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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Quote of the Day: CEO of Dow Chemical on Stagflation

by CalculatedRisk

"Frankly, there's very few levers left ... [T]his energy crisis is affecting consumers ... People aren't spending. People aren't driving. Really, you need to look at ways to control what's happened in the inflationary world and really take the risk that by raising rates, you may actually cause some demand to go weaker. I think it's back to where Paul Volcker was in the early '80s. There's a real risk here and we've got stagflation. You can only break out of it one way and you better take on inflation head-on."
Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, June 24, 2008

Meanwhile, from the NY Times: Dow Chemical Raises Prices for Second Time in a Month

The Dow Chemical Company said Tuesday that it was raising prices for the second time in a month to offset a "relentless rise" in energy costs, a sign that companies may increasingly have to pass on price increases to their customers.

The increase of as much as 25 percent — the largest in the company's history — comes after a 20 percent rise last month that the company said did not go far enough given the continuing surge in energy prices.