It’s that time of the quarter again when I get a chance to take a step back, gather my thoughts and scour through the data as I write the metals category article for SupplyWatch. As you can guess…there’s a LOT to talk about this quarter. Plummeting commodity prices, a global credit crisis and an underlying [...]

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Everybody is aware of the trans-Atlantic trade implications of a weak US dollar, which has lost another 12% of it’s value against the Euro in the last year. European exporters are struggling if they deliver to US customers, whose purchasing power has been greatly diminished in the last few years (see the graph on Kevin [...]

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A wise man in procurement once told me, “if we could predict what currency was going to do, none of us would be in this business.” Although it won’t stop some people from attempting to break into the growing trend of currency ‘day-trading’, it should remind everyone in sourcing and procurement of 2 things. First, [...]

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If your CFO (or your family) is still uncertain of the importance of effective spend management, look no further than this week’s Independence Day celebrations. A triple-whammy of supply disruptions, rising prices, and regulatory restrictions promises to take some sizzle out of the holiday’s fireworks displays. These events serve as a doppelganger for the [...]

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In an effort to cool rising gas prices last week, Congressional regulators took steps to curtail overseas oil speculators. The move will force some overseas exchanges, which trade US oil, to share data on a daily basis and report any violations to authorities. The AP video report on the move is here:

The problem is, regulators [...]

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