Thursday, July 03, 2008

Don't blame the speculators

The White House and their sycophants are quite alert for denouncing the blame game when they are at faults (Katrina, as one of so many examples), but quite prompt to use the blame game for justifying the accumulation of fiascoes and mismanagement.

According to the Republican propaganda machine, and their corrupted media, we should blame the speculators for the high price of oil. In the last 18 months, the barrel went from $50. to $150. In addition, Cheney-Bush Regime would like us to believe that we should increase the production, here and abroad.
In spite of several trips and kneeling in Saudi Arabia, the disguised Halliburton representative did not succeed too well. Now, let's see what the real world knows about us:
1- the collapse of our US dollar
2- the mismanagement of our economy (foreclosures, no new real jobs, etc.)
3- no refinery built in this country for more than 20 years
4- no incentive to save energy and create other alternatives
5- an irresponsible Congress who did not force the automakers to produce more efficient cars
6- the 2 or 3 trillion dollars wasted in Iraq and Aflghanistan
7- our snobbish and arrogant attitude
8- the accumulation of insults and lectures when our representatives visit other countries
9- the continuous threats to Venezuela and Iran, two major oil producers and influential members of OPEC
A great majority of shrewd war analysts, including politicians in Israel, have confirmed the mistake of Israel to attack Lebanon. It was the responsibility of any decent US Administration to warn Israel, but Rice with her smirk contributed to the fiasco by delaying the end of the failed invasion.
Same mistake again, now, with Israel, once more, trying to be tough, with the complicitous silence of the White House. It will be easy for Iran to block the Hermuz Strait, in spite of the childish response of certain members of the Pentagon.
With such a scenario, as described before, what do speculators do? They simply speculate. They buy oil today at $145. a barrel, because they believe it will eventually reach $200. or $250. or $300. They speculate that our irresponsible Congress and White House will continue to be irresponsible.
We have millions of shareholders in this country. They are all investors and speculators. They do buy stocks because they want a protection against inflation, and also, because they believe, for whatever reason, the price will be higher tomorrow.
According to the great intelligent short-sighted, narrow-minded sycophants of the White House and Republican Party, we should also close all the stock markets in this country, and leave the real free market in the hands of more mature people in London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
So, we should not blame speculators, but blame Cheney, Bush, Rice, Bolton, Lierberman, Wolfowitz, and their puppets.
The Facilitator.