How to Quickly Find Commodity Prices for the Last 30 Years

For monthly averages of commodity prices since 1980, go to our Wiki page for Commodities here:

http://iubusref.pbwiki.com/Commodities

Click on the IMF Primary Commodity Prices link and select the “monthly data (CSV file)” , in the box, at the bottom of the page for 49 commodities including aluminum, coal, coffee, cotton, crude oil, rubber, sugar, soybeans, etc. to view or download the IMF’s price series data.

EPA to regulate greenhouse gases: Indiana University experts comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2009

EDITORS: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today (April 17) that it intends to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Faculty experts at Indiana University express different reactions but agree that the decision could and should put pressure on Congress to take action on greenhouse gases.

A legally well-founded and appropriate move

Professor A. James Barnes, former deputy administrator and general counsel to the EPA, says the decision is a good one. “I think it is a welcome, legally well-founded and appropriate move as a matter of policy on EPA’s part,” he said. “While Congress did not focus on greenhouse gas pollutants when it crafted the Clean Air Act in 1970, it is clear, nonetheless, that the greenhouse gases meet the definition of air pollutant in the Act.” Barnes, a professor and former dean of the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and an adjunct professor in the IU Maurer School of Law, noted that the Clinton Administration concluded that the EPA had the authority to address greenhouse pollutants, but the Bush Administration reversed that position and declined to take action to regulate them. Two years ago, the Supreme Court, in Massachusetts v. EPA, told the EPA it did have that authority and that it should reconsider regulating greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Barnes said that while it still would be several years before any such controls could be put in place on automobiles, the EPA decision could bolster efforts to prompt Congress to approve cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources, such as coal-burning power plants. Industry has expressed understandable opposition to piecemeal regulation, he said. “The fact that EPA is now on a track to go forward with some regulation under the current law, I think, really ups the ante for Congress to address the issue in a comprehensive fashion.”  ….

For the entire SPEA news release … http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/10636.html

How Do I Find Sovereign Ratings?

Use the Standard & Poor’s RatingsDirect database, available on our website, to find the international credit rating for a particular country. 

http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1336

At the top of the Standard & Poor’s RatingsDirect database page, click on the “find” tab.  Click on ”browse”  and  then “Global Issuers”  where under the  ”Industry” category select “sovereigns”.   Under “sovereigns”,  one can find the ratings for countries in Asia and Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin American, the Pacific, Supranational entities; as well as ratings for Canada and the United States.

Research study: Media has scant role in creating and bursting stock market bubbles

Media hype results in only short-term impact on stock market returns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2009

Editors: The paper discussed in this release is available for download at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1010744.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The news media has little influence in propelling financial market bubbles or causing their meltdowns, and has only short-term effects on returns. This main finding of an analysis of media coverage and stock performance during the dot-com bubble refutes the current controversies on the issue, say researchers at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

Between 1996 and early 2000, which was the peak of the bubble, “net news” — or good news minus bad news — was more positive for Internet Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) than for other types of IPOs by nearly two to one, while net news was far more negative for dot-com IPOs by almost four to one after the bubble burst in March 2000.

“During the Dot-Com Era, the media tended to be over-optimistic when prices were rising but over-pessimistic when prices were falling, a situation similar to the media hype over the past several years,” said Utpal Bhattacharya, associate professor of finance in the Kelley School and co-author of a study forthcoming in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.  …

For the entire news release …. http://info.kelley.iu.edu/news/page/normal/10389.html