I was watching Tweedledee and Tweedledum on CNN this morning.
(Candy Crowley and Ed Gillespie.)
They went on and on blaming President Obama, for everything from 9% Unemployment rate to the $4 price of Gas.
They smugly contended that Obama has no chance of winning with numbers like that, especially since 'he is doing nothing' to 'Fix the Economy'. With Numbers like that, what chance will he have, they mused. 'How in the world will he get Unemployment down to 6% by next November?' they posed to the audience, gleefully. Not a chance.
Earlier in the show Tweedle No. 1, was grilling Austan Goolsbee on what a "bad investment" the Stimulus Package was. All the while Austan calmly explained that without the Recovery Act, we were headed for Great Depression unemployment Numbers. The Recovery Act did its job, it stemmed the Job hemorrhaging. It started the Job Recovery, we are experiencing now.
Ms Crowley kept pressing her talking point, however: BUT -- Why isn't the Economy doing better -- if the Stimulus Package was so great?
And so the new battle lines in the latest version of GOP Talking Point war, are drawn.
Why isn't the Economy going gangbusters? If your guy is so good?
Nevermind the 800,000 a month job loss, that were a simple fact of life, when Obama started -- that was then, this is Now?
Where are the Jobs, from the Jobs-creator-in-Chief? Huh? Where are they?
(Psst. No Govt spending allowed, now.)
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Ugh! WHERE do I begin ... ?
Well the assigned Blame for the $4 Gas seemed like a simple point to refute, especially given the fact that the GOP keeps giving Oil Speculators a "free ride" with it comes to taxes, and serious Derivatives oversight.
But as I searched for some backup for blaming Oil Speculators, instead of Obama, I ran into this confounding piece. Maybe Speculators are really the bit-players, on a larger global stage ...
If only speculation explained gas prices
by Ezra Klein, washingtonpost -- 04/29/2011
[...]
Speculators are an easy bad guy, says Michael Greenstone, an energy economist at MIT. “They’re a malevolent other. They’re thought to produce nothing of value, and so blaming them has a long and rich history.” But it’s worth understanding what exactly you’re saying is happening when you place the blame on speculators.
[...] two major forces in the oil market, both of which are scarier, in the long-run, than speculators. On the supply side, Saudi Arabia. On the demand side, China. And caught between them, the global economy, and our wallets.
Traditionally, Hamilton says, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer of oil, would smooth out spikes in demand. But around 2007, Saudi Arabia stopped. They left oil in the ground, assuming they could sell it for more later. Hamilton calls this “the beginning of a new era for oil pricing dynamics: without the Saudis’ willingness or ability to adjust production to smooth out price changes, any disturbance to supply or demand will have a much larger effect on prices than in earlier periods.”
[...]
On the demand side, China -- and other developing nations, but mostly China -- is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
[...]
Here’s what Hamilton argues happened in 2007-2008: Everyone knew that the world was demanding more oil, but they had made two assumptions that turned out to be mistakes. First, they thought that higher prices would lead to a lot less oil use in rich countries, which would allow what oil we did have to stretch further. Economists call this ”elasticity,” and oil turns out to have a lot less of it than we thought. Second, they thought we -- or, more specifically, Saudi Arabia -- would be able/willing to increase production much more dramatically than proved to be the case. But they weren’t. So supply held relatively steady even as demand shot up and demand held relatively steady even as prices shot up.
So what ended the 2007-2008 oil crisis? A global recession more sever than anything we’d experienced since the early 20th century. But now the same factors are reasserting themselves. Demand from both developed and developing countries has returned. Saudi Arabia is tapping the brakes. Now add in turmoil in the Middle East. Now look at the price of gasoline and note that demand isn’t falling.
Things might be more complex, than they seem. The world usually is.
Gasoline is not an Elastic product. We gotta have it, if we want to work. Most of us that is.
Who's fault is that -- that we are all still stuck with outdated modes of transport?
Is this something a President, can "Fix"? Even if the Republicans won't let him?
I seem to recall a lot of GOP Tweedledumbsters turning down Federal Grant money for local Light Rail Projects, recently
-- Projects that would have created Jobs, and lowered the Daily Demand for Gas.
Who's fault is it, that those Projects got axed? Not the President's. He offered the Clean Energy opportunities.
Side note: I still think Derivative speculators (including Oil Speculators), need to be charged a Transaction Tax, on each and every Trade. Why do they get all the Free Rides? While we get all the Bills?
If we don't want to see Great Recession Part II -- we need to put some serious brakes on those Speed Racers on Wall Street. They certainly won't monitor, and curb their own recklessness, themselves. There's too much Quick Money to be made, playing their daily Tiddlywinks, with our Oil dependency.
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And my Counter-point on the Jobs rate:
If extending the Bush Tax Cuts were so great? Where are the Jobs, GOP?
Where are the Jobs, CNN Spinmeisters?
You got your Tax Cuts -- The dreaded Uncertainty is Gone. SO Start Hiring, already!
Put you Tax Cuts, where your mouth is, Republicans. Everyone here in Wonderland is waiting for your Pretzel Logic to come true.
And we're still waiting!
Hmmm? Maybe Tax Cuts, really don't create Jobs after all -- THAT's Funny!?