“I don’t see an immediate relief,. But I do see that exploitation of existing reserves that may exist, and in the view of many experts that do exist off our coasts, is also a way that we need to provide relief. Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have a psychological impact that I think is beneficial.”
McCain’s argument is that speculators will magically drive the price of oil down when they learn that the federal government has opened up ANWR and other offshore drilling sites; in other words, treat the market like a crap shoot and hope things fix themselves. Here’s an idea: Why don’t we go after these irresponsible crooks and bring the price of oil down to it’s legitimate supply and demand level? In fact, according to experts, these people are directly responsible for artificially inflating gas prices to the extent that it’s costing Americans a half trillion dollars a year.
Gasoline should cost about $2.25 a gallon, and everything above that is ”funny money” largely tacked on by and manipulation, testified Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America.
”The speculative bubble in energy commodities has cost households about $1,500 over the past two years in increased costs for gasoline and natural gas,” said Cooper, estimating that the total cost to the U.S. economy has been more than half a trillion dollars.
$500,000,000,000 and all John McCain has to offer is “psychological” relief.
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Primero!!!
Ok…McBain has truly lost it!
McGrampa gets a beneficial psychological impact from his daily gallon of ensure and adult diapers.
Hey McSame! Nobody needs a frickin’ gimmick these days… they need well paying jobs and someone with some sanity (Obama) running the frickin’ country. You and your gimmicks have gotten you, a doddering old fool, lying sonofabitch into the running for president. Now that’s fucked up!! Lose the gimmicks and bow outta the race, loser!
How about psychologically capping the price rate of a gallon of gas or imposing a limited profit on oil energy, (how much profit per gallon) in time phases. This to thwart the speculators.
Then the oil companies and commodity speculators will be psychologically indifferent and the rest of America will be a bit more comfortable temporarily until something is done. Heaven forbid the oil companies have to participatein the U.S. economy.
Improving the value of the U.S. dollar would help my psychotic reaction to all prices.
Its a gimmick, not a plan… That ought to tell you something right there…
As for the logic of it… i.e. That speculators (always known for their humanity haha) will magically rachet down the price of a gallon of crude when they are informed that we’re going to dredge up from our coasts and hell, ANWR as well the two or three drops in the bucket worth of crude oil all that developing will amount to compared against the known reserves worldwide… And that this drop in the bucket won’t even come online for about 20 years??? Yea, right.. And right after that, the fucking tooth fairy is gonna visit us all and pass out lotto money just for the hell of it………………..Shove it McCain, I ain’t buyin this line either…..JD
Does this mean we can fill up our tanks with a psychological impact?
Psychological impacts are significant.
Politics is the art of manipulating such impacts.
It primarily affects the Consumer Confidence. Often it’s based primarily on hunches and feelings, but when the Consumer Confidence is published as an index it can have significant impact on the economy.
The problem is the costs, both monetary and environmentally in opening up for new drilling may not balance out the benefits.
And even if it did work temporarily, consumers would go back to their greedy way of over-consumption.
Go after the crooks? Are you insane, they’re the ones paying him to run for office! As they did George Bush. He’d be prosecuting the very people he needs to win the election.
Now I’m depressed.
Having a man with Alzheimer’s and an anger management problem in the White House would have a pretty big impact too.
It means you won’t have any cash left over for your couch therapy meetings to control your anger over the past 7 years of the greatest republican conservative economic implosion in history.
So when is the FTC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission going to investigate all the speculative trading by investment banks, hedge funds, institutional investors and other Bushies, who are superficially driving up oil prices? Just asking.
Okay he was just pandering and it was just a gimmick, but hey, did you feel better for two seconds? Okay then it was worth it to lie to Americans. So is this what four years of him would be like? My friends we won the war in Iraq. Okay, just kidding but it made you feel good for a minute, huh?
I’m thinking we just might not be able to trust this man on any one fu*king thing.
No wonder the MSM is howling about Senator Obama changing how he will finance his campaign. If they focused on all McCain’s screw ups they wouldn’t have time for anything else.
10 Jan Says: Having a man with Alzheimer’s and an anger management problem in the White House would have a pretty big impact too.
