badbernanke

Even the Gas Crisis Needs a Culprit

Funny how basic economic theory kicks in when prices are high. All of a sudden alternative energy has the prospect of being cost-effective, possibly without giving away the farm on tax breaks like ethanol production.

And alternative energy has the prospect of converting demand for fossil fuels into demand for solar, wind and perhaps ocean tidal power. How is that a bad thing?

If I had to choose between paying the world's oil unfriendly robber barons (which are nations, not oil companies by the way) or paying domestic producers for energy, I'd take the domestic producer. That would arguably help US employment, cut trade deficits caused by oil prices and perhaps increase tax revenue from the profits which would inhere in the US -- right now, the profits are frequently either non-taxed foreign income or simply a transfer from US citizens to oil tyrannies.