You’d think this troubling economic indicator would generate a different reaction from CNN’s anchor :

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I’m on the floor of NYMEX. This is the oil trading pit. This is where oil is bought and sold. This is where the price is going to be decided. If oil decides it’s going to be $100 a barrel, it’s getting decided righted here.

Now we’re about half an hour into the trading session. We’re looking at about $97.40 for a barrel of crude oil. In about half an hour we are going to get a report about how much oil there is. How much the oil stocks are in the United States. Most people are expecting for a third week in a row for those numbers to be lower than expected.

The issue, Tony, how much lower than the analysts are expecting? If that number comes in too low, you’ll see the price of oil surge and we’ll probably get to that $100 a barrel. If it’s where analysts expect it to be, you probably will see oil hover around here.

But make no mistake, Tony, we’re in that position where oil has been heading and trending up toward $100 a barrel. And for those of us who don’t have to go home with barrels of oil, it doesn’t matter because it works its way into your gas pump, it works its way into your home heating oil if you live in the northeast. And as Gerri and others will tell you, it works it’s way all the way through the economy into everything you buy.

HARRIS: Boy, I love that sight. That shot of you down there in the floor. It reminds me of that scene in a great movie, “Trading Places.” If I could get to New York right now, I would be your Billy Ray Valentine right there on the floor next to you.

Our economy is on the brink of a recession, but gosh, isn’t the trading floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange neat? It sure is crowded! Wouldn’t it be fun to go down there and yell “Sell! Sell!”? Ha ha ha! It’s like that one movie where…I’m sorry, what were you saying about oil prices again?