Who makes more from a gallon of gas - Exxon or Barack??

This guy is awesome, and needs to be the next chairman of the Fed. 
Watch it on Youtube to see the rest of his stuff. 

A Modest Proposal to end long gasoline lines

Because of Hurricane Sandy, many New Yorkers and New Jerseyites are having to wait in long, long lines for gasoline. 

If your license plate has an odd number, you can only purchase gasoline on odd numbered calendar days.  Ditto for even.  Anyone thinking about this for more than two minutes can see that it's nothing but "Performance Art" from government.  Demand is demand, regardless of which arbitrary day the demand is called for.  People with time to do so are waiting in line to buy gas whether they really need it or not.  Sheesh....

Here's the biggest obstacle.  New York and New Jersey both have "anti-gouging" laws.  If there's a disaster of some sort, merchants can only increase prices by 10%, unless they can prove that an even higher markup is required to turn a minimal profit.  That should make it more fair for everyone, right? 

But because of infrastructure problems, there's not enough fuel coming into New York and New Jersey.  The world that those old prices were based upon doesn't exist any more.  Every load of dinosaur juice coming into NY/NJ is worth 3 times its former value.  People are purchasing tanks of gas that they don't need, siphoning it from their cars into 5-gallon cans, and selling it for 3-4 times what they paid for it (which is exactly what its worth, BTW.)   They're illegally selling generators on Craigslist.  This Republican idiot is hauling 65 New Jersey business owners into court for "price gouging" - i.e., selling things for what they're worth. 

So how is the government determining the best use for this fuel?  Odd day/Even day purchasing. 

That's bullshit. 

According to Russ Roberts' book "The Price Of Everything", here's the best way to restore fuel supplies to NY/NJ. 

Let merchants sell gasoline for whatever price they want.  If you really need gasoline, you'll buy it.  If you just wanted gasoline for running out for lunch or road trips, or because you're paranoid, you won't buy it.  This is the only reason that Texans and Floridians and Californians have gasoline today.  The price is allowed to fluctuate, all day every day, based on demand. 

But that's not fair.....

Bullshit.  This is why you can buy lettuce in the wintertime.  It's why there are always shoes for sale at the mall, and you don't have to wait in line for them the way they did in Commie Eastern Europe.  It's why the U.S. has a higher standard of living than Cuba.  Companies are waiting in line to sell us lettuce and shoes, at whatever price we're willing to pay, and not vice-versa. 

But how would this help lower fuel prices???

Someone might make a fortune selling gasoline for $20.00 per gallon for a few days.  If other gas stations see this guy cleaning up on gasoline, they will move heaven and earth to re-open their stores.  They'll risk life and limb to serve you.   A couple of days later, gasoline would probably be selling for $16.00 per gallon.  More and more businesses would want in on it.  Gasoline would drop to $12.00 per gallon.  And on and on, until there were enough people selling gasoline to get it down to the ridiculously high prices that NY/NJ residents were already willing to pay before the hurricane.  Competition doesn't cure everything, but it's way ahead of whatever solution is in 2nd place. 

But how much hassle would YOU go through to sell gasoline today, in NY/NJ for only 10% more than it sold for before the hurricane? 

You might just stay home and watch "Dancing With The Stars" and wait on someone else to clean up the mess.  (That's what's going on now, BTW.)   

Here's something from an old post I wrote about Russ Roberts' "The Price Of Everything".  The book deals with a Big Box store that was marking up generators and flashlights after an emergency, BTW. 

Do you every wonder why the shelves in our supermarkets are full? Ever wonder why countries afflicted with the blessings of communism had supermarket shelves that were mostly empty? Ever wonder why we don't have to wait in long lines for gasoline, or endure rationing like we did in the early 1970's? Ever wonder why the minimum wage in Cuba is somewhere near $14.00 (PER MONTH !!) ??


Do you want to know how to ensure that more people will die during a famine? Legislate artificially low prices. Want to keep people from delivering water to drought stricken areas? Put anti-gouging laws into place.

Do you ever wonder why we can simply go out and buy our basic necessities?

