(misprision of a felony) in the US Congress
are not indicted by grand juries this afternoon,
then "no one cares".
They all belong in prison for destroying America
with their bribe-bought smiles.
Posted on 04/25/2011 4:17:14 AM PDT by radioone
It is with great interest that I read this past week about the President's initial response to rising gas prices. What or who was to blame? According to the President...speculators. Nameless, faceless speculators. They are to blame for the rising price of crude oil up and the accompanying price at the pump!
The problem is...speculators and people make various bets, and they say, you know what, we think that maybe there's a 20 percent chance that something might happen in the Middle East that might disrupt oil supply, so we're going to bet that oil is going to go up real high. And that spikes up prices significantly.
Now this interested me because I worked in the petroleum industry and I studied energy law at law school, and I have taken a strong interest in macroeconomics in recent years. (I read Market Ticker and Zero Hedge, if you are wondering.) I'm going to disregard for this note the fact that higher gas prices are not objectionable at all to our President, despite the fact that they are connected to every product we buy. He doesn't have a problem with high gas prices, only wishing that they become high on a gradual basis. I'm also going to ignore the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf and general opposition to domestic exploration and production of petroleum by this Administration.
No, the main culprit here isn't the nameless, faceless "speculators" that are now the object of the President's scorn, but government policy itself, both with the Federal Reserve (monetary) and the budget deficits accrued in recent years (fiscal). What is going on is that the government is trying to deflect blame to these nameless, faceless speculators for their own disastrous fiscal and monetary policies.
In other words, they think you are stupid.
Let me remind you that the Federal Reserve (Fed) began "quantitative easing" (using printed money to buy assets, chiefly Treasury Bonds) in September 2008 with over $2 trillion. "QE1" continued through the end of the first quarter of 2010, the end of March 2010. Thereafter, we got QE2, which continues to this very day but is slowly wrapping up QE2 is a third the size of QE1, but it means the same: monetizing debt.
On the fiscal side, our President has run up a lot of debt in the past two years, despite running in 2008 on a "net spending cut." He's up to nearly 4 trillion in debt over just a little more than two years.
How are we financing this? Well, the Fed is stepping up to buy 70% of treasuries. They're doing it with printed money, "quantitative easing." What's the effect of this? You're dollar is worth less. Using printed money to buy the debt of the same country will inflate the currency. Our dollar is not backed by anything. It floats. Therefore, the money that you have has been drastically devalued since the onset of "quantitative easing." This is what I call "loose money."
Why is it important to you? Because inflation is a stealth tax on every dollar you have.
Whom does this hurt the most? The poor and those on fixed incomes. To any progressives reading this who really do want to help the poor reach the middle class and get off government assistance: is the way to help them through a stealth 20% tax on every dollar they have in their pocket, a unilateral tax that bypasses Congress? That stealth, regressive tax can only drive more middle class into being poor, right? Shouldn't we want every dollar they own to have maximum purchasing power, to be worth as much as possible? Does this have anything to do, you suppose, with the record number on food stamps, one in six Americans?
These are the ravages of a loose monetary policy, high-deficit, spendthrift government. It is impoverishment. It is precisely the opposite of what is necessary for a true, strong recovery. A true recovery will feature fiscal responsibility and a strong dollar. The President ran in part on such a platform in 2008, promising a "net spending cut." Had he run on trillion-dollar deficits and monetizing debt, he would've never been elected. Such a strong recovery will have to wait until the President and Fed Chairman are replaced, beginning in 2013.
This spendthrift, loose (and reckless) policy is also reflected in the price of gold and silver, which are historical safe harbors from inflation because (as precious metals) they store value and are never worthless. Gold as of this writing was over $1,500/oz, silver over $46/oz. Gold at the beginning of the Obama Administration was just over $850/oz, silver at under $11.50/oz. Just this month, the price of silver skyrocketed from $40/oz to $45/oz in only 12 days. The loss of confidence in the dollar has been striking.
