Under normal circumstances it would be headline news. Crude oil prices today dropped below $91 a barrel on worries that the crisis on Wall Street will hit the global economy hard and reduce demand.

Energy and oil expert Byron King says this is “a temporary condition.” Oil has dropped mainly on a strengthening dollar. But the fundamentals for the US economy don’t support a long-term dollar rally.

Over the long term, Bryon advises investors to rely on oil’s strong fundamentals and the strong fundamentals of commodities in general.

It’s true for almost any commodity: there are a lot of influences pushing on the price, and it’s hard to untangle them all. But gold is exceptional. A single factor dominates the market price - and you can measure it.

American consumers are feeling the pain both at the pump and in the grocery store. Meanwhile with real full-time unemployment rates climbing towards 10%, penny-pinching consumers are wondering just who is to blame.

Can you talk a currency into gaining value? It seems Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and European Central (ECB) President Trichet think so. They’ve been telling anyone who will listen how serious they are about fighting the inflation monster that would cheapen their currencies.

The US inflation rate rose by 0.6% in May — the highest monthly increase since last November.

The core inflation rate, however, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, only rose 0.2%, easing fears that rising commodity prices would feed into more widespread inflation

But can the government’s inflation data be trusted? John Brown in The Daily Reckoning doesn’t think so…