SteveB/Colorado

Why Obama's Economic Policies Are Failing

The author wrote: "develop domestic oil & gas...." This is easier said than done. As of June, 2008, before the recession hit, energy companies were sitting on over 67 million acres of undeveloped oil/gas leases; onshore, mostly in the West, and offshore (source: Republicans for Environmental Protection). In the last year, many wells have been capped and drill rigs idled due to the recession-caused drop in demand.

Out here, we also continue to hear the "siren song" that developing oil share will solve all our energy problems. There is also the criticism of the Interior Department for not doing more leasing of shale lands. However, there is no economically feasible way to develop that resource. Companies have tens of thousands of shale acres already in hand, between leased R & D acres & their own private land in Colo., Wy., and Utah. The companies are doing little to develop this land and Shell Oil had admitted it will be several years before they know if their current experiments will work.

In short, it's easy to say "drill, baby, drill." But not so easy to make it happen. Perhaps Dr. Morici should have done some additional background research.

Last Thursday Was the Bottom - It's Time to Get Back in

I'm not smart enough to predict a bottom. I've made a few modest changes in the portfolio and am now in a wait & see mode. Diversification counts: some stocks, bonds, oil/gas, international. I agree with the poster that this is only a temporary downward blip in oil prices. Yet, we see gas guzzler SUV sales beginning to creep upward again--we just don't learn.

One thing for sure: this meltdown is a Bush/Cheney legacy. Regardless of those who try to blame Clinton or even Carter, B/C have had nearly 8 years in office.

(disclosure: I'm a traditional conservative Republican proud that I never voted for B/C. Sometimes you just got to sit things out)