Damn the Man

When did congress lose their backbone? They are supposed to be leaders, representing the people. drafting useful legislation for the President's approval. Apparently what we have today though is a group of hypersensitive career politicians whose sole purpose is to keep their constituency happy and get reelected. They are not forward thinking leaders but rather reactionary drones determining their direction based on the Wonks at CNN, Fox and their never ending Polls. We need a new law that NO legislation can be passed during election years. Theres nothing worse than an election year and a drummed up crisis to drive congress into a frenzy of useless legislation. Lets be honest, people as individuals are generally rational and smart, but people en masse are idiots. This applies to the general population just as much as it does to our esteemed legislators.

Last week the House passed legislation to make price gouging a federal offense. Hear that? Thats the sound of gas prices falling, Thanks House of representatives! You have my vote! You're the best legislators money can buy..wait, thats not right.

I really don't understand this. Numerous government studies have held that retailers, refiners, and oil companies are not gouging the consumer. There will be no effect on prices, up or down from this vote. In fact, if the Congress was serious about lowering prices they ought to re-evaluate the 59 cents (average) per gallon of taxes, or the requirement to switch to ethanol additives last month. For the record, the oil companies “obscene” profits equate to about 10 cents per gallon. So big brother is getting 6 times what the oil companies get...hmmmm. Who's gouging the consumers again?

The question remains, why then has our esteemed House felt the need to pass utterly useless legislation when there are so many other important issues out there. (Out of control spending, the debt, Iraq, China and Iran for example). The fact that its an election year comes to mind. This is just another example of the hypersensitivity of the Congress to current events. I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't tackle important current issues. But they cant be afraid to NOT tackle certain issues, particularly when they are NON issues or issues out of their control! The only silver lining i see is that there are apparently at least 34 sane people in the house who did not vote for this legislation.

Actually the one Dem who didn't vote yes did so because he thought the penalties were to forgiving. So let me revise that to 33 sane people.

One other interesting tidbit. In the last 5 years regulatory personnel employed by the Fed has increased by 66,000 (33%). Fully 78,000 pages of regulations have been added to the Federal Register. I know i feel better knowing that there are 66,000 more regulators out there making sure my life is better. I can also commit that i will read those additional 78,000 pages so that i can live a proper life within said regulations.

Whats the real difference between Democrats and Republicans?

That's not a rhetorical question, i really don't know anymore.

System of a Down is playing as i write this...that might have something to do with my mood.

But alas, it's mothers day though and my mom always told me that if you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all. Come on Ma, thats no fun. So rather than not saying anything negative i'll say something positive to balance it out. Therefore i will now contrast the above negative ramblings with this positive news from Google.

The folks out there in California have just announced three new search tools which are of course, free to all; Google Trends, Google Co-Op and Google Notebook.

I gotta say, this company never ceases to amaze me. For the longest time i refused to use Google. I had a professor in college who i HATED who was always talking up Google for class research. It was for that reason alone that i never used Google until after i left school. I used this half ass competitor named Metacrawler. That was certainly my loss.

Of all of the three new products it's Google Trends that i find the most fascinating. Google Trends is essentially a free marketing research tool. Wanna know which electronics are the most popular? Want to know where consumers donate most of their charitable giving? Its all there, free to all. Marketing research firms are gonna have a hard time competing with this. You know what, that's not even accurate to contain this by calling it marketing research. It's free data on consumer trends that is pulled for the users from the searches performed by fellow users. At its core, it's access to Googles database (i'm not much of a technodweeb..but as i read the WSJ article, thats how i understand it). As an example of the usefulness of this think for a moment the power this will give smaller companies and entrepreneurs. Those companies with no way to research consumer trends on a macro (or even micro) level now have direct information on consumer trends from the biggest search engine in the world. Global information. Are you looking to start selling your widget in Mexico? See what consumers like in Mexico. Want to know if the Chinese like the clapper? Do Italians prefer boxers or briefs? Check it out. Talk about leveling the playing field.

It's difficult to fathom the effect this will have. Predictions about Google seem to always fall short of the eventual reality so i certainly wont attempt a prediction here. God forbid the government ever got a hold of Googles databases though. It's really no wonder China an other Protectionist regimes are afraid of Google.

The Case Build?

Short post... Today, the Financial Times had an article about increasing Iranian aggression towards the northern Iraqi Kurds. It was a page 3 or 4 article and only about a 4 or 5 paragraphs...but the first thing i thought when i read it is the ground work is being laid for a military action against Iran. Afterall, we have to protect our new ally Iraq.

This might be Rush Limbau'esque "see i told you so" insight, or i could be way off base. Time will tell.

Dead Dinosaurs and Political Fools

There's nothing like some expensive Texas Tea to get the population and politicians in a tizzy. Nothing pisses me off more to listen to people whine about gas prizes and then jump into their Expedition to drive 1 block and get some milk. Can Bush lower gas prices? Sure, if he lowers taxes on gasoline. (I would fully support this based on the simple fact that we are already taxed to death. Literally.) Would a windfall profits tax reduce prices? Get real, the companies would pass it on to consumers because it doesn't address the fundamental problems. The profits are not out of line based on historical or industry benchmarks. Besides they will need that money if anyone ever wises up and allows them to build some new refinery's. The simple fact is that the US government and the US population have, over time, done this to ourselves.

NIMBY. Not In My Backyard. If you haven't heard this than you are living in a hole. This acronym refers to people who consistently challenge things because of the proximity to their house. Think new refinery's, nuclear power plants etc. The US hasn't allowed companies to build a new refinery in decades. This leads to an inflexible supply that cannot keep up with increasing demand. I cant believe I'm about to say this, but we ought to look to France here who uses nuclear power for most of it's energy requirements. It can be safe. Give it a chance people.

China. These same corporations that must keep their refinery's at 100%+ (when hurricanes don't destroy them) capacity to meet demand must also compete with China for crude oil, and China's not going anywhere.

California gas vs. NY gas. The EPA has made it so complex to produce gasoline that California has different gas than NY (for example). In addition, different seasons require different gases. Is this easy to accomplish? Easy is irrelevant, it can be accomplished at a cost which is passed on to consumers.

If you want to scare an environmentalist, suggest that oil isn't really a fossil fuel at all. Consider for a moment the logic behind this “science”. Rotting dinosaurs somehow transform into crude oil over time. Hmm...people are made of similar compounds, can we start pumping from cemeteries? Come on. Besides, how did all those dinosaurs get so far down in the earth? The fact is that the scientific community does not know where oil comes from but there are, of course, lots of theories. Whats more likely, dead and rotting organic matter transforms into oil or simple compounds deep within the earth are transformed into oil just as they are into other similar compounds (natural gas, coal, sulfur etc.).

If you really want to scare an environmentalist, point out that some old oil wells that were previously pumped dry are actually filling back up.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/crispin8.html

Oh my god, oil may actually be a renewable resource. You mean we don't need to all drive cars powered on corn? (which by the way, is an incredibly inefficient use of resources from a total life cycle standpoint. )

Gas prices are still not at all time highs and oil will not dry up anytime soon. I think news organizations are dusting off news pieces used in the 70's because the same rhetoric is seen today. The oil economy is here to stay for the foreseeable future. My kids and maybe even their kids will still be living in a world that is largely powered by oil or similar compounds (natural gas). Hydrogen is a sexy alternative that gets allot of press. But is anyone really in a hurry to drive around in a car with a pressurized hydrogen tank in it? Can anyone say, Hindenberg?

The logical next section here would be on “Global Warming” because that is, afterall, what much of the kerfuffle over the oil economy is about. But I'll save that for another day. It sure was a cold winter here.