johngonole

Cap-and-Trade: The Only Alternative to EPA's Power Grab?

One more link.

www.ethicalatheist.com...

Cap-and-Trade: The Only Alternative to EPA's Power Grab?

Socrateazz,

Careful the ancients knew the world was round. The very premise of your argument that a vast majority of medival people were stupid and held on to the belief that the world is flat is actually a myth. I first came to know this by watching a show on the history channel. The below links except for one are apolgia sites for christian and atheist groups. Setting that aside the history channel (or maybe discovery) show had portraits of Jesus holding the earth in his hands.....IT WAS ROUND that far predated Columbus. Anyway anyone that has ever gone to the beach can see the arch of the world on the horizon. It wasn't hidden knowledge. So while I agree with your overall premise how can you ever know ALL that you don't know.

www.ethicalatheist.com...
nabataea.net/flatearth...
www.bede.org.uk/flatea...
www.lewrockwell.com/wo...





On Aug 16 02:03 PM socrateazz wrote:

> Religion is right! Fools start to believe something and they will
> not give up that belief for any reason. The world was still Flat
> for up to fifty years after it was proved to be a sphere. But those
> in charge believed they were being buffaloed by fools. If you believe
> somebody has an dumb belief, check out the reasons for that belief
> and the reasons for your beliefs. You might have been propagandized
> and do not even know it. I agree Carbon dioxide is an invented fear
> for control purposes. And people like to control!

What's Driving Up the Price of Oil?

I agree that there is probably a lot of dollar hedging going on in the rising price of oil. The question is whether or not this is legit. We have been exporting dollars for some time. Now more dollars are being printed at home so we can continue export dollars. Dollars are required to buy oil. More dollars in circulation mean more are required per barrel of oil. More cars also equal more demand in the future. Thats the bull case for oil. On the otherhand if supply is increased to meet the increased deman than the supply increase may match that of the increase in dollars. The point is that industrialization of economics helps support our dollar. Who knows but I wouldn't bet against oil.

The Battle of the Forces: Reflation vs. Deflation

I'm just going to throw out an idea here. I haven't looked vetted this idea yet. Perhaps the solution would be to divert what capital we have left into improving our productive efficiency versus allowing the government to increase spending.

Lets face facts. Personal spending and business spending is slowing due to what is disposable versus the debt burden. The current solution is for govt. spending to increase to attempt to offset the resizing/right-sizing of the economy. The competitive pressure on wages from low wage overseas will continue.

Debt is too high and wages aren't going to explode anytime soon. In order to support wages and lower debt we need employment to improve and wages to at a minimum hold up. Govt deficit spending is risky because the spending must be invested in a way that will improve productivity and efficiency. The question can govt really do that very well.

Ron Paul was correct when he stated we must pull back our defense spending due to all the overseas operations. I would go one step further. We need to pull back on not only in spending on defense but many many other programs that produce nothing of value to the common man. We have universities full of professors who spend money in order to publish papers on research that in most cases in completely useless. Case in point is a study of the use of drugs in the rave scene in BRAZIL. If government spending doesn't produce something it needs to be seriously considered for a cut.

I propose huge government spending cuts. Hopefully so much that we could also get huge tax cuts while still balancing the budget. Or at least lower the deficit to realistic terms. The left over tax money would then be in the hands of people who know what to do with it. They can pay down their personal debts more quickly or invest it into improving productivity of their businesses. Both will help make us more competive.

I realize that at first glance the idea of the govt reducing spending is scary from a deflationary spiral standpoint. But the government is just as capable as the banks at pissing our money away into a black hole. That is really the problem. Capital has been misallocated for far to long in this country.

I would support realistic government research on real energy production. Ethanol is obviously not it. I think Geothermal, Nuclear are probably our best bet.

Whatever decisions are made. The only one that will work is the idea that improves our productivity. Afterall productivity is where real wealth comes from. There could be zero currency in exisitance and if we were all productive we would be wealthy.

