New toy
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Maybe a little extravagant, but at least the kids get some exercise. Better than watching videos anyway.
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Archive for June 23rd, 2008
Ecomonomics
Monday, June 23rd, 2008As I have stated previously, I firmly believe that the consumer price for gasoline is not coming back down. So the question is, what happens with the profits from gas sales at the higher price?
In the long tem gasoline prices are going to go up no matter what we do. But this can happen in one of two ways.
First, it can happen by simply doing nothing and allowing demand to increase — as it will after the initial shock of $4 gas wears off and people go back to their old driving habits. This will lead to higher wellhead prices for oil, and the beneficiaries will be OPEC and big multinational oil companies.
Second, it can happen via a concerted effort to raise the price of energy via a cap-and-trade plan. This will reduce demand and lead to stabilized oil prices. The net price of oil will still go up thanks to the cost of auctioning off emission permits, but the additional money goes into American coffers, where it can be used to improve mass transit; fund clean energy research; reduce the impact on the poor; and help offset other taxes.
The basic question is, who would you rather see benefit from higher oil prices: Saudi sheikhs or the American treasury? Because that’s pretty much your choice.
Seems to me like an easy choice to make. You people who think that ANWAR and offshore drilling is going to bring the price of a gallon of gas back down below $4 need to wake the hell up.
