I thought I would share this post as it is based on a presentation which may be a better intro for those less well educated on energy matters. You can see clearly that the world is a supply crunch when it comes to oil consumption. There simply isn’t much room for give in supply and we currently have some slack only from demand. If you assume that there is about a 4 million barrel a day surplus you can quickly decided that it will not take long for an economic rebound to usurp that surplus.

Furthermore, the U.S. only produces about half of the oil that it did in 1970. This trend (depletion of production) can be seen elsewhere in there world (especially in places like Mexico). I suggest reading this post from the Oil Drum as a primer to understanding the challenges that the world faces.

People always want to raise margins by cutting out the “middleman”.

Sometimes it’s that same middleman that can gain you customers, and revenue. Sometimes they have the irreplacable knowledge of the market that you need. A middle man can be an incredibly efficient thing.

Or maybe someone could start a service similar to Evite, specifically for wedding invitations. The invite could link directly to your registries, and easily link people to local hotels.

Just one easy solution to show that we really don’t need the post office anymore. The USPS is planning on closing down several hundred branch offices, and I really don’t see why we would need them anyway. Fed-Ex and UPS are solvent. I can get a post box at several other places, and stamps are easy to sell automatically. Drop off boxes work just fine for me, but I mostly email and work electronically anyway.

So get rid of those post offices. They are just a burden on the national budget anyway.

You never know.

But I’ll tell you what I do know. If it is those dang North Korean Hackers I bet people will pay attention now. No one really minds much when our CIA, NSA, pentagon, and White House sites are being attacked. I think that cyber attacks can now basically be considered an act of war. Perhaps we should go after those bastards. No. Not Perhpas. We should. It’s an act of war in my mind. I say send a cruise missle to the heart of their electrical grid. That’d show em how much we like our Netflix.

There was a time where I had this bumper sticker on the back of my car. That was during the Bush administration, and I felt the same way. It doesn’t matter to me who is in office, I feel the same way about this. I suppose if some game changer like Ron Paul were in office, it might be different, but I haven’t seen any reason not to feel this way regardless of who the president is. 

The sticker, Don’t steal, the government hates competition, rings true for many as we begin to work more and more for the government. Unfortunately, I fear that we are creating a society which is so dependent upon government that we will really have no choice but to continue the socialist model. It is sad, but we have seen periods of time like this before. Under Roosevelt I think many Americans saw similar changes taking place. We managed to come out OK, but there has been a feeling of “creeping socialism” for almost 100 years now.

In my opinion a smart newspaper would take this opportunity to go entirely online, and maintain only a Sunday Print edition. Still, reforming as non-profits doesn’t sound like a terrible solution. My concern is that there would some unintended consequences here which I have yet to of thought of.

MSNBC conducted a poll asking for respondents to grade the Presidential performance thus far. The poll, which had over 160,000 responses asked individuals to grade Obama from “A” to “F”. An overwhelming majority of 59% voted “F”, While 20% voted “A”. 

A personal opinion:

Tightening of the belt is the only responsible fiscal policy from the executive and legislative brances. Pooring on debt with baseless currency will only lead to larger problems. Taxing industry and individuals will discourage growth. We cannot hinder the very vehicles that are needed for economic rebound. 

Leadership isn’t born in endless policy and debate. Leadership is addressing issues with a nation boldly and bluntly. Confronting those issues and reassuring the masses. When London was being relentlessly shelled Churchill reassured the masses of the British spirit to resist and overcome. We need a Churchill.

Santelli: “Are you listening Mr. President?” 

Cramer: “Greatest wealth destruction by a President” 

Kudlow: Obama “declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds”. 

Tim Geithner faced congress today, it was and endless and painful dance around questions. The answers all sounded the same: “95% of Americans, 97% of Americans, We have to do something, We must act”. At one point Geithner said that irresponsible government spending got us into this, and two minutes later he said we needed to spend $7 Trillion dollars. He never directly answered the question from a California Congressman “Where will this money come from?” The Congressman had to ask him a second time, and still no direct response from Tim. 

I can tell you where it will come from. Your pocket. It doesn’t matter if you make $250,000.00 a year or not. If they tax carbon you will pay extra for gasoline, electricity, any food items that were shipped, any item that was manufactured. They may not raise your income taxes, but the price of everything will go up.

This poses one simple problem, it would have to go away first for it to come back. We shouldn’t try to shore up the economy with patchwork legislation. We should nip it in the bud by suffering a temporary ill while the bad companies die. This would allow us to emerge even stronger. Instead we are propping up companies that don’t meet the market litmus tests. Like auto companies. If there product was worthy, the market wouldn’t punish them like they have. Bad products means going out of business. It’s simple, and it needs to happen. Would it be bad? Yes. It would stiffle our economy further, but like a groundfire it is necessary to clear the underbrush for greener growth in the future. 

Nature is cyclical. Markets are as well. And so is global heating and cooling.