Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald – one of the first global financial gurus to predict triple-digit oil prices – has boosted his target price for crude oil from $187 to $225.

How does a bank work? In very simple terms, a bank collects deposits from savers, and lends the money to borrowers. It pays interest on the deposits, charges a higher rate of interest on what it lends, and keeps the difference as profit.

We’ve all heard the story. Most of the world’s major oil deposits have already been discovered. The low-hanging fruit has been picked. The remaining oil supplies are tough to get at – and expensive to recover.

Poking through dusty ruins looking for our future. Greenspan and Bush accomplished a great feat…an explosion of spending that has blown up in our faces. The U.S. still on a slip-n-slide…and more!

In the Chart of the Day below, Andrew Mickey argues that $120 oil is “just the start,” partly as a result of what’s happening with Russia. What you should also know is that Andrew saw $120 oil coming well before anyone else. In fact, he called for it nearly six months ago.

I’ve been so wrapped-up in the ongoing credit crunch that I might have missed an even larger crisis brewing, that’s threatening the global economy: FOOD!

China’s long-term prospects are so strong that even a civil war, an economic collapse or political assassinations would only temporarily delay its emergence as a worldwide economic powerhouse.

And Europe’s markets continue to fall… but there’s good money to be made elsewhere… especially in one particular corner of South-East Asia.

The government hasn’t gone so far as to say, ‘leave Russia to the Russians,’ publicly, but you can imagine the sentiment being passed between cabinet ministers and police chiefs as they rifle through TNK-BP’s Moscow offices (which they did a couple of weeks ago)

After years of denials $100-a-barrel oil has been recognized as a reality by Uncle Sam, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ reports that the “normally bearish” US Energy Information Administration forecasts that crude oil prices will remain above $100 this year.

Soaring demand in China, India, and Russia will continue to keep prices high. Lack of spare capacity worldwide will also continue to push up prices, according to the report.