June 19, 2008

Reckless politicking

'Reckless wagering' wrecks your pension, reckons McCain. I guess that's not true if your pension is long Exxon or a commodity index fund, but insofar as American policies cause higher energy prices, then the guilty ones are :

1. No new nuclear power stations.
2. No drilling offshore, Tx and La excepted.
3. No development of shale oil deposits.
4. No drilling in ANWR.
5. No new refineries.
6. Liberals' private jets from Gore to Google.
7. Liberal flatulence from Gore to Moore. Farting from either end>co2>Global Warming apparently>aircon.
8. Political pressure to grant mortgages to unqualified applicants.

1-7 are obvious, but why mortgages? Well, thanks to the housing bust, Fed interest rates are 2% below inflation, rather more were inflation truly measured. That depreciates the dollar and inflates the dollar price of assets seen as an inflation hedge - that means the price of commodities, especially the dollar price. Theory and actual inspection show that speculation tends to dampen volatility and indeed price by giving a market depth and bridging the supply and demand incentives of today's high price into the future.

To re-cap: Liberal/RINO policies are to blame for America's energy predicament and let speculation thrive!

The inversion of economic reality into economic demagoguery implying further economic masochism deserves a name. Let's call it McCainsianism.