Barack Obama’s understanding of how our economy works could fit on the inside flap of a cheap bar room match book cover. Yes, I am painfully aware that this statement may be way too generous in my estimation of the President’s qualifications here. What worries me more is the fact that he does not seem at all interested in associating himself with economic advisers that have any more of an understanding than he does. What he is good at unfortunately, is fixing blame, deflection, fabrication, straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, non sequiturs, and just generally the worst elements of being a politician as exists in the world today.
Today’s scapegoat dujour is the vile creature known as the speculator. Never mind my gentle snow flakes that Barack Obama actually campaigned on a platform of causing gas prices to increase to levels generally associated with Europe, around $7 to $8 per gallon. It seems as though many Americans were not familiar with that particular campaign pledge, as it was completely ignored by the main stream media. Never mind that without gas prices hitting that level, the moronic green economy agenda will remain a joke to most Americans with at least two functioning grey matter cells in their heads. Without those subtle price signals to force Americans to consider horse drawn wagons a viable alternative form of transportation, it seems as though oil, gas, coal, and propane will remain the consensus number one choice for fulfilling our energy needs.
Having the gas prices spike as promised, due to the market manipulation so expertly inflicted by the EPA, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and the Obama White House itself may not have been the best thing electorally for a President with not one single positive accomplishment to his credit, just when his reelection bid is starting to heat up. He has already tried to blame big oil executives, Wall Street, the Jews, we the actual people, and almost everyone else in the world. Earlier this week, he returned to a previous theme, and turned his attention to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Commodities Speculators are this week’s bogey men.
In case nobody has ever explained it to you, speculators play an important role in how commodities arrive in our market place. Every time you go to the grocery store, and you are able to purchase your groceries, pretty much what ever you are willing to buy for the prices set, thank a speculator. These important members of the supply chain insure that the supply of what ever you wish to purchase is seldom if ever interrupted. Yes it is true that they are capable of making a lot of money doing that, but it is also true that they are capable of losing a lot of money. At the same time, think of life for just one moment without them. The price we pay for their services insures that we do not face shortages in what ever commodity we are buying at any given moment in time.
During the days of the former Soviet Union, the Soviet Citizens would purchase toilet paper by the closet full when ever it would be available at the local stores. The reason for such seemingly bizarre behavior of course was that as a commodity, the supply was far from certain. While the price was fixed, and extremely cheap, it was seldom available to the consumer. As a result, when it did arrive, people bought all they could fit into their government provided homes, and hoped it would last long enough to see them to the next time that particular commodity made its way to the market place. During the 1970′s, our political geniuses decided to interfere with the energy markets, to keep we little people from paying too much at the pump. The result of course was a shortage that saw all of America being able to purchase gasoline only on days designated by the last digit on a vehicle’s licence plate. Even on those days, we often had to wait in lines that stretched for miles.
It might seem counter intuitive, but the cure for high commodities prices is an unfettered market and, wait for it, high commodities prices. As gas prices go up, people will drive less, and producers will make more of what they are being paid so well to make in the first place. By vilifying that segment of the market, which by the way stands between us, and a massive oil shortage, Barack Obama and his staff are accomplishing nothing but making things worse. Making things worse is what he intends to do by the way, he just doesn’t want you to understand that. Before jumping on the band wagon which would seek to single out any class of American as someone to hate, think for just one moment about the consequences that you may be advocating for. When you go to your store, you not only can purchase toilet paper each and every time you go, and in a quantity that is sane, but you have a variety of choices available to you. Several dozen brands with all sorts of differences in price and quality, differences in the sizes of packages. It’s not only toilet paper, but orange juice, meat, coffee, and yes, even gasoline. Rounding up the speculators and chasing them from our shores will put an end to all of that. If there is one thing I know about my fellow American citizens, it is that we like having our lives with a certain amount of convenience. Most of the time, when we realize that convenience is reason for the extra we pay, we are more than willing to pay that price. Just think of speculators as people who provide the convenience of your gasoline always being available, when ever you actually need to purchase your gas.
Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Oil Speculators
Sorry to go OT so soon but the TSA went crazy again!!!
Obama has no more understanding of economics than my dog does.
Subsidizing student loans doesn’t “make college more affordable,” it causes tuition to go up.
Raising taxes on oil companies isn’t going to cause gas prices to go down, either.
Too bad there’s nobody in the media willing to call him on this obvious BS.
@ lobo91:
I also like how he doesn’t blame the clleges for tuition going up. They have gone up faster than inflation by a long shot yet what are the colleges doing with that money. Also, not everyone should get a college degree. And I am sure most of us have seen people with degrees who were dumber than a bunch of rocks. And it helps to get a degree in something useful. Peace Studies is NOT useful.
If he had a son ……..
lobo91 wrote:
Why you insult your dog like that? I’m sure she understands economics better than Obama does. She understands the dynamic of peanut butter filled pretzels, she demands them, you provide them, no you, no peanut butter filled pretzels-not good…
@ lobo91:
Actually your dog has a better understanding! She kisses you for a hug. She shows affection for food. She barks to alert you and you provide shelter for her. So you dog has a better grasp on economics than the Pharaoh.
As per last thread, this is what College education has bought!
@ MikeA:
The reason prices are going up is because the Government subsidizes loans. Sound familiar?
@ Rodan:
Part of the reason but colleges are also spending money on silly things. Stossel had a special on it a few weeks ago. One college had this indoor jungle and climbing walls, etc… Like we need this to learn?
@ MikeA:
I saw that! Colleges had spas, high end restaurants houses. For what? Its really a racket.
Let’s all sing of Michelle, shall we?
Just got this video link and it fits this post perfectly!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I’d rather not think of Michelle Antionette, but she is there, everywhere, in our face and angry! She is quite the piece of work, isn’t she?
This is good news:
Geeze, if the Administration’s lost Sontomayor, they are well and truly screwed! I hope we see ObamaCare thrown out and Arizona supported. Obama will run against the Court, but if that didn’t work for FDR, it probably isn’t going to work for him.
@ Iron Fist:
This will be a huge blow to the Pharaonic regime.
Iron Fist wrote:
I so wish she had phrased that, “Verrilli, I say unto you…”
@ Iron Fist:
She is Nefertiti, the god-queen!
@ MikeA:
Yep just watched that a couple of days again via my son.
Part 1
Rodan wrote:
Well, Neferbuttocks…
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I doubt she’s sharp enough to think of that…
Part 2 (about colleges)
@ Rodan:
That is downright mean of you! You must be an American. She hates Americans. Downright mean people…
@ buzzsawmonkey:
@ Iron Fist:
Yes I am heretic! How dare I offend the wife of our glorious Pharaoh!
@ Iron Fist:
Just read an article that even if obamacare doesn’t pass…the obamacare collapse would put employers in charge.
Scare tactio’s by the media???
http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-collapse-put-employers-charge-152907048.html
— Increasingly, smokers will face financial penalties if they don’t at least seriously try to quit. Employees with a weight problem and high cholesterol are next. They’ll get tagged as health risks and nudged into diet programs.
— Some companies will keep the health care law’s most popular benefit so far, coverage for adult children until they turn 26. Others will cut it to save money.
— Workers and family members will be steered to hospitals and doctors that can prove that they deliver quality care. These medical providers would earn part of their fees for keeping patients as healthy as possible, similar to the “accountable care organizations” in the health care law.
— Some workers will pick their health plans from a private insurance exchange, another similarity to Obama’s law. They’ll get fixed payments from their employers to choose from four levels of coverage: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Those who pick rich benefits would pay more.
@ Iron Fist:
check yer mail please.
Flyover this is an excellent piece of work. Well done. May I add that Eric whats-his-name and Sarah Palin provided the setup for the White House about this with their special Paying At The Pump.
A few things: There is a vociferous ‘locavore’ movement out there. These people insist that every agricultural product bought/consumed must be produced locally. As justification they use a metric called ‘food miles’ that tracks how much gas is used to transport the produce. If they had their way, no one in Michigan would ever have orange juice again.
