The free market ideals of Milton Friedman may have fallen from grace for some during this economic downturn, but his words are more important now than ever.

Experts agree that the immediate impacts of yuan re-valuation will be minimal as the Chinese government is expected to realize the appreciation through a series of minor steps.

With a booming GDP, an improving debt rating and a central bank that is mindful not to choke off growth, Government of India bonds may be an excellent place to stow some spare cash.

The Labor Department announced Wednesday that the Consumer Price Index fell 0.1 percent in April from March, the first decline in more than a year. Core inflation, which excludes the cost of energy and food, remained unchanged after rising 0.1 percent in March.

Creative Commons photo from Flickr/Matt MacGillivray

BY KELLEN M. HENRY — MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Consumer prices in the Chicago area rose 0.6 percent last month, riding on an increase in the price of gasoline in June, while other price areas remained stagnant, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday.

The [...]

The federal cigarette excise tax increase passed under the Obama administration earlier this year led to a steep tobacco price increase in April. Will consumers opt to continue to pay the extra dollar and one cent to support their habit? How will the tax hike affect government revenues? Robert Johnson of Morningstar Inc. [...]

BY BENJAMIN MIRASKI, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The Federal Reserve has released the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that took place on August 5. The thing about the FOMC minutes is that they normally don’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

At its policy-setting meetings, the [...]

BY HOLLY FOX, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

It’s not looking good.

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods, which measures inflation from the perspective of the seller, moved up 1.2 percent in July, boosting the increase over the last twelve months to 9.8 percent. This makes it ever more likely that [...]

BY BENJAMIN MIRASKI, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The Hershey Company [[HSY]] announced today that it will raise prices on its instant consumable, multi-pack and packaged candy lines by 11 percent.

This is nothing new in the food industry. Companies have been raising prices to keep pace with commodity price inflation [...]

BY BENJAMIN MIRASKI, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The markets had the total opposite reaction than we expected at Medill Money Mavens given all of the bad news at the beginning of the day, when, tongue-in-cheek, we suggested this day might just [...]