It's the dollar, stupid.
![]() | The Washington Post today proclaim that “Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts.”. Now I’m not an expert, so maybe I’m just being stupid, but this doesn’t seem that complicated.
First 3 graphsWhat you see to the left is the dollar tracked over the last 12 months against The Euro, Oil and Gold and the British Pound. Focusing on the first three.. do ya see any similarities? The same amount of gold will buy the same amount of oil. The same amount of Euros will buy the same amount of oil.. so gas price hikes outside of the UK are a pretty disgusting gouging by someone.Graph 4This is the UK currency, the Pound against the dollar. This doesn’t match the other graphs at all, and that brings me to what prompted me to write this in the first place - an article by the BBC about the rising price of fuel in the UK.The VALUE of crude oil is not risingSo. Either I’m stupid, or the media is stupid. It’s very very easy to see, that the amount of value you have to exchange for a barrel of crude oil has been static for a year, but that’s going to mean more in terms of Dollars, because the VALUE of the dollar is plumetting. How long is it going to take for this country as a whole to start dealing with that reality?Crude oil as a currency is very stable |
Why McCain will be our next President and why that makes me mad.
I don’t post much in the way of politics on this blog, but I’m infuriated at the idiocy of “the system” here in the US.
I’m taking a break from reading the new Ron Paul book to post this, and it’s just incredible the difference between his positions and those of the current nominees.
I have to say now what I said back in 2004.. What are the democratic party thinking???
Put it this way. We have a country thoroughly dissatisfied with the Republican party, and what are the Dems putting up in response?
Either someone who a lot of people won’t vote for because she’s a woman, or someone that a lot of people won’t vote for because he’s black.
Go figure.
This is a NUMBERS game. The re-election of Bush in 2004 showed that. The majority of US voters don’t make educated voting decisions, and the media make no attempt to educate them about meaningful issues.
The person who wins a US election is the person that attracts the most sheep. The person who on face value ( because it doesn’t go deeper than that ) that the majority of the voting pool sees as somewhat like them. The person whose BS and rhetoric gels with the BS and rhetoric of the average uninformed citizen.
Sorry - that’s not a black guy, or a woman. It’s a old white guy whose sound bites carry sufficient charm to gloss over the fact that he hasn’t the slightest idea about global economics, and thinks that war is really cool.
It’s the old white guy who ticks all the boxes:
- Goes to church ( even though he’s endorsed by an Evangelical nutter )
- Is a war hero who suffered torture (even though he thinks that torturous sanctions against foreign nations is a pretty cool thing )
- Is white
- Seems like he knows what he is talking about ( which is ludicrous )
- Has an ‘I’m just like you’ air ( and he is if your wife is worth $100,000,000 and your friends are all Washington lobbyists )
Bottom line, I said it in 2004, and I’ll probably say it again, this country that I’ve chosen to live in is great - but I’m tired of dumbass people voting for dumb ass presidents who make dumbass decisions that are not reigned in by a bunch of dumbass congressmen that are more concerned about scoring points that looking after the interests the the people they are supposed to be protecting.
So, Mr and Mrs Average American. This is what you want?
Well if you find yourself unable to put gas in your car, to go buy a $6 loaf of bread because there’s no food in the house you are now renting from your bank, here’s the good news.. Voting for the black guy, or the white woman really wouldn’t have made that much difference anyway.
Although I’ve chosen to live here, and will continue to do so for the next few years, it’s a great relief that I have the choice to leave. I can take my family, get on a plane and live anywhere I want in Europe on either of my European passports.
It’s just a great concern to me the number of people who at that point will be sitting around in the US wondering what went wrong, and trying to work out who they can blame for it.
Government CAN move fast.. when it wants to.
I’ve just read about the $200Bn Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are being allowed to play with and have realized something that surprises me greatly.
“We the people” often think that things are the way they are because government is this monolithic supertanker of an entity that lacks agility, changes slowly, and almost requires an act of congress to get something done.. no wait - bad analogy - or should I say “touche” as we are talking about the Bush administration.
But here we are, on Wednesday and already:
- The FED have made billions available to Investment Houses like they would to banks
- Interest rates have been cut.. again
- The FED managed to overnight make an agreement to secure $30Bn of Bear Stearn’s assets to massage the buyout by JP Morgan
Look at the MAGNITUDE of the decisions made here.. in FOUR DAYS! Why can’t the government move this quick around situations when they aren’t getting their asses handed to them?
Ron Paul MLK Money Bomb thoughts
Well the Ron Paul hype has died down alot, and I think the people left are the hardcore supporters.
It has definitely been demoralizing recently. I think many of us were naively thinking that the right message is enough [In blind polls where the message not the person is polled, RP wins hands down.]
The press continue to ridicule, marginalize and at times blatantly ignore this man - but we can’t expect the marketing division of the system to help us over throw it.
Still - It’s a Ron Paul Money Bomb day, so I’m in. This man inspires me and I still think there is a chance. The media have the power to push and pull candidates fortunes, and so far we’ve seen the rise and fall of so many that they are running out of options.
While they will never push Ron Paul, they may run out of steam playing puppet master with all others and some reality might return to the process.




