Economists... Who Needs Them?

Posted by Kevin

As we all know, gas prices at the current moment suck.  They are high, and no one enjoys paying $60, $80, and sometimes up to $100 dollars at the pump.  Therefore gas prices have become a huge issue in this year's presidential election.  On NPR, Obama discussed his solution to the rising gas prices.  His windfall profit tax on oil companies was his brilliant idea. 

He proposed an emergency rebate check to consumers to offset the rise in the price of gas.   His basic proposal is to take money from the oil companies, their profits, and redistribute it back to the consumers to buy more gas.  Most economists disagree with this sort of proposal saying it will only hurt the oil companies.  When asked about that, Obama responded with this remark:

"Classic economic theory says you don't meddle in the markets. Look, I mean, most economists buy into that approach. Exxon Mobil made $12 billion last quarter. They made $11 billion before that, and $11 billion before that, and not all of this is going into research and development — and families need some relief."

Is he actually suggesting that most economists are wrong?

So because these companies are so successful at selling gas, and because gas is in such high demand, its the government's duty to take away their money, and relieve the market?  I don't quite see how a company that has a modest 10% profit margin deserves to have money taken away from them.  Why is this windfall profit tax only being applied to oil companies?  Credit card companies have a profit margin as high as 40%.  Why isn't Obama looking into taking money away from credit card companies to help Americans in debt?  This whole plan doesn't even seem logical, and I for one am not buying into it. 

The whole article can be seen at NPR.org

Wind energy....don't buy it

I'm sure you've all seen those reasonable looking ads featuring Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens touting wind mill energy. You should know that he is heavily invested in this technology all across north Texas and Oklahoma. If the government were to mandate some sort of idiotic conversion to wind farm technology, Mr. Pickens stands to make billions selling electricity to Americans the same way he made billions selling oil. You can tell he's fleecing you because he parrots the democrats' line about "we can't drill out of this crisis". His plan is for the villiage moron Al Gore to become the "Energy Czar" in an Obama administration.

I have no problem at all with him making billions selling electricity but, it has to be because Americans demanded it in the market place, not because President Obama mandated the conversion to wind energy, the way Bush idiotically and disastrously mandated corn-ethanol usage. With gas prices high, Americans are already conserving energy without the government telling them to. That's how the market works, for those of you who were learning to put condoms on cucumbers in government schools instead of studying economics.

Finally, we can indeed drill our way out of this gas crisis. Bush lifted the executive ban on off-shore drilling this week(a purely symbolic gesture since Congress controls that), and the international price of oil futures plumeted about 12dollars a barrel. If wind technology can compete in the energy market, fine, but the government has no business mandating it. The Obamessiah would mandate it.

Democrats......craven lunatics!

In the United States of America, when an elected official comments that the government should seize private companies in order to control the means of production, it might be time to look for somewhere else to live.....

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling had this to say....

"We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market."

Where in the Constitution is the government granted the right to take over a private industry? The government has regulated the airlines from time to time and regulated the communications industries from time to time but never, that I know of, has it seized ownership of otherwise private companies. How stupid are these democrats that they haven't learned anything from Venezuela's example. Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil refineries there, immediately plunging his country into poverty, food shortages, and general misery. Of course that's the kind of nation soulless democrats fantasize about for Americans Democrats don't see the gas-price issue as a crisis, they see it as an opportunity....an opportunity to seize more power than they've ever enjoyed in US history. The more miserable our lives, the more we'll depend on assholes like Henchey for everything.....and that's exactly how they want it.

This is the object of Democrat's lust. They want to control the life-blood of the US economy and the trillions in wealth it produces.

Drill! Drill! Drill!

Promising to reverse a presidential order by Bush '41 that banned offshore drilling, John McCain says he would allow individual states to decide whether they wanted to drill off their shores or not.
In a new national poll, 67% support drilling while 18% do not. As gas prices soar, those numbers are certainly expected to go up and down respectively.

It's about time an American politician recognized the concept of states' rights. The eco-nuts in California might elect not to drill, but the voters in Oregon, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas might decide to explore their waters. The Florida voters, always conscious of tourists, might stupidly decide not to drill for fearing the sight of oil rig lights on the horizon at night.

When we vacation at Gulf Shores, Alabama every summer, I like to see the lights of oil rigs out in the ocean. It's a sobering reminder that, while I relax on the beach, our American petroleum companies are working around the clock to provide me with relatively cheap energy. It is idiotic that we refuse to take advantage of our own plentiful resources while all other countries are taking advantage of theirs, and our economy spirals down the toilet, as does our way of life.