Gold, Black Gold and Healthcare

Here is a trio of articles covering the most interesting legal/economics news of the day. While I have posted links and thoughts regarding oil and gold in the past, I have not taken a look at healthcare yet. Now that a version of a healthcare bill has passed through the moderate finance committee, giving proponents of reform hope, it is something I may take a look at in the future. However, I will reserve opinion until I take a look at the legislation as a whole and therefore not comment on the first article. As for the pieces on oil and gold, Yahoo correctly identifies links to the dollar as the stimulus for rising prices in both commodities recently as price valuations are outstripping economic demand. Why one may ask? Investors are looking to inflation hedges against the dollar and are wary of the impact slipping dollar prices could have on commodity prices in the future. There has been a lot of talk recently about states with large trade surpluses, namely China and Saudi Arabia, considering reducing their dollar holdings. There is additionally discussion from time to time about reducing the role of the dollar in trade markets and as the international currency of choice. I consider the oil and gold situation to be a short term exhibition of the long term issues. Though prices may seem high now, the weakening of the dollar and reduction of reliance upon it internationally could unfortunately spell far larger troubles for the U.S. economy than slightly higher gas and jewelry prices in the years to come. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091013/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091013/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_prices_7 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091013/ts_afp/commoditiesgoldmetalsprice_20091013092414