Economy

Housing starts slid 3.3% in May to their lowest level in more than 17 years, while permits for future construction also fell, signaling more weakness ahead for the battered housing sector. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that housing starts fell to an annual pace of 975,000 units in May, lowest since March 1991. Building permits fell to an annual rate of 969,000.

Oil futures are hit a new milestone near $140 a barrel Monday morning, a dramatic surge analysts attributed to the weakening dollar. Many investors buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the dollar loses buying power. A weaker dollar makes oil less expensive to investors dealing in other currencies because oil is traded in dollars. Nationwide average for regular gasoline was $4.082, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Monday. That's up 4.3 cents in a week, but up $1.029 this year. The average is going up in relatively small increments, signaling either a normal summer plateau or a breather before the run-up resumes.

Electricity bills are heading up. Way up. Utilities across the USA are raising power prices up to 29%, mostly to pay for soaring fuel costs, but also to build new plants and refurbish an aging power grid. Even more dramatic rate increases are ahead. The mounting electric bills will further squeeze households struggling with spiraling gasoline prices. The increases come after rising fuel prices already have driven up utility bills nearly 30% in the past five years, the sharpest jump since the 1970s energy crisis.

Corn prices surged to a record Monday, with some contracts briefly topping $8 a bushel for the first time as traders bet that a major swath of this year's corn crop will be lost to Midwest flooding. The concerns were underscored after the markets closed, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that 43% of this year's corn crop is in fair to very poor condition vs. 30% at this point in 2007, which eventually produced a record harvest.

Wholesale prices bolted ahead in May at the fastest pace in six months as energy and food costs marched higher. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its Producer Price Index, which measures the costs of goods before they reach store shelves, shot up 1.4% in May. That was up from a modest 0.2% rise in April and marked the biggest increase since November. However, stripping out energy and food prices, which can swing widely from month to month, the "core" rate of inflation rose 0.2% in May, an improvement from the prior month's 0.4% increase. That suggested that other prices were fairly well behaved.

Swamped by debt and rising medical bills, elderly Americans have been seeking bankruptcy-court protection at sharply faster rates than other adults, a study to be released Tuesday indicates. From 1991 to 2007, the rate of personal bankruptcy filings among those ages 65 or older jumped by 150%, according to AARP, which will release the new research from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project. The most startling rise occurred among those ages 75 to 84, whose rate soared 433%. "Health care is a big issue for the elderly," says George Gaberlavage, director of consumer and state affairs at the AARP Public Policy Institute. "And out-of-pocket expenses have been going up."