Oil jumps to new record on dollar's fall

The surging price of oil reached another milestone Monday, jumping to an inflation adjusted record high of $103.95. The weaker dollar that has propelled oil and other commodities prices higher sent light, sweet crude for April delivery past $103.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the level many analysts consider to be the true record high for oil, after its $38 barrel price from 1980 is translated into 2008 dollars.

[this is a bit of a distortion: while the depreciating dollar contributes to higher dollar-based costs, analysts say based on supply & demand oil should be around 76$ a barrel, and the primary reason it's so much higher is speculation based on America's consistent signaling that it doesn't intend to do anything about the supply side of the equation {consider: last year's 'energy' bill only mentioned oil in connection with raising the taxes on the companies that provide it. insanity} ]

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