Free Republic

As evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine mounts, the U.S. is once again grappling with our dependence on foreign oil. Although we produce more than we consume, we imported about 670,000 barrels per day from Russia last year — more than we imported from Saudi Arabia. At recent prices of $100 per barrel, that’s nearly $25 billion that fed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. The U.S. ban on Russian oil helps, but is small compared to total Russian exports. So, how can we cut oil consumption and energy costs? President Biden wants electric vehicles (EVs) to comprise half of...

Joe Biden has been talking about the Biden/Harris campaign's effort to help American manufacturing, in the form of a $700 billion spending bill, essentially a repackaged version of an economic program that Senator Elizabeth Warren ran on in the primaries. The program, as Mr. Biden describes it, is a combination of $400 billion focused on federal purchases of goods, and $300 billion focused on federal grants and partnerships for research and development. On the surface, this doesn’t sound entirely bad. It’s not innovative either; presidents always propose spending programs. President Trump tried very hard to get a large infrastructure spending...

Following other prominent left-wing lawmakers, Biden had quite the slip of the tongue recently when he told virtual CNN town hall audiences there’s an “opportunity” to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to “fundamentally change the science relating to global warming.” Biden seemed to suggest that the global pandemic presented the perfect opportunity for Democrats and progressives to expand the scope of federal economic and environmental policy. “It’s like the New Deal. Think of every great act, every great change that’s taken place. It’s come out of a crisis. … What we did, we expanded opportunity. And I think we have an...

U.S. crude oil futures turned negative Monday for the first time in history as storage space was filling up, discouraging buyers as weak economic data from Germany and Japan cast doubt on when fuel consumption will recover. Physical demand for crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut as billions of people stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery fell more than 100% to settle at negative $37.63 per barrel. Meanwhile, international benchmark, Brent crude, which has already rolled to the June contract, traded 8.9% lower at $25.58 per...

U.S. crude futures for May delivery, the near-term contract, sank to their lowest level on record ever Monday, falling below $10 a barrel as traders fretted over the capacity of storage facilities both in the U.S. and abroad. At last check, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 74% to $4.72 a barrel. Contacts for June delivery declined 23%. "In my view, the plunge in oil prices speaks to the decline of global growth as demand dries up," said Dan Russo, chief market strategist at Chaikin Analytics, a quantitative investment research firm based in Philadelphia. "This could be a concern for investors...

... Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the volume of Saudi crude en route to the United States is seven times higher than the typical monthly intake of Saudi oil in 2019. The tankers were loaded before OPEC+ struck a new agreement to take 9.7 million bpd off the market in May and June when Saudi Arabia had embarked on an aggressive price war for market share after the previous OPEC+ deal collapsed in early March. ...

Fox morning news is reporting that Oil Prices have dropped to 11 dollars per barrel. What does this mean? Eliminate and/or reduce gas taxes and we may have .33 cents per gallon gas again.

Think I am going to be topping off my gas tank every time I go out. I saw a report the other day where there was a gas station in the Midwest that had 12 cents a gallon. Right now ever gas station is filled. The gas trucks are on hold ,and we even have ships that cannot deliver sitting off the coasts because there are no trucks and port is full. It's a good time to buy the dip. Nevertheless, this economy needs to be turned back on.

Adam Jonas covers the auto industry for Morgan Stanley. Barron's spoke with Jonas recently about how the car industry can survive the shutdown, and how it might be left changed. His edited comments follow... We don't think the [car makers] are going to fail the way some did back in 2008 and 2009. But the industry is going to need support. We expect a cash for clunkers program to be much larger in scope and longer in duration than what we saw. In 2008 and 2009, we saw a $3 billion package that stimulated about $14 billion of purchases... These...

Remember "cash for clunkers"?  It's baaack. Sen. Chuck Schumer has a new proposal to have everyone turn in their cars and get in return a supposedly clean, green, nifty, electric vehicle.  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, late on Thursday proposed a $454 billion plan over 10 years to help shift the United States away from gasoline-powered vehicles by offering cash vouchers to help Americans buy cleaner vehicles. Schumer said in a statement that his plan, which would provide rebates of $3,000 or more to individual buyers, would help transition 25% of the U.S. fleet, or...