So, they are hoping that you don't pay attention to their fiscal and monetary policy. They want you to blame nameless, faceless "speculators" for the rise in the price of gas, even though everything else has risen, thanks to their loose monetary policy and spendthrift fiscal policy. They want you to ignore the rise in commodity prices and the drastic hike in gold and silver. They think you'll go after the nameless, faceless "speculators" because they think you are stupid.
My question is this: Are they right about you?
What this country needs
Is some Soviet-style show trials...
That will set things right.
It is only a matter of time before they put faces on these speculators... And I think we all know what group they are going to scapegoat. Plus ça change...
Here’s a question: What’s the difference between speculators and commodity traders?
It’s not just gas prices that are going up. Check the corn market, it’s been rising astronomically due to the demand for ethanol. Why aren’t grain traders referred to as “speculators”?
“Speculators” now has a strong negative connotation, it helps deflect blame.
You are because you let the administrati create a bogeyman called “speculators” to be your antihero. And you bought it hook, line and sinker, tools.
1. Drilling "Permitorium" in the Gulf of Mexico. US Offshore Production down 13%
2. Ban on drilling in proven oil fields in Alaska, West Coast Offshore, etc
3. High excise taxes (Gas at the pump)
4. Refinery shortages
5. Boutique fuels
6. Ethanol requirements
7. Restrictions on coal leading to substitution for power generation
8. Increased demand in China, India and Brazil
9. Continued instability in Libya
10. Seasonal demand spike
11. Debased US currency
12. "Protection" money extorted from BP
13. High US corporate taxes discouraging domestic production
Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13 are the direct result of US government policies championed by the Obama administration.
Items 8 and 10 were predictable as the sunrise and could have been planned for, but were not.
But it is the speculators who are doing this, don'tcha know...
Time magazine, Monday, Apr. 30, 1928:
As a historical note, the Soviet Party took all the grain from the Ukraine, resulting in a famine which killed millions of Ukrainian peasants. The party didn't care. They eliminated millions of opponents, cowed the survivors, kept "their people" fed, and sold the excess grain to get money to cover their deficits.RUSSIA: Stalin Speaks
[...]Grain Hoarding. Secondly M. Stalin announced that unrelenting pressure would be maintained upon the Peasant Squires or "Fists" who hoarded their grain during the last three months of 1927 and finally produced something very like an artificial famine (TIME, Feb. 27).
"These Kulak speculators," rasped M. Stalin, "shall be prevented from ever again attempting to starve the Red Army and the urban Proletariat."
As everyone knows, the recent "speculators' famine" was broken by sending through the provinces bands of strong-arm grain collectors who literally forced the peasants to sell their hoarded grain at the fixed prices offered by the State.
Do not be fooled by what's coming.
Excellent post.
14) Not a single new refinery built in the USA since the mid 70s. Some have been expanded, but there are so many regulations regarding different "blends" due to localities that it's very expensive to manufacture "boutique type" blends.
Yabut...it didn't...did it.
14) Not a single new refinery built in the USA since the mid 70s. Some have been expanded, but there are so many regulations regarding different "blends" due to localities that it's very expensive to manufacture "boutique type" blends.
Opps forgot the punch line.
If we eliminated ethanol, built two new modern refineries, eliminated all local and state regulations for blending gasoline and had a standard 87, 89, and 93 octane that could be shipped anywhere in the USA, gasoline costs would be cut in half, the price at the pump would still vary, but from a much lower starting point.
That's something where the federal government can and should use its power to regulate interstate commerce.
Sugar, Corn , Coffee, Wheat, Solver, Gold ( see Weiner on not investing at gold at 800.00 an ounce to get Glenn Beck) Wow almost would have doubled your money.
You gotta hand it to the Soviets. They had that propaganda stuff dialed in...
The main reason we need to support domestic oil production is so we’ll have enough supply to lubricate the money printing presses.
(IOW hyperinflation)
Try $12 a gal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D_IL3Vwbqg&feature=share
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