At the height of his power with Standard Oil of Ohio, John D. Rockefeller controlled the production of 90% of the kerosene in the US, in the 1890s. As you sit in your home reading this by electric light, you most likely are saying so what.
The issue was, when Rockefeller had this 90% control, virtually everyone relied on kerosene to fill their lamps and space heaters. Even though Rockefeller was able to bring the cost of kerosene down by over 80% he had a stranglehold on the lighting of American homes. There was way too much power in the hands of one man and this unregulated influence could negatively affect the majority of the nation’s population.More

The hryvnia is likely to continue to devalue over the next while, writes International Centre for Policy Studies economist Oleksandr Zholud in an article for Gazeta po-Ukrainski, a newspaper. The reasons for this are several: the foreign trade deficit is rising in Ukraine, external debts need to be serviced by the private sector, especially banks, and prices are falling on steel markets.More