By the way, professor, right now the statistically more sound trade in the energies, particularly WTI crude and Brent, whether one wants to be short or long, is to use futures options rather than futures. The IV of the crude oppies is right down on the bottom of its historical range, and a long option position carries a fixed maximum risk whereas any futures position's maximum risk is indeterminate.

Good trading to you!

I think you are arguing with someone else.

Once you digest this apodeictic condition of contest, you'll be in good shape.

"Congratulations, you just said the secret word."

I thought Bush was a free trader! Funny what falling poll numbers would do to your conviction.

Another who thinks "free traders" condone illegal behavior. Where does this silly notion originate?

I live in North Dakota. I work in Winnipeg. We don't have "free" health care here.
Last I looked, it wasn't "free" in Canada either.

I think it comes with a complete misunderstanding of what "free trade" actually is.

These gas threads are even better that the pit bull and driving with cell phone threads. People like Protagoras think we have an unalienable, constitutional right to get hosed by oil companies and speculators and anyone who disagrees gets called a bad name.

"Bend over, it's the patriotic thing to do."

The limiting factor in gas supply right now is refining capacity, and that ain't going to get better for a long time, because nobody wants a refinery in their backyard

And because every existing refiner makes far more money running at 100% of capacity and riding the price elevator than he would by adding an extra 10% in capacity. If all the enviroweenies and NIMBYs went away tomorrow, I'm not convinced that one new refinery would be started.

What I would like to see GWB do is announce a crash program to build refineries on closed military bases to produce fuel for the govt's own use. Of course it would be expensive to have federal employees doing this but I don't see any other way of getting to surplus refining capacity, which is the only way to turn around the price trend.

I think the only regulating the Canadian government does of gas prices is with tax. F@%#$ing rediculous when I have to fill up in Canada. It wasn't so bad when the Canuck buck was worth 60 cents, but now it's almost par (90 cents) So you feel the pinch of Canadian taxes more when you buy stuff across the border.

Last I looked, it wasn't "free" in Canada either.

Columns

Free health care

Jul 21, 2004
by Walter E. Williams ( bio | archive | contact )

Let's start out by not quibbling with America's socialists' false claim that health-care service is a human right that people should have regardless of whether they can pay for it or not and that it should be free. Before we buy into this socialist agenda, we might check out just what happens when health-care services are "free." Let's look at our neighbor to the north -- Canada.

The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver, B.C.-based think tank, has done yeoman's work keeping track of Canada's socialized health-care system. It has just come out with its 13th annual waiting-list survey. It shows that the average time a patient waited between referral from a general practitioner to treatment rose from 16.5 weeks in 2001-02 to 17.7 weeks in 2003. Saskatchewan had the longest average waiting time of nearly 30 weeks, while Ontario had the shortest, 14 weeks.

Waiting lists also exist for diagnostic procedures such as computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. Depending on what province and the particular diagnostic procedure, the waiting times can range from two to 24 weeks.

As reported in a December 2003 story by Kerri Houston for the Frontiers of Freedom Institute titled "Access Denied: Canada's Healthcare System Turns Patients Into Victims," in some instances, patients die on the waiting list because they become too sick to tolerate a procedure. Houston says that hip-replacement patients often end up non-ambulatory while waiting an average of 20 weeks for the procedure, and that's after having waited 13 weeks just to see the specialist. The wait to get diagnostic scans followed by the wait for the radiologist to read them just might explain why Cleveland, Ohio, has become Canada's hip-replacement center.

Adding to Canada's medical problems is the exodus of doctors. According to a March 2003 story in Canada News (www.canoe.ca), about 10,000 doctors left Canada during the 1990s. Compounding the exodus of doctors is the drop in medical school graduates. According to Houston, Ontario has chosen to turn to nurses to replace its bolting doctors. It's "creating" 369 new positions for nurse practitioners to take up the slack for the doctor shortage.

Some patients avoided long waits for medical services by paying for private treatment. In 2003, the government of British Columbia enacted Bill 82, an "Amendment to Strengthen Legislation and Protect Patients." On its face, Bill 82 is to "protect patients from inadvertent billing errors." That's on its face. But according to a January 2004 article written by Nadeem Esmail for the Fraser Institute's Forum and titled "Oh to Be a Prisoner," Bill 82 would disallow anyone from paying the clinical fees for private surgery, where previously only the patients themselves were forbidden from doing so. The bill also gives the government the power to levy fines of up to $20,000 on physicians who accept these fees or allow such a practice to occur. That means it is now against Canadian law to opt out of the Canadian health-care system and pay for your own surgery.

Health care can have a zero price to the user, but that doesn't mean it's free or has a zero cost. The problem with a good or service having a zero price is that demand is going to exceed supply. When price isn't allowed to make demand equal supply, other measures must be taken. One way to distribute the demand over a given supply is through queuing -- making people wait. Another way is to have a medical czar who decides who is eligible, under what conditions, for a particular procedure -- for example, no hip replacement or renal dialysis for people over 70 or no heart transplants for smokers.

I'm wondering just how many Americans would like Canada's long waiting lists, medical czars deciding what treatments we get and an exodus of doctors.

Since 1980, Dr. Williams has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, VA as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics.

I am just suggesting that Bush may have a new way to make life more difficult for Hugo Chavez. Monitoring price gouging is a good idea. If you find evidence of CITGO engaging in reckless profiteering, I urge you to take photos and report the company. President Bush will thank you.

I may have misunderstood the original comment (after reading later responses), but there are clearly some on this forum that equate "free trade" with anarchy. And I fail to understand why.

These gas threads are even better that the pit bull and driving with cell phone threads. People like Protagoras think we have an unalienable, constitutional right to get hosed by oil companies and speculators and anyone who disagrees gets called a bad name.
"Bend over, it's the patriotic thing to do."

Your right about that! Probably the most vicious threads around. Its a good thing that the one who yells the loudest doesn’t necessarily win.

Oh, stop it with your free market crap!

Your true colors are showing.

There, FINALLY someone has hit the nail on the head. It isn't crude that's short, it's refinery capacity that is short. We can get all the crude we want, but it does no good floating offshore waiting to be refined. That's why light crude is in demand, it's easier to process. There wil be a couple more refineries coming online soon,-in Alberta. Maybe that will help a little.

If you make about $60,000 in Canada, the "free" health care premium costs about $18,000 in taxes off their paycheck. That's hardly "free". And it sure isn't the best either.

So, where are all the service stations that are closed because they have run out of fuel to sell?

Every station offering gas for $2 per gallon is out of fuel to sell.

If the shoe fits........

Yes, because they are selling out. Not because they can't get delivery of more. I'm sure their re-supplier will be there right on shedule.