Gas Prices Set Off Record Levels of Whining.

I'm about to puke from all the whining about gasoline prices and oil company "price gouging".

America is apparently saying (in a most annoying voice) "Oh, mister oil company. Why, why are you giving us exactly what we asked for? Why are you giving us exactly what we voted for? Why?"

Well I'm here to tell all you whiners to shut up. You have voted, again and again, for "free enterprise"... for "market self regulation." That one always makes me laugh through my tears. Self regulation... good God. "Listen, all you bank robbers out there, could you just agree not to rob any banks or that, if you do rob one, you won't take too much money and won't hurt anyone? Thanks. We really appreciate your being reasonable about this."

So, here it is. This is the result of your (voters and people who COULD vote but don't) choices – or lack of will to make a choice at all. You want the government "off our backs?" You want "smaller government?" You want so-called "freedom?" You got it! Congratulations. Here's your prize: $4.00 per gallon OR MORE.

Meanwhile, the oil companies are raking in Billions with a capital B, and receiving billions more in subsidies from our tax dollars. That's freedom. God bless America.

Oh, and nice head-fake, too. For a while, I was almost convinced that the American people had sprouted brains where their giant egos once sat. After the last big gas-price hike, people started buying much more efficient cars and parking or selling their giant Tonka toys. But then, when prices started to settle a little and people got used to them, the SUVs started to re-appear.

Every time I see one of these I want to say to the driver, "Hey! Thanks! Thanks for using up twice as much gas as you need to and driving up the price for everybody. I hope you have room in there for your massive ego." It's interesting that driving one of these giant cinder-blocks is supposed to be a sign of success and supposed to make people look up to you. If someone in our house takes really long showers, leaving little hot water for anyone else, we call that person a self-centered prick.

What's most hilarious and depressing about this price situation is that now people are looking to the government, blaming Bush and now Obama, and asking why something isn't done. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: What's happening is NOT price gouging. The price is set by "free market" forces – the forces YOU have said (through your votes) that you trust to take care of everything. So now you want the government to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYS9CI3rFrQ

Go drown yourselves in your tears... they're cheaper than a gallon of gas. 

-Tom Rossi

Letter to Wilson Quarterly re: Robert J. Samuelson article

The following is a letter I wrote in response to an article by Robert J. Samuelson, "Rethinking the Great Recession," which appears in the Winter, 2011 issue of the Wilson Quarterly:
http://www.wilsonquarterly.com/article.cfm?AID=1768

Essentially, Robert J. Samuelson's article boils down to one simple idea: that this recession, like others, was caused by a somewhat cyclic period of unbridled enthusiasm. Samuelson presents two sides to the debate, those of the left and the right, and refutes each. However, Samuelson's rebuttal of the position of the left is contradicted by his own words.

While regulations did exist, without adequate enforcement, essentially there was no effective regulation. This is more than just an issue of semantics. If I suddenly decide that it's no longer permissible for people to wear a baseball cap with the brim turned to the side, so what? With little or no enforcement, it would be meaningless. It's also unimportant whether the failure of regulation is caused by regulators' lack of sufficient intelligence or foresight, or if it's caused by the weakness of the regulations themselves. The outcome is the same.

One needn't have a better grasp of recent history than the author to realize that the regulation of much of the financial industry was a mere phantom. Samuelson says it himself: “...many mortgage brokers were on loose leashes.” And “regulators should have spotted...” (emphasis added). But they didn't spot, they didn't stop, they didn't really even slow down much of the rampant orgy of risk-taking at all.

What this means is that Samuelson's conclusions are not supported by his rebuttal. We, as a country, have fallen down in the effective regulation of financial institutions and this falling down corresponds to the “instability” (as the author puts it) we are now experiencing. The last time that effective regulation was at levels comparable to say, 2007, was in the time leading up to the great depression.

Isn't the purpose of regulation to prevent not only acts of deliberate criminality but the unbridled enthusiasm Samuelson alludes to? Samuelson is correct in pointing out that economic cycles are inevitable and only misguided arrogance can lead us to believe that our government or free-market systems truly have control of them. But history has shown that, when regulation weakens, instability worsens.

-Tom Rossi

Copyright Thrustblog, 2011