Technically, Not a Recession

Yes, and technically, oil and other energy related prices are not being manipulated by sons of bitches who deserve to be castrated without anesthetic, and made to watch their nuts being removed … it’s just honest speculators in an honest game.

I’m sure the fine people in the Bush Administration will study unwarranted complaints thoroughly and announce that all is well. It’s just supply side economics in action and, soon, the benefits will trickle down to the rest of us.

I prefer the term “economically-challenged” to recession. It doesn’t sound as bad, therefore it’s NOT as bad!

Wasn’t that cartoon in black and white a few minute ago?

Now it is in color, but I swear it was posted in black and white, that or I am going crazy from this non-recession.

At what point does “maintaining one’s wealth” make up for people in other countries starving to death because of sky high food prices, I wonder. At what point does “maintaining one’s earned wealth” make up for all the people who lose their jobs as energy prices go up and companies cut their work forces?

Hmm.

Barry – go dig up the “30 rock” episode (online) which opens with a segment by matthew broderick and alec baldwin….you will die laughing.

I still don’t understand how so many people have become ardently convinced that if we just ran the speculators out of town, oil prices will stabilize. When you don’t have enough of something to meet demand, prices rise.

drtomaso said:

When you don’t have enough of something to meet demand, prices rise.

reply: Now that is the million dollar question. The truth will become known eventually. There’s the common belief, which falls under the same logic as “Since 50 billion files eat shit, then it must be good food”.

Then there’s the common sense version that notices when huge volumes of money cascade into a commodity and the price goes up, then there might be a correlation … especially when those who profit the most from it’s rising convince others that there is no limit to up and provide price targets that include astronomical growth rates.

“Then there’s the common sense version ”

I would say that drtomaso has it a lot more right than you on this one. Read the WSJ dude. The Saudis have 800 million less barrels on the market because they internally use 500 million and have 300 million less on the market.

You people keep singing the same tired song without ever explaining what replaces the lower production from Norway, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Indonesia, Nigeria. Higher demand and lower supply is not called speculation, it is called a free market looking for equilibrium.

Exxon and the rest don’t even replace the reserves they sell. It a few years they will be nothing but filling stations.

And don’t tell me Iran has 20 tankers stored.

Donna,

There’s no way I can “make up for it”. But, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

I issue this challenge to anyone who wants to kill energy speculator profits. All they/you have to do is:
– immediately stop driving SUV’s and chauffeuring your kids to 6 after-school activities (instead of having them just play around the neighborhood),
– immediately institute telecommuting,
– immediately stop mucking with the tax incentives in the energy sector, because companies don’t know how-much-to-invest-in-what so long as the regulatory/tax scheme environment doesn’t stay stable,
– stop voting for politicians who don’t promise to raise CAFE standards,
– if it must be waged, wage war competently (not commit “military malpractice” in oil-producing nations), and
– much, much more but you can make meaningful improvement with the above alone.

But, the biggest issue is population growth. The 6 billion people on the planet today come courtesy of religious “leaders” encouraging people to have kids. Go gripe at the Pope, among others, for starving masses.

>> Let me pose this scenario: 5 years from now hypothetically there is a 20% market penetration of electric cars,

I hope so, Todd.

>> You think we’re losing in Iraq? We’re not.

True, it depends on one’s definition. If you’re trivializing a million dead Iraqis as a few broken eggs for your PNAC omelet, then you’ve won, Patrick. I suppose “congratulations” are in order??

>> It’s a war of occupation, not of conquest. Just like Vietnam. Blow the shi*t out of everything, install some bases, and you’re cool. As long as no serious contender to US interests arise then we’re A OK. To think otherwise is being ignorant of history.

Patrick, you misunderstand the Vietnam and Iraq war protesters. The “problem” isn’t that they’re “ignorant of history”. The “problem” is they don’t believe “US interests” in oil justify killing millions.

“Empire” is not a magical justification. People in Holland, England, France, Germany, Rome, Portugal, Japan, and Spain get along quite well without the burdens of Empire.

“Witness the fact that there are no gas lines and no rationing of gasoline,”

That is the point. Our jobs went to India and China and Brazil. They have the jobs. They have the money. Daimler and BWM have shifted cars away from the US to those markets. Those cars take gasoline.

If you continue to think US-centric you will miss the rest of the world. Mao is gone from China and they are growing over 9%.. Brazil if growing leaps and bounds. India is a democracy.

Russia is no longer communist but rapidly adopting the predatory capitalist model of the west. yes, they learned from Enron and others to screw the customer and whatever the market will bear.

You can’t keep the rest of the world down so yo can have gasoline for a buck.