It's because our (somewhat) Free Market Economy allows prices to go up when there's a shortage, and decline when there's a glut. We don't have an idiotic Flashlight Czar (yet), setting flashlight prices all over the country based on hours of darkness, hurricanes, or electrical problems. People can charge whatever they want to for flashlights. Therefore, when you really, really need see in the dark, somebody out there is probably willing to sell you a flashlight.

So, according to Professor Roberts, not only was the Big Store doing the right thing economically when it doubled its prices after the hurricane, it was doing the right thing logically, socially, and morally.

Yeah, Chris Christie can put anti-gouging laws into place, and this will help guarantee that merchants won't be able to rip off people who want to purchase a generator.  It also guarantees that there won't be any generators on the shelves. 

Which store selling power generators would you want to shop in?  The one that has 'em, or the one that doesn't? 

On gasoline speculators driving up prices

This is BRILLIANT.  Don Boudreaux at his best:

Here’s a letter to the Programming Director at Washington, DC’s, WTOP Radio:

During this morning’s 8 o’clock hour I heard one of the most ironic lines that I’ve heard in some time. That this irony was unintentional makes it all the more telling.

Asked by your “pump patrol” reporter about rising gasoline prices, a motorist at a gasoline station noted that “My tank is actually way more than half full now. I’m topping it off because I’m sure the price will be even higher this weekend.” When your reporter then asked her “What do you think explains these rising prices?” she replied “Speculators.” Your reporter followed up with “Do you think they should be stopped?” The motorist responded immediately: “Of course! They’re criminal.”

Speculating that the price of gasoline will rise, this motorist took action today – buying gasoline that she otherwise wouldn’t have bought today – that puts upward pressure on the price of gasoline today.

Had your reporter pointed out that this motorist herself is speculating in gasoline, I wonder if this motorist would have persisted in regarding speculation as being criminal. I wonder, too, how she would react if government – heeding her advice to stop speculation – were to forcibly prevent motorists from topping off their tanks.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

And that is why I want to somehow make a lot of money and retire and go study economics at George Mason University with Don Boudreaux, Russ Roberts, Tyler Cowen and Walter Williams while they all still live and breathe and walk among us. 

The "Make The Speculators Pay" logo came from this unrelated article about the European Union trying to blame their troubles on people other than themselves.

Barack Obama - Most Effective President Ever !!!

The man says he wants to make something happen, and by golly, it happens. 
Here's The Teleprompter Jesus, in the flesh, talking about how he's going to make you pay more at the pump so you'll stop buying SUV's and become more fuel-efficient. 




Go here to read a summary of the mindset.  Back in the day, someone would come out with a new product, and if it was any good it would catch on, and the old way would slowly die. 

Contrast that approach with the one used in the Year Of Our Lord 2012, where new product-makers lobby Washington for subsidies, Washington mandates their use, Washington punishes their competitors (see LightSquared), and Obama then forces you to use the new product made by people who owe their very existence to Obama.  

It's like watching that wasp on Animal planet, the one that stings and paralyzes a caterpillar and drags it into its nest so the baby wasps can feast until they're grown.  In a way, it's beautiful. 

Well done, sir. Well done.

Mission Accomplished, Team Obama !!!


From The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Obama plans soon to introduce his energy and environment team, which will include Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as energy secretary and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner as White House energy adviser.

The team's makeup shows that Mr. Obama plans to put a heavy emphasis on combating climate change and promoting technologies to wean the U.S. off imported oil. He is packaging such priorities as a way to boost employment and help the economy by pouring money into efficiency projects.

.But the next administration will face a range of obstacles on the energy front, from plummeting oil prices and a declining economy to potential rifts among Mr. Obama's own advisers.

In a sign of one major internal difference, Mr. Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work.

"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September.

Well done, Mr. Chu.  Well done ! 

The Hope And Change Sticky Note Campaign

There's a new Facebook campaign for people who are tired of Ben Bernanke/Barry Obama releasing all of their newly printed money into the environment. 

It's called the "Hope And Change Sticky Note Campaign". 

