P E R S P E C T I V E :  I S  A M E R I C A  O V E R  A  B A R R E L ?   

A cynical answer to that question is:" Of course, it is! Not just in the world of oil and domestic markets but every market that sells something to the American Consumer."

So, what else is new? Could we be a little more explicit? Let's try, not that it will change the way you spend your money, or the way you think about anything, especially the Economy!

The basic message that follows seeks to formulate an old message another way! Someday, as you approach the age of 60 you will begin to think seriously about such things! Maybe -- then -- you will wise up and realize that YOU are responsible for most of the Economic problems we face! I remind you of the axiom promoted by Chuck Franklyn in his book entitled SCAMERICA in which he stated:

                   IN DEALING WITH PEOPLE IN LIFE AND IN BUSINESS :

                   WHAT YOU ACCEPT AND WHAT YOU TOLERATE;

                   LEADS TO MORE OF THE SAME TREATMENT, GOOD OR BAD! 

Franklyn was a tough-minded advocate of CONSUMER DISCIPLINE. He waged an aggressive war against predatory practices in all business relationships. At the age of seven, he inherited his father's several businesses and became immersed in the world of serving the Public. By age fourteen, he concluded that Dishonesty and Predatory Business practices that exploits the Ignorance of the Consumer would destroy the USA. That vision is coming true today!

ENERGY, OIL, GAS:  HOW YOUR GOVERNMENT AND WALL STREET

                        SEEK TO LEAD YOU INTO BANKRUPTCY!

Crude oil -- and the machines that need it -- define this Modern World as we know it!

Without OIL, we would have to start all over and invent another way to live! The Economies of the world depend upon the combustion engine and other fossil-fuel energy sources (e.g., natural gas, coal, etc) because until now, it has been the cheapest source of energy! Furthermore, every other source of energy will prove to be more expensive! That is a point that the Experts will not reveal until we spend billions on alternate energy sources.

 I repeat: future sources of energy will be more expensive than fossil fuels!

Why has crude oil become so scarce? Actually, it isn't -- depending upon how far ahead you are looking! The supply of crude is diminishing but until we can say for a certainty that more crude is NOT being created in the earth, we will be led to believe that we are running out of oil! It is a business strategy that is a key part of a Global War that seeks to destroy the dominance of the USA on the World stage. And it is this kind of contrived anxiety that is leading greedy folks associated with the oil industry, including Economists, Market Manipulators, Consulting Geologists, Journalists and many others to worry about a Future without Crude Oil.

I believe we should be seriously concerned about more than OIL, more than MONEY and MORE than Global Warming! But let's not overlook an important fact: every commodity or service that becomes publicly owned becomes a victim of market traders whose bag of tricks have become increasingly complex. Their goal is to destabilize our Economies, then hold them hostage for their own greedy purposes!

The same is true of providing insurance for health care, dental care or any risk: once a service is insured, the costs double or triple within a few years! 

As greedy people worry, no matter how basically honest they may be as individuals, in business, they will find ways to protect their interests while risking the Future of others! In the oil business, like the stock and bond markets, guaranteeing one's profit and wealth is simply a matter of following good business practices, the first rule being to grab every dollar you can get your hands on! This approach opens a vast field of opportunities if you have an RMO (i.e., imaginative) mentality. Only a few do! But that small few can do a lot of damage once they teach less imaginative but still greedy proxies the tools of their trade!

Today's Extreme Capitalism is as selfish and corruptible as in the day's of Rockefeller in spite of Teddy Roosevelt and  all the Federal anti-trust laws. Remember today's style of Politics has changed things! But the fundamentals of cheating, established before the time of Abraham remain the same as 5,000 years ago! If Franklyn's engaging tale of The Making of Man is ever released, you will learn why both Good and Evil had to created.

Oh, yes,  the Predators are more sophisticated today! And, the Consumer is dumber and/or more naive than ever before! Study the S&L and more recent Stock Market/Securities Scandals and you will see that even the guilty keep millions of dollars, proving that crime does pay big dividends! Without barring the financial crooks from ever doing business again, they will keep coming back and doing the rest of us harm! That is why the Consumer must be prepared to be a Buyer who has his/her own rules for the game of Buy and Sell!

In the early days,  scoundrels would be put on display in the public square and spat upon. Today, a man with huge debts and a flare for showmanship (like Donald Trump) can be a national hero and the pathetic Public will worship him and try to emulate his kind of popularity and his shady practices! Hollywood showmanship is an important piece of what is happening to us, especially, in so far as the Global Warming Hoax is concerned.  

OIL & ENERGY

The current irritations over gasoline price gouging will probably pass without settling anything. We could see gasoline prices rise to five-to-eight dollars a gallon! What's to stop it? Where is the magic point when You, your spouse and your children change your way of living and say: "ENOUGH!"? We Consumers are a pathetic group who refuse to discipline the Marketers! All that is required is NATIONAL LEADERSHIP and a few well-placed boycotts!