And organic. I greatly appreciate the farmers who produce organically. It’s a great deal of work to just get certified -- not to mention money. But the price to buy what they produce is thru the roof. I simply can’t justify it. Part of that price in organics lower yield. Generally, it requires 3x the land for the same yield -- and that means 3x the water. Sheesh.
Oh btw
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!
I’m 60. Good heavens.
Rodan wrote:
Whenever she opens her mouth she offends Americans. Like telling us what to eat/while stuffing her face with the same food that she says we little people shouldn’t eat.
Or telling us that bho has taken America out of the dark and brought us into the light.
@ Lily:
That is all speculation. In reality, I expect that not much would change, because most of the effects of ObamaCare haven’t yet been felt.
@ eaglesoars:
Happy Birthday {eagle} just for you….
@ eaglesoars:
Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me guess, this is the next big Lefty cause?
eaglesoars wrote:
Lower yield because more labor intensive and more loss to pests and disease. Greater likelihood of toxicity from organic fertilizer (i.e., shit). More spoilage, more culls and unsaleable crop because people are used to perfect-appearing produce, and “organic” produce often looks gnarly and carries pests (e.g., worms in apples, weevils in grain).
The notion that we should go back towards the subsistence farming that the “Green Revolution” took us away from, making it more possible to end famine, is nuts. The push towards organic farming is an elitist boutique movement which shows the hatred of people that is at the core of “progressivism.”
@ Lily:
She is the wife of the Pharaoh! We must obey America’s Nefertiti!
///
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Pol Pot’s Cambodia was the ultimate Green regime.
@ Rodan:
It’s all in the agenda 21 model cities nonsense. I also saw it in at least 3 episodes of star trek.
Iron Fist wrote:
Yep and why are they speculating? To scare people if obamacare doesn’t happen? When obamacare will be so much worse. I’ve been disgusted with the msm …. but they are really in the tank for this horrible president.
eaglesoars wrote:
“I fell asleep, Food Miles, and it happened…”
—Invasion of the Nutrition Snatchers
eaglesoars wrote:
Beat you to it by a week and a half. It beats the alternative.
Many happy returns! (that’s the Filene’s Basement Birthday Greeting).
@ eaglesoars:
Happy birthday! I sent you a response.
Yeah, all the “locavore” stuff is nuts. People on the coasts wouldn’t eat bread, because the wheat is grown in the mid-west. It makes no sense unless you assume that their goal is to reduce most of us to subsistance farming and mass poverty. They are even at odds with that, because they want everyone over-crowded into huge cities, living in tiny cramped spaces, and riding public transportation to work. The Left is a mess. They are opposed to freedom, at the very base of their ideology.
@ Flyovercountry:
In relation to your post. Look at what Price Controls did in Venezuela.
Rodan wrote:
@ Iron Fist:
The only freedom the Left wants is the freedom to fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck…and fuck until it hurts and then fuck some more!
Rodan wrote:
Not. Going. To. Happen.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
GMTA! 8)
@ Lily:
Oh my gosh, that is cute beyond words. Thank you!
Rodan wrote:
Thanks for the good wishes.
Actually this has been around for several years. That horrid woman Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about it.
Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
I get quite impatient with the glorification of ‘rural’ life. Hubby was born and raised on a dairy farm and farmed himself for years. There is nothing romantic about farming. And if Kingsolver had her way, we would all be malnourished.
EVERY FARMER IS A LOCAL FARMER TO SOMEONE.
Macker wrote:
Oh my!!! But they don’t want certain people to do that are you forgetting they call some people ‘breeders’ and that is just no good.
@ Lily:
According to those folks, any conservative person is not to be permitted to breed.
@ Lily:
They want everyone to fuck (or be fucked). They just don’t want anyone to reproduce except maybe the special people. Only by permit, with forced abortions for those that don’t measure up genetically.
@ Iron Fist:
Disgusting to the extreme. I really wish these people who want this to go to another country that will fit with what they want in their agenda. If you are talk the talk go ahead and walk the walk in another country please.
