TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL?
Peter LeGuillou
July 15, 2008
This week Pres. Bush made it clear that the obstacle to lower gasoline prices was the US Congress. He signed the order removing Executive Branch resistance or ban to drilling Off Shore. If John McCain passionately urges new drilling, he is likely to win the election this November. Prices at the pump will be much higher by then. I don´t see Obama going against the Democrat Congress re new drilling. Tapping the strategic oil reserve to ease the pain seems short-sighted, it will just cost much more to replenish and if higher prices mean this is an emergency, then so is the cost of milk. This is not a capital E emergency, yet. But Congress will probably wait until it is before it acts to develop alternative sources of energy. The money spent bailing out consumers and stimulating the economy would be better invested in wind, solar and coal-to-liquid technologies. Time is of the essence so what are we waiting for. McCain´s best tactic would be to ridicule the Democrats as being like dimwitted dinosaurs, slow to react creatively in times of danger. When I say Democrats, I include fringe environmental groups that sue to restrain oil refiners from expanding their capacity to produce gasoline. Birds of a feather, flock together.
The Democratic Congress cannot permit new drilling because it will upset a delicate market strategy by the investment and mortgage banking system to speculate on oil in the futures market. In order to pay off the bad mortgage subprime paper that is crippling the industry, cash has to be raised in some other arena. That arena is the oil futures pit and it is so easy to win there when you know that new oil supply will never occur. In other words, it´s a no-brainer. Wall Street contributes more money to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party.
I suspect that the general public will vote Republican in November, if Congress refuses to allow new drilling off shore. Instead of taking action to solve the energy crisis, Congress prefers to scheme to start a war with Iran. If a war does ensue, the Democrats will blame it on Pres. Bush after a safe amount of time has passed.
In the not to distant future, the government is going to come clean about the real reasons things are going wrong in America. I daresay government officials do not earn the fat salaries that they get, nor the untold perks that come with the job. Salaries should be performance adjusted. It concerns me that there is no competitor to the US government in a nation that prides itself on the competitive credo. The voters? Where are the voters? Much too complacent to vote, I think. But in reality, if the voters pay attention, they will be a positive force for government improvement and discipline. And dare I say it, competence.
Finally, shareholder losses in financial companies must be repaid as due diligence has failed them or has not been executed at all. Many pension funds and individuals´ retirement plans are in the balance. Most inopportune at a time when millions of Americans are about to retire. The money for this might come from a tariff on imports. I don´t think it should come from printing yet more fiat dollar currency. Other sources of funding include the return of severance and bonuses from former executives of major banks and investment houses.
Bernanke said in March of 2007 that the subprime mortgage bad debt issues would be contained within a small sector of the banking industry. He would have never made that statement if he understood the astrology of business cycles.
Astrology is the single most neglected resource until major problems happen. I expect to see more and more leaders turning to astrologers for guidance in these troubled times. But they had better move fast because the clock is ticking down and the time bombs will continue to go off. The first quarter 2010 is bad news for the entire economy, unless meaningful conservation of fossil fuel is implemented along with creative energy production. The United States would be wise to construct MORE Strategic Petroleum Reserves, not drain what presently exist. And wise to construct them regionally. The notion of cutting imports by x percent in 2025 is absurd. We don´t have that much time.
The next big disaster will be in the Western US States. It´s going to take a lot of energy to keep the Western US from falling apart about 4 years from now. Is the government up to yet one more catastrophe? Will Congress snap out of it? Will alternate energy services, like T. Boone Pickens wind-electric towers, get built in time? That is the question.
The Democratic Congress cannot permit new drilling because it will upset a delicate market strategy by the investment and mortgage banking system to speculate on oil in the futures market. In order to pay off the bad mortgage subprime paper that is crippling the industry, cash has to be raised in some other arena. That arena is the oil futures pit and it is so easy to win there when you know that new oil supply will never occur. In other words, it´s a no-brainer. Wall Street contributes more money to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party.
I suspect that the general public will vote Republican in November, if Congress refuses to allow new drilling off shore. Instead of taking action to solve the energy crisis, Congress prefers to scheme to start a war with Iran. If a war does ensue, the Democrats will blame it on Pres. Bush after a safe amount of time has passed.
In the not to distant future, the government is going to come clean about the real reasons things are going wrong in America. I daresay government officials do not earn the fat salaries that they get, nor the untold perks that come with the job. Salaries should be performance adjusted. It concerns me that there is no competitor to the US government in a nation that prides itself on the competitive credo. The voters? Where are the voters? Much too complacent to vote, I think. But in reality, if the voters pay attention, they will be a positive force for government improvement and discipline. And dare I say it, competence.
Finally, shareholder losses in financial companies must be repaid as due diligence has failed them or has not been executed at all. Many pension funds and individuals´ retirement plans are in the balance. Most inopportune at a time when millions of Americans are about to retire. The money for this might come from a tariff on imports. I don´t think it should come from printing yet more fiat dollar currency. Other sources of funding include the return of severance and bonuses from former executives of major banks and investment houses.
Bernanke said in March of 2007 that the subprime mortgage bad debt issues would be contained within a small sector of the banking industry. He would have never made that statement if he understood the astrology of business cycles.
Astrology is the single most neglected resource until major problems happen. I expect to see more and more leaders turning to astrologers for guidance in these troubled times. But they had better move fast because the clock is ticking down and the time bombs will continue to go off. The first quarter 2010 is bad news for the entire economy, unless meaningful conservation of fossil fuel is implemented along with creative energy production. The United States would be wise to construct MORE Strategic Petroleum Reserves, not drain what presently exist. And wise to construct them regionally. The notion of cutting imports by x percent in 2025 is absurd. We don´t have that much time.
The next big disaster will be in the Western US States. It´s going to take a lot of energy to keep the Western US from falling apart about 4 years from now. Is the government up to yet one more catastrophe? Will Congress snap out of it? Will alternate energy services, like T. Boone Pickens wind-electric towers, get built in time? That is the question.
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