

A hybrid car is not as expensive as one might think, the price range of a hybrid car is: approximately $24,000 to $31,500. Generally, hybrid vehicles are 20 percent costlier than conventional ones. The New federal fuel-economy requirement has caused almost every manufacturer to plan a new hybrid car. Some people even take things seriously and they want to use a hybrid car at work or for different services: http://www.financialcrisistoday.org/forum/Adverti... This fuel-efficient vehicle can be used in an advertisment by the company, some people going to the company using the hybrid vehicle, an electric vehicle or using solar power: __It would push down the price and increase the number of models in the future. Take a test drive and you will be pleasantly surprised by the ride and the concept of new hybrids. They are different and will take some time to get used to. The popularity of hybrid cars is increasing day by day. It is just a matter of time for these cars to kill some of the other gas guzzling vehicles and rule the road..

The so-called first globalization crashed because of inherent financial fragility. Banking systems lacked modern safety nets such as deposit insurance and lenders of last resort, and the gold standard was also intrinsically fragile because countries could demand payment in gold. Consequently, the system was vulnerable to panics, and the danger increased as financial markets and banking systems grew because the supply of gold, the backing asset, was fixed. Once panic started, it was near impossible to stop. Banking systems collapsed, bankruptcy and deflation set in, and the rest is history.

This history suggests that if today's globalization crashes it will also be because of economic factors, but those factors will differ from the past because the system is different. The New Deal era created a system that remedied earlier financial fragility by restricting private ownership of bullion, and creating deposit insurance and lenders of last resort. It also created a new social democratic mass consumption economy in which income was more broadly shared owing to unionization, minimum wages, and social security provisions. However, a social democratic mass consumption economy is expensive for individual capitalists, giving them an incentive to evade its costs. That has been a driving force behind globalization since 1980, and that is the contradiction in today's system.

.