@ Iron Fist:
Or sing the Muslim National Anthem™….
الجميع يمارس الجنس مع بعقب!
بعقب! بعقب! بعقب اللعنة!
@ eaglesoars:
Sounds like she wants an American version of Cambodia.
Disgusting.
Atheist group demands Rhode Island city remove cross from atop war memorial
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/25/atheist-group-wants-cross-from-rhode-island-war-memorial-removed/#ixzz1t4kfDxFS
@ Lily:
Whether or not you believe in God is a personal choice. But if you are offended just by seeing a Cross you have a serious problem. Freedom OF Religion not Freedom FROM Religion.
/these special interest groups are annoying me to the extreme.
@ Lily:
Charles Johnson whole heartedly agrees.
Rodan wrote:
Or at least Cannedfoodia, as long as it’s all home-canned.
@ Lily:
They are trying to Establish atheism as the Official Religion of the United States. That is a violation of the First Amendment, but they don’t really care about that.
Actually, as far as home canning is concerned, there used to be a number of fatalities every year from contaminated home-canned food. We tend to forget that one of the reason that commercial canneries like Del Monte or Heinz grew large and wealthy was that they could provide food faster, easier, safer and cheaper than people could preserve it themselves.
Would the natural-food crowd want government inspectors poking around to make sure home canning conformed to federal regulations? It wouldn’t surprise me.
@ Iron Fist:
With Islam as the 2nd official religion.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Ask Dorian about that. He has posted in the recent past about inspectors from some Fed agency cracking down on folks who were canning dry food products (like flour and pasta) to preserve them for a reserve in case TSHTF.
Rodan wrote:
Rodan oh I am sure he does…and how is that working out for him???
/what a loser.
Rassmussen has Romney up by a statistically significant portion:
It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if that were the final numbers. I’ll take it.
Iron Fist wrote:
That is extactly what they are trying to do!!! Works right in with their agenda, chipping away at our freedoms day by day by day.
I hope as many Americans are as disgusted by this as I am.
@ Lily:
He’s railing about stalkers and Nazis!
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
The government is way to much meddling in our daily lifes it is time for it to STOP!!!
Rodan wrote:
Good night in Georgia!! I swear that he is an idiot. No make that a ‘blooming’ idiot because he is evolving. Doesn’t he believe in evolution?? Just look at him…oh he evolved all right. Straight into the sewers and for a man in his 60′s he comes off like the drug use in his early years has finally caught up with him and it is showing.
@ Lily:
He’s had a mental breakdown.
@ Rodan:
I think it is more of a ‘moral’ breakdown. This is what happens when you are totally morally bankrupt. IMO.
Iron Fist wrote:
Au contraire, they care very much. The First Amendment is as much an obstacle to Proggie Triumph as the Second Amendment is. The First Amendment prevents their silencing countervailing voices and prevents the destruction of the family by protecting traditional religion against the encroachments of the SSM nonsense.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Indeed. They are trying to destroy the First admendment, then the second, then the whole Constitution.
What hubris!! The problem is we understand him perfectly and we don’t like what we are hearing or seeing.
NYT Reporter: Obama “Convinced Americans Would Never Understand Him”…
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/04/25/nyt-reporter-obama-convinced-americans-would-never-understand-him/
Lily wrote:
Remember that when people opposed Obamacare and Obama’s drunken spending early in his term, and the Tea Party rallies started, Obama campaigned during the 2010 election on the grounds that “they don’t understand; they’re not educated; we didn’t communicate the message to them.”
In Obama’s worldview—indeed, in the “liberal” worldview—”understanding” and “education” both are euphemisms for agreement, because how could anyone who was educated, anyone who understood, not agree with what the correctly-thinking people say should, nay, must, be done?