DENVER -- A foundation is focused on driving clunkers off the road in hopes of ushering in cleaner air in Colorado. The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association started the Clear the Air Foundation in 2007. It's focused on cars that are more than 15 years old. Mark Zeigler, the Director of the foundation, said it's focused on these cars because they emit 100 times the pollution of new cars. Since it's inception, the foundation has pulled 4,000 clunkers off Colorado streets, with the goal of removing 650 cars a year. The foundation takes clunkers from dealerships for free and sells the...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says her gun confiscation plan would be like a government “Cash for Clunkers.” “Australia is a good example, Canada is a good example, the UK is a good example,” Clinton said at a town hall Friday in New Hampshire, referring to mass shootings in those countries.

"You know, I think — I think the American people, you know, they're gonna want — you know, that new car smell. You know, their own — they — they wanna drive somethin' off the lot that — that doesn't have as — as much mileage as me." — President Obama on ABC News' This Week. Not exactly a great moment in political oratory. But it's also hard to fathom who Obama could have had in mind when he uttered those words, since the Democratic contenders all are showing plenty of wear and tear.

This thread is a friendly collaborative place for FReepers to analyze information and share opinons. FReepers have a wide variety of reasons for investigating Q Anon content; this is not the appropriate place to criticize or badger those who choose to use some of their time in this manner. I plan to post one thread at a time and ping new drops posted to it. When I post each (new) thread, the prior thread is retired and all new posts occur on the newest thread. If you are new to Q Anon, the three links below provide overviews to...

When was it, exactly, that petite Toyotas and stubby Hondas came to rule the American road? One milestone in the compact-car takeover dates back to the summer of 2009. Times were, as you’ll recall, pretty dark. The US economy was bleeding jobs. Trillions of dollars in wealth in stocks and home equity had been vaporized. People were clinging to what cash they had—and definitely not spending on cars. With sales nosediving, several flagship US auto companies were on the brink of ruin. And then came the great Keynesian experiment known best as “cash for clunkers.” Under the bipartisan program, the...

The New York Times is declaring that disgraced private equity mogul Steven Rattner has gotten his reputation back in the Manhattan lunch circles that matter. This was probably only a matter of time given that it was the Times itself that played a leading role in his rehabilitation. It’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, naturally, who pronounces the cleansing complete, even wondering aloud if Rattner could be a Treasury secretary someday. This about a guy who just two years ago paid $16 million to settle SEC and New York lawsuits against him for taking part in a kickback scheme with public officials...

Steven Rattner, a fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton and someone who was fined by the SEC, has a column criticizing Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina in The New York Times titled "Carly Fiorina Really Was That Bad." ... "Not mentioned by the Times is the fact Rattner was once President Obama‘s 'Car Czar' back during the Cash-for-Clunkers days. He’s also a major fundraiser for (drumroll…) Hillary Clinton." Rattner also paid $10 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 for alleged involvement in a New York State pension fund scandal. ... What’s next, Grey Lady? Can we...

“Cash for Clunkers,” the 2009 Obama administration stimulus program designed to spend $2.85 billion to jumpstart the auto industry, turned out to be a complete disaster — for the auto industry. In the minds of Obama’s team of advisers and economists, the program made total sense, of course. The plan was to dangle a $4,500 credit to persuade car owners to trade in their older automobiles for new cars with better fuel efficiency. It would stimulate an economy then in the midst of a deep recession. As a bonus, it would mean less oil consumption and cleaner-running cars. The law...

Back in 2008, economist Alan Blinder called the idea of a “cash for clunkers” federal rebate plan “the best stimulus idea you’ve never heard of.” But more and more analysis of the program suggests “cash for clunkers” will be a stimulus idea we’ll never hear of again. “Cash for Corollas: When Stimulus Reduces Spending by Mark Hoekstra, Steven Puller, and Jeremy West finds the programs merely pulled forward car sales from the subsequent seven to nine months and thus “had no impact on the number of vehicles sold.” This counters the Obama White House claim that “a substantial proportion of...

When the Obama administration first proposed its “cash for clunkers” plan in 2009, the reaction was generally favorable. Congress would spend $2.85 billion to encourage drivers to swap their old gas guzzlers for newer, more fuel-efficient cars. … But, as it turns out, the critics were on to something. A new analysis from the Brookings Institution’s Ted Gayer and Emily Parker found that the program was fairly inefficient as economic stimulus and mostly pulled forward auto sales that would have happened anyway. It also cut greenhouse-gas emissions a bit—the equivalent of taking up to 5 million cars off the road...