Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard

Video Headline:

Let's look at the three ways oil prices are rising, and rising airline industry frustration with one of those three factors. First, demand for oil is rising. But global demand has risen only 2% in the past year and prices have risen 100%. Second, the weak dollar means it takes more dollars to buy the same thing on world markets. But that won't change until the Fed starts hiking interest rates. Third, speculators are buying oil futures contracts precisely because their prices are rising, causing their prices to rise even more. Doug Steenland, chairman of the Air Transport Association and the CEO of Northwest Airlines, pleaded with Congress yesterday to curb commodities speculation. The amount of money poured into commodities trading, not just oil but all commodities, was 13 billion dollars as the year began. Now it's 260 billion. Speculators used to account for only 37% of trading in the benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate. Now it accounts for 70%. Commodities speculators aren't wackos at laptops -- they're mainly huge pension funds, with aggressive traders seeking high returns.

Other Headlines:

Hawaii Biotech has got the go-ahead to do clinical trials for a vaccine for West Nile virus. It's the first time the local company will have done clinical trials and the first time anyone has developed a West Nile vaccine. The disease only reached America nine years ago but thousands of people have caught it and one-thousand has died of it.

Hawaiian Electric is officially request bids to supply it with electricity generated through renewable means like wind and solar. It wants up to 100 megawatts -- power for 300 homes -- and it wants proposals by September 25th. Meanwhile, HECO itself is installing a solar power system on its Ward Avenue center that will generate more than twice this much power.

Young Brothers has a new three-year contract with the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific. The agreement was ratified over the weekend and the public announcement made Monday afternoon. Terms are face down so far but the two sides struck a deal with time to spare, as the old contract doesn't end until midnight next Monday.

Japanese arrivals so far this morning are down 10% from last year, which works out to 9-thousand fewer Japanese visitors. Turning to mainland arrivals on the neighbor islands, Kauai is up 5,000, Big Island is down 5,000, and Maui is down 14,000, just over the past three weeks.

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