Ground zero?
But … But …. But …. My Friends but he was a POW
All it takes is reversing an energy bill from 2000 that allowed speculators to run amok.
Who’s got the testicular fortitude to do it?
Will Obama do it? Or will he cave in just like he did on FISA?
mmmm …… $1.50 /GAL .
15 JimboSlice Says: But … But …. But …. My Friends but he was a POW
He was a glyph in the old Batman TV show?
4 right on! Says: Hey McSame! Nobody needs a frickin’ gimmick these days… they need well paying jobs and someone with some sanity (Obama) running the frickin’ country. You and your gimmicks have gotten you, a doddering old fool, lying sonofabitch into the running for president. Now that’s fucked up!! Lose the gimmicks and bow outta the race, loser!
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No, we don’t want him to bow out.
would be have?
Ron @ 18:
Exactly, we have a few more months of this so let’s give him all the time he needs to prove that anyone with even parts of a brain needs to vote for Senator Obama.
Hey, can I make my condo payment with this sweet “psychological impact”? Guess I could try!!
POW’s are highly qualified in snuggling up to oil companies and wealthy families as the Bush’s.
The Vietnamese hold classes for their POW’s that when they are released they can be fruitful in society. Hanoi Hilton University is a well respected economic institute.
What’s really worrisome is that I don’t think he knows how bad he sounded when he admitted this.
It’s like telling a poor person to play the lottery because some day you might win and look how much fun you’ll have thinking about winning.
JudyLou @ 21:
Just tell your bank that some day you might make your payment and watch the psychological impact it will have on them.
I lived through a real gas shortage back in the 1970s. I remember every gas station in town being out of gas for weeks at a time.
If we really had a fuel shortage trust me YOU WOULD NO IT. The gas stations would be empty for weeks at a time.
I have not seen a single gas station run out of gas. I am willing to bet that none of you have seen a gas station or a town run out of gas.
These price hikes are all based upon LIES. The oil companies are using the same computer models to jack up prices that they used during the fake California Energy Crisis.
WE HAVE ALL BEEN HAD.
There is NO oil shortage. It is all a corporate lie. This is what happens when oil executives take over the White House.
Bush/Cheney don’t know how bad they sound and are either…
“Psychological impact…”
That’s what you call it when you back your car over reason and logic.
Granted, that was a pretty bad joke…
See what happens when drilling in allowed in Alaska and off our pristine coasts and big oil screws up? Ruling just in by the Big Oil Court http://www.reuters.com/article.....6720080625
About 1/2 day’s rake in for Exxon/Mobile. Yea, that’s show em!
Somebody please just flush the toilet. The shit is getting deep.
JimboSlice @ 15:
He also acted in several of their commercials.
Is it me or did the last two C&L headlines have typos?
Jo @ 29:
It’s clogged up with gimmicks. Call a plumber quick
Hey asshole! I’m not married to a beer heiress/junkie and “psychological impact” isn’t edible. Nor will it fill my tank. So guess where your “impact” can go??
Now all that’s needed is for some scientist to devise an engine that can run on psychological impact.
How about if McCain offers another cash prize for finding a way to squelch the psychological impact of the Conservative ecomonics. You know like a pill to cause frontal lobotomys. That way were all happy no matter…….
Speculators are not the problem, despite what McCain, Bush, Obama, or anyone else says. The problem is increasing demand and the limited ability of suppliers to meet that demand. Check out Krugman for more on the economics or The Oil Drum for more on peak oil.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
sodium @ 36:
You are quite simply wrong. When pension funds buy up oil futures, with no intent of using the actual oil, and then sell it for more than they paid for it, it has an effect on price. I suggest you study the facts.
Furthermore, the Fed has about 50% more dollars to pass around since the beginning of the Bush administration. They had 6 Trillion (national debt) in 2000, and now have 9 Trillion. That’s a 50% increase, and anyone who knows anything about economics knows that more dollars chasing the same number of goods will result in price inflation.
Thank you Epinnoia @ 38. Speculators are the problem.
