"That is the kind of thing that got us into the trouble in the first place, winking at regulation," he said."I have to say that at this point, we could do a lot better than Harvey Pitt in that position today. That cozy permissive relationship has to end and he in large measure has orchestrated that over the last 18 months." "He has been a huge disappointment," Daschle said. The SEC has launched an investigation of Halliburton Co., the company Vice President Dick Cheney ran from 1995 to 2000. Daschle also called on Bush to release SEC information regarding his sale of stock while a director of Texas-based Harken Energy Corp. . The SEC investigated Bush in 1991 .... Source Article-------------------------------------So are the democrats going to bring the house down? Or will it just pass over - just opportunistic mud-slinging? Go Democrats !!

Talking about winking at regulation, a different kind of regulation crossed my mind as I read the article on coffee in todays WSJ - the "anti-price fixing" regulation. After my recent move to a new city, I search for my favourite Lavazza coffee. After much effort I manage to find an Italian grocery which sells it at around $27 for a 2.2 lb. bag. Knew it was priced above prices I had bought for in the past. A search on Amazon, and I find the same being sold for nearly $18 for the 2.2 lb bag. Then, I read this morning that the differential between wholesale & retail is enormous. At the exchange coffee is traded at $0.50 per pound!! Incredible....its hard to believe that the costs latched on as it reaches the consumer is that high. One's heard of price-stickiness, but this reeks of price-fixing. Where are the regulators?

Where are the almighty Whiz Structurers? We need you'll to create "retail" & "wholesale" indices on a spectrum of consumer products, and then a product for a spread play between the indices....

Talking about winking at regulation, a different kind of regulation crossed my mind as I read the article on coffee in todays WSJ - the "anti-price fixing" regulation. After my recent move to a new city, I search for my favourite Lavazza coffee. After much effort I manage to find an Italian grocery which sells it at around $27 for a 2.2 lb. bag. Knew it was priced above prices I had bought for in the past. A search on Amazon, and I find the same being sold for nearly $18 for the 2.2 lb bag. Then, I read this morning that the differential between wholesale & retail is enormous. At the exchange coffee is traded at $0.50 per pound!! Incredible....its hard to believe that the costs latched on as it reaches the consumer is that high. One's heard of price-stickiness, but this reeks of price-fixing. Where are the regulators? >>The regulators are watching. It has been noted with disfavor that as coffee futures prices fell 57 percent, retail prices fell only 10 percent. However, this is not as outrageous as it may seem.First of all, your Lavazza coffee uses premium beans. I don't know about Lavazza, but Starbucks pays an average of $1.20 per pound for bulk coffee, versus the $0.55 or so on the futures contract. Only 7 percent of the coffee market is premium beans, and it doesn't move much with the ups and downs of non-premium coffee. It is grown in different regions and uses different inputs.Second, even for non-premium coffee, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution are most of the expense. As coffee fell 57 percent, the coffee componant price of benchmark Maxwell House regular 13-ounce can fell from $0.98 to $0.42. The average retail price fell from $3.36 to $1.76. That's a 48 percent decline in retail price versus a 57 percent decline in bulk price, but a $1.60 retail price decline from a $0.56 bulk saving.The overall pattern seems to be that retail prices jump upward when bulk prices increase, then slowly erode back down as prices fall. This is similar to retail gasoline prices, although coffee is more extreme.

....premium beans, and it doesn't move much with the ups and downs of non-premium....I should have guessed that the price determinants for premium coffee would be different from those driving non-premium beans.... ....processing, packaging, marketing and distribution are most of the expense.A couple of weeks ago read the Scientific American article on coffee, and I can imagine that the processing costs for premium coffees are probably high. Regarding the other costs, thats interesting (I guess reminiscent of why perfumes are so expensive.)Thanks for the opinion & information.