Next time you see a higher price on milk, eggs, gasoline, rent, Coca-Cola, detergent, bacon, or anything else you purchase with your Bernanke Bucks, stick a "Hope And Change" Post-It note beside the price. 

Take a picture. 

Mail it in. 

Do your part. 

Hope.  Change. 

In which Barack Obama goes on a Witch Hunt for the cause of high fuel prices

One day a couple of years ago I was doing my Mad Prophet Of The Internet routine, smearing myself with peanut butter and locusts, raving in the streets and banging pots and pans together.  I got no attention whatsoever.
 
I was predicting some mega-inflation. 

You see, printing money is the only way that the Reagan / Bush / Clinton / Obama big spenders will ever get their debts paid.  But if you print all this money, prices go up. 

I said that rising prices would soon be blamed on corporate greed, and asked folks to send me copies of Lamestream Media editorials blaming the rising prices on greedy corporations, greedy people, and greed in general.  Hit the link.  But if you don't have time to read the link, here's the kicker to that old post:

Good luck when prices start doubling. A special prize will be awarded to the reader who sends me the first earnest MSM editorial blaming greedy corporations for the price increases.

I still haven't seen one of those indignant editorials, but if you spot the first one and post a link, I promise to mail you a free dachshund.  The first and second runners' up will also get a free dachshund. 

In the meantime, our Inflator In Chief is taking this waaaaay beyond anything I could've dreamed possible.  It's freakin' unbelievable.  (Most of these links I'm using came from The Streetwise Professor. )

Believe it or not, this beautiful example of finger-pointing crap is actually on the Department Of Justice website.  Barack Obama, without getting drunk or stoned first, has actually started a task force to look into possible fraud, collusion, and speculation as the cause for rising gasoline prices.  I swear to God, he's doing it.  He's trying to get waaaaay out in front of the story:

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the formation of a Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Working Group to focus specifically on fraud in the energy markets. The Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group will monitor oil and gas markets for potential violations of criminal or civil laws to safeguard against unlawful consumer harm.


The working group will include representatives from the Department of Justice, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Departments of Agriculture and Energy.

“Rapidly rising gasoline prices are pinching the pockets of consumers across the country,” said Attorney General Holder. “We will be vigilant in monitoring the oil and gas markets for any wrongdoing so that consumers can be confident they are not paying higher prices as a result of illegal activity. If illegal conduct is responsible for increasing gas prices, state and federal authorities should take swift action.”

And so the Witch Hunt begins. 

Here's more on this charade, from Fuel Fix:

Craig Pirrong, a finance professor at the University of Houston who specializes in commodity prices, says the task force is hardly needed, since the agencies already have the tools to monitor for fraud and take action.


“This is a transparently political fishing expedition that insinuates that fraud or manipulation is distorting oil prices without providing even the flimsiest factual basis for such a suspicion,” Pirrong said. “This is part of a broad effort by the administration to deflect criticism with regard to gasoline prices.”

Yeah. 

Get ready for higher fuel prices, higher clothing prices and higher food prices.  Higher everything prices.  Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke are printing money all day every day.  The supply of goods is remaining stable, but the money supply is increasing. 
Don't you wish you could pay your bills with a printing press? 

Pics of Witch Hunt came from here. 

Thomas Sowell and Gasoline Prices

Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....

Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has proclaimed that rising fuel prices are due to supply and demand, mostly increased demand from China and India.

Therefore, there is no need to create a complex melodrama complete with heroic congressional investigators and villainous oil company executives.

In his latest epistle, Saint Thomas also accuses Senators Obama and McCain of straying too far from The Church Of Free Market Orthodoxy, but he did not appear to be speaking Ex Cathedra on that particular issue.

As future ministers of The Church Of FMO develop an internally consistent theology, the Obama/McCain mistake will perhaps be known as The Pelosian Heresy.

The Church Of FMO will soon visit both the Obama and McCain campaigns, and both candidates will be shown the Tools of The Inquisition. Obama will probably recant. McCain has seen worse.

High fuel prices will be with us for a long time.

The man has spoken.

Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.

You may be seated.