60 Minutes on Oil: Did Anyone Verify Anything?

Long term oil is going to continue its uptrend for two reasons. First the cost to maintain oil reserves is going up and will continue to go up as the easy to get oil fields continue to deplete. Second is that the US government and the Fed are collaborating on a huge increase in supply of paper dollars which oil is traded with.

In the short term the ups and downs of oil price is controlled by speculaters speculating on the near future price of oil. Long term the realities of supply and demand will control the long term moving average. I think this is why oil suppliers are so slow to shift capital expenditures and drilling plans. In the late 90's oil plummeted and even with falling prices they were slow to respond. It makes sense to respond slowly since the oil futures swing so dramatically. Personally It would be interesting to see the inflation adjusted 200 moving average of oil. I'd expect to see it rise pretty steadily based on slowing rising demand and the increasing difficulty of extracting it from the ground.

I continue to expect US based oil supply to drop.

The Reverse Wealth Effect

Eagle Chief - the low hanging fruit has been picked in many areas of the world. The north sea is declining. Russia is declining. Many countries that used to produce oil no longer can. Many believe the world has reached peal oil production and production will decline slowly at first and then drop exponentially. Of course prices will slow the decline of reserves.

Icandoitdon - Agree speculation is way up. The printing of money forces people to speculate to preserve their purchasing power.

I believe that we are seeing stagflation. The global economy is holding labor prices in check in terms of real income adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile the government and the federal reserve are printing money to force interest rates lower. This is causing the inflation in just about everything but housing which is pretty much tapped out. Too many houses. In sum I believe the politicians and the bankers abuse the monetary system and its power to line their pockets. Low interest rates are caused by the expansion of the money supply. The expansion of the money supply is essentially the same as saying the expansion of obligations or debt (since it is debt that backs our paper money). The politicians gain a smoother economy in the short term and money to fund their social spending schemes and ear marks. The bankers take their cut of an ever enlarging pie of debt making them rich. Think about it we as citizens give the banks our purchasing power. They lend it out like 30 time over all the while taking a cut of it in term of interest. Depositers in essence bear the risk and are compensated nothing. If we don't deposit the dollars are still wiped out by the expansion of the money supply and th ensuing inflation. Alternatively we can invest in stocks, bonds, etc... Again however the same bankers/finacial firms take their cut. They bear no risk because the government is ready to use the power of taxation to bail them out.

This is ultimately the problem with Fascism and Socialism. Unfortunately the monetary policy failures continue to breed more and more people who are willing to entrust more power to the same persons holding them down.

The grip of power that the government and the Federal Reserve have over the purchasing power of the people (as well as being a monopoly) is so vast and lock tight it is scary. Spend your money or we'll spend it for you. Then we'll tax your assets. We'll tax your income. Perhaps this is the price we pay for living in the type of society we have but clearly their were times when we didn't have all this regulation and things worked out pretty much the same or better. They have the power to bankrupt everyone at will. The only checks on this system are pitch forks and shot guns. This could very well happen if they drive our economic system into the ground. Our economic realities are less and less dependent on free market allocation of resources and more and more on how the government decides to allocate resources. The public needs to be more mindful of this and DEMAND and end to corruption, a balanced budget, and less tinkering with the economy.

Donald Trump on Oil

Trump is a typical wallstreet thug. Build a house of cards. Sell stock and cash out before the house of cards falls down. Oh and sell more cards to the house of cards from your private business before the final crash.

Furthermore Donald Trump promoted real estate right up until the crash. Specifically he promoted residential as well. Got to make the sales when you can. To heck with the fact he knew it had to come down.

Regarding Oil. Donald Trump will often sound like the tough populist when it suits him. He serves only his self interest and his alone. Truth shall not get in his way. On politics he's even worse. He support both candidates, ride the fence, and then in the end say he knew how it would end all along.

The Donald will go bankrupt again. While I support bankrupcy laws to encourage risk taking its ridiculous when single persons can own lots and lots of mini corporations. Bleed one dry to support another then declare bankrupcy in one and not really lose a dime of his own money. This is how the Donald made his millions. He's not an investing genius. He is good at marketing his brand name but that is about it.