Fair enough.

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"He taught by example that part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views."

--Melissa Lane, The Guardian; obituary for philosopher of science Peter Lipton.

Farewell Eddy Arnold...Make the World Go Away...

MAGIC THEATER
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
FOR MADMEN ONLY!

It takes a ton of heat (mostly from natural gas) to extract those resources and I think that natural gas prices are going to escalate, esp with more restrictions on Iranian gas and lack of investment in Russian gas.

It seems these days that the only type of power generation that isn't opposed is natural gas - I am worried that we are becoming very overdependent on one type of fuel that comes from rather unfriendly nations.

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City air makes free.

And why are they unfriendly?

Because we made them that way.....

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“Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through." Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)

Yes there is a place where you wont be treated like a child.

Why I am voting Democrat!

I thought it started when farmers were angling for devaluation (the silverites) because decades of deflation that benefitted the urbanization of America had taken its toll on farmers.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS...rss_topstories

This is one very similar I grabbed from 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102700449.html

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Those who count the votes decide everything." - Josef Stalin

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of course, the value of the dollar has dropped precipitously so those are paper profit increases, not necessarily real profit increases.

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on the price of oil and gasoline, here is an interesting piece that explains where the price rise may be coming from. You can read it all or you can listen to the radio conversation:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/d...9/bush_moon_q/

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9/14, quote on elections, because shosh had to put up that thoughtful writeup on mediocrity and elitism:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." — H. L. Mencken

It's a combination of factors creating the perfect storm. Supplies are indeed tight as excess capacity is getting constricted further and further because of maturing oil wells in Mexico, Kuwait and Saudia Arabia and the rise of China and India. Wait until more Chinese and Indians start driving. The Indian Tata car will really pinch supply even futher once mass produced and purchased. Is it any wonder why we're filling up our strategic reserves like crazy...

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008...-cheapest-car/

Combine this with war, insurgent acts in Nigeria etc, speculation in oil futures, weak dollar and aging infrastructure (rigs out at sea and refineries) and we really have a mess on our hands.

As far as the dollar getting stronger because the Fed is signalling it will stop cutting rates well tell that to our creditors and suppliers...


Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

Iran dumps U.S. dollar for oil trades

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS....ap/index.html

interesting. (of course, the value of the dollar is off substantially more than 10% now) but what appears to be at work is more fundamental...it's inflationary monetary policy. A sure sign of excess liquidity (a nice phrase for inflated money supply) is rampant speculation as people scramble to find places to invest their cash. in our case, it has gone from tech stocks to mortgages to commodities, causing massive price increases in each. the "excess liquidity" is what has kept borrowing rates low and encouraged consumers to borrow and spend rather than save, thus exacerbating the trade deficit. This has been going on at least since the clinton administration and one coudl argue that our economy has been driven by the money supply expansion since FDR. there are those that argue that driving the economy using monetary expansion will result in eventual collapse as institutions adapt and expect the changes...the economy eventually can't outpace the decline in value of its currency & the resulting misallocation of capital. With regards to oil, if that money come out of futures, it will have to go somewhere and with interest rates set below inflation, you can bet it will go into another asset class. In other words, investors seem to be betting that oil is a good hedge against currency declines (or, betting that the 40% decline in the dollar is only the beginning) and provide a better return than such stodgy and heavily taxed investments such as dividends and interest bearing securities.
here's an interesting read about french currency exploits that isn't unrelated
http://books.google.com/books?id=jSt...with-thumbnail

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