Despite the lower prices, demand for gasoline continues to drop, according to MasterCard. They said that credit card swipes at gas stations were down 3.9% compared to last year. We can only imagine, with horror, what this slowdown is doing to "meat snack" sales.

Gas prices near $2.30 [CNN]
(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane )

It's hard to think of an object that isn't made of wood or packaged or encounters wood at some point in its journey through the economy. Any number of household items that you can buy at Walmart, like a toilet seat for instance, may very well be made from Russian wood.

"Hot Seats" [NewYorker.com]

Wal-Mart Rations Rice, Warns of "Supply and Demand" Concerns [Fox Business News]
PREVIOUSLY: Costco: One Bag Of Rice Per Customer, Please

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man said.

The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

"Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.

Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

International demand is greater than the supply of available rice. That's led several key rice-growing countries to impose export restrictions — resulting in even tighter supplies. Prices are also being driven by some of the same forces boosting all commodities — a weak dollar and high fuel prices.

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World [NY Sun] (Thanks, Ryan!)
(Photo:greenwenvy08)

For example, "Why hasn't Nintendo apologized for the shortage?" And, "Why haven't they ramped up production?" And, "Is this hurting game developers?" And, "Where's my damn Wii?"

3. Game vendors (including Nintendo) are hurt by this, since their TAM/CAM is held artificially lower. Since shelf life of a game is very much based on release date, this hurts the game developers.

4. It is unclear how much this has pushed sales of XBox360, PS3, PS2, and even older Gamecube devices. Since Wii has a quite different controller design, people are attracted to it. Normally, this would have benefited their competitors a lot according to economic theory.

We Want a Wii! (Still) [Freakonomics]
(Photo:Michael T. Gilbert)

Report: 'Supply Glut' for PS3? [Game Daily]