On 11/02/2014 10:17 PM, Lew Hodgett wrote:

Irrelevant noise removed

In inflation adjusted terms, gas continues to sell a prices not much different
than our grandparents paid. It's pretty much pure perception that gas
is expensive in the larger scheme of things.

The chain jerking continues.

Uh, no. This is called "market action". Crude is traded on global markets
and there is near realtime feedback on buy/sell pairings. Volatility is
not a sign of any "jerking". It is the sign of efficient markets and
price feedback mechanisms that are working.


Alternate energy anybody?

Oh yes, please. Lets spend billions to produce a product that works less
effectively than oil, isn't economically sensible, does not scale, and
only works when it is windy, sunny, and so on. Extra points if we can
soak our neighbors to underwrite the cost via taxation. Bonus round if
we can get politicians into place who flunked high school chemistry
and physics but who now propose to lecture us on how effective energy
policy might be undertaken. Sounds like a win-win all the way around.

We had this opportunity in the 1970s and 1980s when expansion of nuclear
was on the table. The same people that are today's champions of "alternative
energy" were on the front lines screeching about how bad nuclear was. Had
they not been there, we'd me more-or-less energy independent today.

Naw, let's jack up the price of the entire food chain with corn subsidies
instead ...