Head Lines

In real terms, today’s gold is 70% down from its $1314 peak in January 1980. The inflation peak in those days was 10-15%, depending on the price index.So the real value of gold today seems consistent with less than 2% inflation. Gold stock indexes are about 20% below last autumn’s high, and about 40% under their mid-90’s high. (Larry Kudlow ,Kudlow and Company CNBC)
"You have to have a belief that prices are going to stay high for a long, long period of time," Raymond said in a MarketWatch interview in New York, joined by Exxon Mobil (XOM) President Rex Tillerson. "One has to be very careful of this," Raymond added. "Oil is a commodity, and it's hard to find any commodity that doesn't have a lot of cyclicality." (Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Lee Raymond)

The world faces “a permanent oil shock” and will have to adjust to sustained high prices in the next two decades, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday in the starkest official warning yet about the long-term outlook for energy supplies. (FT)

WASHINGTON - There's pump shock at every corner gas station, with prices well over $2 a gallon and still rising. And the government says you better get used to it. (AP)

Governors from 33 states are pushing to expand a proposed federal mandate for use of ethanol as a vehicle-fuel additive, raising hopes that growing political support for the provision will revive stalled energy legislation. (WSJ)

Russian authorities slapped BP PLC's Russian joint venture with new back-tax claims totaling 22 billion rubles, or about $790 million, undercutting the Kremlin's efforts to win back the confidence of nervous investors. (WSJ)

TYRE, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas flew an unmanned surveillance drone over northern Israel on Monday, the group and the Israeli army said. "In response to repeated and continuous enemy violations of Lebanese airspace, the surveillance plane Mersad 1 carried out a reconnaissance mission in the skies of occupied northern Palestine, flying over several Zionist colonies," a Hizbollah statement said.

JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon’s military attache presented aerial photos of Iranian nuclear installations during the Israeli prime minister’s summit with US President George W. Bush, Israeli public radio reported on Tuesday. (AFP)

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - In a major breakthrough for Chinese diplomacy, Beijing has launched a "strategic partnership" with India, laying the groundwork for deepening cooperation between longstanding rivals, which together account for one-third of the world's population.

ASHINGTON, April 8 - After two senior-level meetings between North Korean and Chinese leaders over the last two weeks to discuss the North's nuclear-weapons program, the Chinese have failed so far to persuade North Korea to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks, senior administration officials and diplomats said Friday. (NYT)

"Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you've ever had a parking ticket, you're not allowed to vote," he said. (John Kerry on CNN)

(CNSNews.com) - A neurologist hired by Michael Schiavo to confirm that his wife Terri was in a persistent vegetative state said he was "105 percent sure" of that diagnosis, but Dr. Ronald Cranford expressed similar certainty about a patient he examined in 1980 who later regained both consciousness and the ability to communicate.