A second argument is that higher oil prices are due to lower interest rates and anticipations of higher long term prices.

Higher prices can mean higher incomes for them.

They think that arguments implying that home prices are higher in one country than another are also arguments that the rate of increase in those prices should be higher there.

With higher energy prices, many Russian officials are enjoying their renewed power.

Rich country consumers are responding to higher energy prices, and it helps.

For consumers, the costs are in terms of higher prices and less variety.

Of course, if higher prices are due to fundamentals, oil markets are working as they should.

Higher oil prices are here to stay, says the American economic forecaster Allen Sinai.

The poor are, however, increasingly urban poor, and for them higher food prices are entirely bad news.

If there is a perception that prices will be higher in the future, then prices will tend to be higher today.

One argument that economists use is that higher prices are due to the weak dollar.

As a result, higher commodity prices are eating into fiscal cushions rather than curtailing demand.

The euro is at record levels, oil prices are surging and interest rates are expected to go higher.

If, for example, house prices are routinely described as climbing and climbing, higher and higher, people might naturally assume that that rise is unstoppable.

Many worry that non food prices may rise higher.

The result is higher prices and no job creation.

Higher prices fuel higher growth in these countries, which, accompanied by a population boom, leads to higher domestic energy consumption.

A second argument is that higher oil prices are due to lower interest rates and anticipations of higher long term prices. That supposedly reduced supply by encouraging producers to store oil in the ground and pump it later.

They would rather sell their oil and invest later, when prices are higher, so they restrain increases in supply.

And low income economies are suffering from higher food and fuel prices, which feature heavily in households consumption baskets.

Consumers who are forced to pay higher prices for energy will have less money to spend on other things.

Recent inflation in many countries has been the result of higher commodity prices, especially fuel and food prices.

With higher interest rates depressing housing prices, the game is over.

The higher prices of food and energy depress real incomes further.

While higher world farm prices help producers, they hurt urban households in developing countries, many of which are also poor.

An even more troublesome fallacy is that people tend to confuse price levels with rates of price change. They think that arguments implying that home prices are higher in one country than another are also arguments that the rate of increase in those prices should be higher there.

All of this takes time, but, as it occurs, it mitigates the negative impact the demand and supply curves shift in response to higher prices (or to anticipation of higher prices).

Higher home prices in a given country may tend to create conditions for falling home prices there in the future.

Obviously, the recent increases in food prices are likely to drive the number of people vulnerable to food stress even higher.

But, there are reasons to believe that higher interest rates, even though expected, can have a negative impact on home prices.

The Middle Eastern uprisings have pushed oil prices higher, eating up consumer purchasing power while raising input prices for many producers.

Indeed, according to Sinai, higher oil prices are the biggest risk...since the bursting of the stock market bubble in 2000 2001.

Gazprom has pursued its most public fight with Ukraine, insisting on prices that are 50 higher than what its EU customers pay.

Around the world, governments are taking greater control of resources and imposing policies that hamper global production and ultimately force prices higher.

OPEC might be correct to blame American policies and speculators for higher prices.

NEW YORK The world economy is being battered by sharply higher energy prices.

SEOUL The commodity super cycle in which commodity prices reach ever higher highs, and fall only to higher lows is not over.

For most non oil exporting developing countries, the improvement in commodity prices stimulated 2004 growth, outweighing the negative effects of higher oil prices.

And higher oil prices mean a greater incentive to invest in energy R D.

Industrial competitiveness has soared, owing to much higher gas prices in Europe and Asia.

That extra spending means a higher level of nominal GDP (output at market prices).

Business monopoly in some sectors causes higher profit bookings and further raising of prices.

So, yes, there are solid fundamentals that arguably support today s higher gold price, although it is far more debatable whether and to what extent they will continue to support higher prices in the future.

Food prices are soaring. Oil prices are at historic highs.

The result of a decrease in supply and an increase in demand is higher prices.