I would bet that organizing truckers and motorists to strike on a particular day of the week, let’s say Monday’s throughout the remainder of the year or until the prices drop. If everyone stopped driving and blockades of organized civil resistance were employed, then we would have some psychological impact.
But then hahahhhaaa bwahhaahaaaa hooooeeeee wtf am I thinking? People would have to care and be willing to take action as if habeas corpus or the Constitution were threatened or we were to start torturing people, or limiting your rights or ability to travel, and you know, take to the streets and do something civil, yet disobedient or …or….aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh fu*kit! Ain’t gonna happen. Shit………………………..
ysbaddaden @ 8:
One psychological impact he is probably considering that it will fool his base into sticking with him.
It’s this sort of thinking on McCain’s part that should worry a whole lot of Republicans. You know they cringed when he said this.
32 pissed off patricia Says: Jo @ 29:
Somebody please just flush the toilet. The shit is getting deep.
It’s clogged up with gimmicks. Call a plumber quick
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I think some of Nixon’s are still available.
McBush is showing way too many signs of the psychological impact of his detainment in N Vietnam!
41 Weaseldog
One psychological impact he is probably considering that it will fool his base into sticking with him.
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It’s an outhreach to disaffected republicans
And undecided independents.
Listening to or reading rebubliscum lies is a real mind-fuck. Is that a psycho-sexual impact?
Epinnoia @ 38:
I think you’re wrong in believing that only one factor is at play here.
Speculation wouldn’t work to drive prices so high if we had a supply glut.
All of these factors reinforce each other to drive prices higher.
The only single factor that can be changed to bring the price down, would be to dramatically reduce demand. And that would really hurt us.
We will bitch and argue over our pet reasons why the price keeps rising, and our politicians will continue to use these varied reasons to divide us. And prices will continue to rise until demand destruction begins snowballing.
Get ready.
Speculation IS NOT THE PROBLEM- it is a scapegoat and a ridiculous one at that. Speculators have absolutely no incentive for wanting oil high for the sake of it being high.
Blaming speculation and “the market” is ridiculous- people seem to forget about supply and demand- and I’m not even talking about oil in that regard.(Demand has not gone up enough to warrant the current price of oil)
The supply of US dollars is way too high thanks to the Federal Reserve- a super-regulatory institution that regulates the money supply- and is therefore the most powerful interference in the economy and the market. The Federal Reserve has put out so many dollars(to pay for all our domestic and foreign programs[wars]) that it has caused inflation due to a weak dollar. This is the true reason for oil’s dramatic rise in price.
Why ignore the fact that when oil is measured in terms of Gold, which is a stable currency, that its price has remained relatively stable? That shows you right away the impact of the US dollar on oil prices. Speculation, Oil companies, OPEC- they are all scapegoats and people need to stop focusing on them and focus on the true cause of our problems. Oil supply dwindling will happen eventually, but that’s not the reason for the current rise in prices.
C&L has smart people but for some reason never focus on the Federal Reserve institution. They did infact create the housing bubble(and VERY predictably, bubbles burst when they are artificial), but keeping low interest rates to stave off the recession that should’ve happened after the dot-com bust- but what that really did was delay the recession and make it even worse. The government causes problems then arrests and blames every person on earth except them. As Peter Schiff put it- if a teacher gives a bunch of 5 year olds pixie sticks and then leaves the classroom for a halfhour, should we blame the kids for creating havoc? The Fed creates and gives out all this easy money to their friends at wallstreet- so of course malinvestment and collapses are going to happen. Too bad they also bail their wallstreet friends out at our expense.
Someone said today that independents were trending toward McCain. Why? If they are smart enough to be independents, why would they even consider voting for McCain?
46 Saint Augustine Says: Listening to or reading rebubliscum lies is a real mind-fuck. Is that a psycho-sexual impact?
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I often consider philosphy to be a form of intellectual onanism.
Sure it feels good, but what exactly is it good for?
Does it put beans in our pots or methane in our sphincters?
Who are these “experts”, and where do they come from john. I notice he never states any names when he says these type of things. Kind of like the typical GOP bloggers, no links..