At last, a real effort to bring the oil speculators to heel.
Here is the background on the SPR and a story from US News on the release of 30 million galleons of petroleum to the commercial market from our current pool of 727 million gallons. Other countries also released another 30 Million gallons from their reserves.
The US release amounts to only 4.1% of our current government owned petroleum pool. What it portends has created a storm among the financial speculators and others profiting from high oil prices. This is finally an aggressive first step toward bringing stable and reasonably predictable prices to the petroleum market. It is great news for the preponderance of businesses for which petroleum products are important costs. It could be a God send for small businesses, manufacturers, the transportation sector, and the economy in general. All of these industries have been hurt badly by the volatility of petroleum prices. The release is bad news for the financial institutions that make hugh profits by speculation in petroleum prices. It reduces the influence of OPEC and is hated by the American Petroleum Institute. .
The puppet media, bought congressmen, and the financial speculators that gain by making the market volatile are screaming about government interferences with their game. Somehow it is fine for government bailed out members of the financial sector to buy and hold tankers filled with petroleum for a higher price but it is terrible for the government to do something to lower the price to the economy and the citizens.
This release was done by Presidential memo. If congressional approval was required it would not have had a chance against the special interest lobbying.
Operated carefully we can begin to get value from our 80 billion dollar investment that is now sitting idle in salt domes. If the price of petroleum would surge to a high price for reasons other than pure supply and demand a small amount of petroleum will be injected into the market to bring it down. That petroleum would be replaced in the reserve when the market returns to a lower price. The average amount in the reserve for emergency use would stay the same while the volatility of the market would be checked. There would be room for true business based hedging but no profit in wild speculation on price. This will remove a major financial risk to businesses. It is a good thing and if not derailed its’ effects will reverberate though the economy.
You can expect a major effort by the special interests to derail this. As I finish this post CNN is reporting on my TV on the decision to release the 30 million gallons. The newscaster claims that “the business community” complains that we should not release this small amount oil because it was “there for an emergency”. What a red herring! Who is this “business community?” Obviously a very select group of petroleum sellers and financial speculators. The newscaster did admit that other countries were also doing releases from their reserves.
You will be hearing lots of twisted logic from these self interests. Don’t believe them. They are not friends of the American citizens and definitely not trying to help with the recovery.
Showing posts with label special interests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label special interests. Show all posts
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Nation’s Outrage Explodes as the Secondary Effects of the Financial Meltdown Hit a Stressed Middle Class
The turmoil and suffering due to the recession still has a long way to run. We are just reaching the states revenue shortfalls. There are still those millions of bad mortgages that are cleverly hidden in the bank books. Many states have decided that the trouble will be placed on teachers, other public workers and unions. It is ridiculous to assign the burden of the state’s shortfalls to an already stressed middle class while those who caused the problem remain untouched. There is not even a veneer of justice in this approach.
Pass a law which places all of the financial burden on the middle class workers, allows state assets to be sold without competition, cancel essentially all collective bargaining rights for teachers or other state workers , and finally add a number of additional insults to the people who do the states work - and you have Wisconsin. You also have one heck of a state protest which has exploded into a nationwide movement. You can be brought up-to-date on the 4 week struggle here.
The Wisconsin protests that initially shocked so many because of their size were driven by the lack of justice and the obvious attempt at union busting. The newly elected Wisconsin senate and governor were blatant in their disrespect to those whom they were supposed to manage through a difficult year. It was insulting to watch the attempts of the new Wisconsin government to place the burdens for revenue shortfall to the teachers, firemen, and police, and other government workers rather than on the poorly managed national financial institutions where it belongs.
The protests continue to grow. A recent protest on March 12 in Madison was estimated by the police at 85,00o to 100,000. This is more that the largest Tea Party event.
There is a call for a new party that would correct the current situation. Robert Reich would call it the “Peoples Party”. Another solution that has been brought up has the shortfalls being mitigated by fines on those institutions responsible for the meltdown. Michael Moore calls for stricter measures in that many of those who caused the recession are thieves and should be arrested.
Although so far the protests have been very peaceful, you can sense that the patience is getting thin. Recalls are being prepared for many of the state senators who voted for the bill. As a constantly lied to class there is no confidence in a federal government that cannot pass a basic budget and is living off a two week fiscal extension. The middle class needs to see proof that the cozy government /special interests relationships at both the state and federal level will be either radically changed or replaced by just and honest organizations.
Let’s hope that this assurance will be forthcoming and/or everything is settled at the ballot box in 2012.
Pass a law which places all of the financial burden on the middle class workers, allows state assets to be sold without competition, cancel essentially all collective bargaining rights for teachers or other state workers , and finally add a number of additional insults to the people who do the states work - and you have Wisconsin. You also have one heck of a state protest which has exploded into a nationwide movement. You can be brought up-to-date on the 4 week struggle here.