Lily wrote:
Being “offended” on occasion is the price we pay for a pluralist society. People who are “offended” by something as innocuous as a cross, Star of David, or any other religious symbol are no more than bigots of a different stripe. Even the hard-core “religious right” never sought to restrict the display of non-Christian religious image or icon.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Good point. Another euphemism currently being bandied about is “fairness”. “Fairness” is simply a socialist, marxist code word for collectivization and wealth redistribution. After all, who will define fairness -- the Czar of Fairness? How will fairness be implemented and enforced? Perhaps a Department of Fairness. Fairness is a totally bogus concept and must be challenged every time it comes up in the debate. Life ain’t fair.
@ MacDuff:
Excatly. Not only that if you read the article they are going after the firemans prayer and the angel on their web-site. If that offends you don’t go to the web-site. Plus has any of these namby-pamby idiots ever fought a damn raging fire?? I am sure they would start praying then. Idiots.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I have found that people like this who say ‘they don’t understand them’ especially obama and the ilk. Are the ones who are the most ignorant and lacking in critical thinking.
@ huckfunn:
Nope life is not fair. This ‘fairness’ that is being thrown around is just a another word for ‘social justice’.
test
@ huckfunn:
I don’t see anything.
Lily wrote:
I actually saw them debating “fairness” the other day on Fox as if it were a valid idea. They really need to smack that crap down every time it comes up.
Lily wrote:
Well then; I guess I failed the test.
huckfunn wrote:
If you do not bow down to Obamanezzar when the trumpets sound, he will fling you into a fiery Fairness.
huckfunn wrote:
What makes you think the people over at Fox don’t actually believe that it is a genuinely valid idea? What evidence have they ever given you to the contrary?
My son who is 30 said a lot of his friends REFUSED TO WATCH THE JIMMY KEMMEL SHOW because bho was going to be on it. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmm? Nope bho doesn’t have the youth wrapped up no matter what the msm is telling you.
A tale of two leaders… h/t Ace of Spades and WS
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SYR4Y2EQ-e4
doriangrey wrote:
That may be true for the top turds, but I know that several of their contributors don’t by the fairness crap for a moment. I’ve even emailed one of them with my thoughts expressed above and hope to see his response.
More evidence that we are losing the War:
Mustn’t tell the truth about Islam. We might question the tactics we are using if we did.
@ Lily:
The link…
@ huckfunn:
Don’t fret…I do that all the time!
@ Iron Fist:
Good heavens!!! Unreal, but then again one has to remember the war on terror is over according to bho. So this just fits with that agenda.
New thread up.
Iron Fist wrote:
That’s why I was asking this question in the over night thread
Lily wrote:
It sounds like there’s some serious parenting going on at your house! My compliments!
@ Guggi:
It sure does seem that way. Of course, the brass just implements to orders from the Administration, so it is hard to say what their real beliefs on these matters might be. They’ve basically been ordered to implement Liberal policy. It doesn’t matter how they feel about it. One of the reasons it is so important to get Obama out of there this fall.
@ MacDuff:
I can’t take all the credit. I pointed them in the right direction, I have two sons. Once they reach a certain age……they think on their own.
Both are very conservative!
My oldest just got a dose of how my parents are politically and was stunned at how rabid they are and how little knowledge they know concerning politic’s. I was hoping they (my parents) would not go off on him concerning their rabid belief’s…..but they did.
Iron Fist wrote:
I imagine most are not in agreement with the president, but as you say they take their orders from the president.
@ Iron Fist:
Been real busy today.
I saw that article. It is frightening that the rot, or perhaps infiltration is a better word, has reached so deeply into the military. Between this and how Fort Hood jihad attack was handled, I am very concerned.
The military above cannot afford to be blinded by PC, for to me obvious reasons.
@ citizen_q:
Yeah, if we deliberately mislead ourselves about the nature of the enemy, we are doing his work for him. Sun Tzu said “Know yourself and know your enemy, and in 100 battles you will know 100 victories”. We refuse to know the enemy. Is it any wonder that we are losing?
Iron Fist wrote:
That’s why I respect maj.gen. Peter Fuller so much. I bet he had tried everything else he could to get his message through before he went public in the politico-interview and he knew it would cost him his career.
Contrary to the McChrystal senior staff.