The Wisconsin protests that initially shocked so many because of their size were driven by the lack of justice and the obvious attempt at union busting. The newly elected Wisconsin senate and governor were blatant in their disrespect to those whom they were supposed to manage through a difficult year. It was insulting to watch the attempts of the new Wisconsin government to place the burdens for revenue shortfall to the teachers, firemen, and police, and other government workers rather than on the poorly managed national financial institutions where it belongs.
The protests continue to grow. A recent protest on March 12 in Madison was estimated by the police at 85,00o to 100,000. This is more that the largest Tea Party event.
There is a call for a new party that would correct the current situation. Robert Reich would call it the “Peoples Party”. Another solution that has been brought up has the shortfalls being mitigated by fines on those institutions responsible for the meltdown. Michael Moore calls for stricter measures in that many of those who caused the recession are thieves and should be arrested.
Although so far the protests have been very peaceful, you can sense that the patience is getting thin. Recalls are being prepared for many of the state senators who voted for the bill. As a constantly lied to class there is no confidence in a federal government that cannot pass a basic budget and is living off a two week fiscal extension. The middle class needs to see proof that the cozy government /special interests relationships at both the state and federal level will be either radically changed or replaced by just and honest organizations.
Let’s hope that this assurance will be forthcoming and/or everything is settled at the ballot box in 2012.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Our Moral Obligation and a Total National Restoration Plan
The bean counters correctly complain about the financial deficit we are creating while attempting to end the recession. But because they are bean counters they have only one solution—maniacal cost cutting. It is driven by their DNA. Bean counters never lead to growth and expansion.
Cost cutting of wasteful spending is a valuable activity but it should not be done as an isolated task. Cost cutting alone, without wise investment of the savings; will only further shrink the already starved economy. It belongs as an element of an integrated national program where savings can be immediately put back into the productive work of our economy. The problem is that after all the time, suffering, and damage to our nations global position our two party elected government has still not developed such a plan.
The American vision contends that free people can productively govern themselves for the common good. No despots needed. This was a unique basis for a nation when the US was formed and the vision has been kept intact in America for 230 years. Sadly it is now at risk. We must not let the vision end with us. Like the Founders we must pledge our sacred honor to passing an intact America on to future generations. To fail would be a terrible legacy to leave our children.
We will never succeed with the existing approach of one by one attempts at underpowered solutions-followed by years of the parties blaming each other for failure. The citizens need to see an integrated program that reverses the self inflicted damage that was done to our interconnected financial, manufacturing, job creation,and trading systems. We have the talent to do this if we can free the process from interference by self serving special interests and the political parties. It will be an honest national restoration plan that the citizens can evaluate and support.
This is a complex undertaking because of the special interest opposition it will generate. Many of those who led us into the disasters are still in power and have benefited from our difficulties. They will fight against openness on past mistakes and the continual transparency of the plan’s execution to citizens.
It can succeed, however, if the majority of Americans feel strongly enough about the moral obligation to actively and honestly participate.
We must first gain an elected government, business sector, and population that agrees strongly with the moral obligation and the need for an integrated plan as a basis for action. Lots of details to work out but a primary characteristic is that it is citizen, not government, run.
This sounds like a job for that non-party, the Tea Party.
Cost cutting of wasteful spending is a valuable activity but it should not be done as an isolated task. Cost cutting alone, without wise investment of the savings; will only further shrink the already starved economy. It belongs as an element of an integrated national program where savings can be immediately put back into the productive work of our economy. The problem is that after all the time, suffering, and damage to our nations global position our two party elected government has still not developed such a plan.
The American vision contends that free people can productively govern themselves for the common good. No despots needed. This was a unique basis for a nation when the US was formed and the vision has been kept intact in America for 230 years. Sadly it is now at risk. We must not let the vision end with us. Like the Founders we must pledge our sacred honor to passing an intact America on to future generations. To fail would be a terrible legacy to leave our children.
We will never succeed with the existing approach of one by one attempts at underpowered solutions-followed by years of the parties blaming each other for failure. The citizens need to see an integrated program that reverses the self inflicted damage that was done to our interconnected financial, manufacturing, job creation,and trading systems. We have the talent to do this if we can free the process from interference by self serving special interests and the political parties. It will be an honest national restoration plan that the citizens can evaluate and support.
This is a complex undertaking because of the special interest opposition it will generate. Many of those who led us into the disasters are still in power and have benefited from our difficulties. They will fight against openness on past mistakes and the continual transparency of the plan’s execution to citizens.
It can succeed, however, if the majority of Americans feel strongly enough about the moral obligation to actively and honestly participate.
We must first gain an elected government, business sector, and population that agrees strongly with the moral obligation and the need for an integrated plan as a basis for action. Lots of details to work out but a primary characteristic is that it is citizen, not government, run.
This sounds like a job for that non-party, the Tea Party.
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