Obviously, this current price spike indicates more hanky-panky is going on! But that is what the Global Economy is all about: hanky-panky which is another name for making a barrel of money off the Consumer until he and she finally shows some spunk! Speculators are becoming more bold and as the Consumer becomes addicted to Credit and Predatory Marketing, there is little hope that the Consumer will ever take control of his own appetite for more than he or she can afford! The Government -- no longer yours, will not protect your interest by stopping runaway CREDIT ! CREDIT and those Cards are the things that have corrupted You and your entire family because you think it puts you on a par with the Rich & Famous! 

After all, spokesmen for both major political parties are suggesting we may see prices going to $5.00 a gallon and higher. How can this happen? Not a difficult stretch, really! I doubt that you will ever understand what is really happening! Let me try, however, in the following rant!

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Lee Raymond, CEO of our largest petroleum company, is retiring and the Exxon/Mobil Board has given him a total of nearly a half-a-billion dollars as a farewell gift. Some would call it a Golden Parachute! Important, also, is the fact that this November we have an important election to suffer through. The big companies need a lot of cash to spread around the country. Where do they go to get that extra moola? Out of YOUR pockets, naturally! Where does that money end up? In the pockets of the TV stations, now fully owned and controlled by Liberals, pro-Israel groups and Wall Street moguls!

The new Energy Law of 2005 is effective this year and it had a few built-in features that guaranteed a disruption in the fuel supply. MTBE has been eliminated! To make that change the industry scheduled it for March-April switch to summer time blends that will use more Ethanol. Flushing tanks at major pumping stations can be scheduled to interrupt normal deliveries and the MEDIA can be trusted to stir up the natives Big Time! The Oil Barons are masters at orchestrating these innocent disruptions. This is just one of many privileges of Proprietorship! 

The above changes mandated by Congress puts into play a very interesting economic rule not too well known in the USA. It is called the Power of Excuse! Essentially, the circumstances, described above, form a set of reasons for what is happening. For example: the rules for Buying & Selling of OIL may seem to be complex but the motivation is to make a Profit. That makes company officers richer and stockholders happier! Don't forget, the stockholders -- your neighbors -- are reaping nice returns on their investment in oil company stocks! Every event -- large or small -- that affects the oil supply or MIGHT AFFECT oil deliveries will be used to answer one question: given these potential threats to our Profits, should we raise the price now?   

At the very time that Mr. Raymond is leaving and the 2006 Election needs to be funded, we have a perfect situation to rip off the gullible and helpless American Consumer! Our money is being sucked into the Oil Industry's pockets so we will pay for all that political favoritism and lobbying costs -- and for CEO Raymond's retirement benefits! At the Harvard, Yale and Princeton Clubs, my friends call it: Business as Usual!

All these multi-billion dollar scams are being pulled off in broad daylight? And, they just happen to occur as a coincidence? Really? Hardly! Even the current Iran Flap has already increased the cost of your gasoline purchases! Every time former FED Chairman Greenspan uttered some incomprehensible view about the world markets, CEOs and their FEOs are ready to raise prices. Windfall profits are made of such flim-flam policies! Let a Middle Eastern potentate break wind and the Jews on Wall Street will factor in another increase in the price of oil! Such a system is an outright rip-off and grand theft! If your elected Reps in Congress were not in on this grand theft, you might have reason to hope for relief -- but that is a DREAM, my friend!

Notice how the MEDIA is restraining itself as today's events unfold. Why, you may ask? As long as OIL MONEY flows into the hands of both political parties, the hullabaloo over price gouging will be toned down. If the OIL LOBBY spreads some of those dollars in both directions, MEDIA complaints may be a bit restrained. If you think the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Law has changed how corporate money makes its way into the Political River of Dreams, you are not watching the shell game in Washington close enough! Don't be surprised if the same people become candidates for the Presidency in 2008!

Will the Federal agencies discover that price gouging exists today? Very unlikely! The reason is that the criteria for judging GOUGING accepts the Harvard Business School belief that every business has a right to anticipate possible losses and it should take steps to minimize those imaginary losses! They have two possible ways to solve diminishing profits: 1) reduce operations, including their own salaries; or 2) increase the price of their product or services. Which one would you choose?

Relax, folks, the price per gallon of Unleaded Regular will be down to $2.36 plus or minus 10 cents by late July 2006! Remember, 18.5 cents per gallon goes to the Federal government and about 35 cents per gallon goes to your State. They are NOT dropping their "take" either -- right? Right!

Our biggest enemy? The Politicians! Watch what criminals like Senator Harkin do to Ethanol production as corn prices rise and every corn product becomes more and more expensive! Harkin will keep giving the farmers in his state and the Midwest more and more profits. He is the same cruddy criminal who has blocked importing Ethanol from Brazil for the past fifteen years! We could have tested Ethanol on a large scale with Brazilian Ethanol, rather than being forced by Harkin's Gang who -- at this moment -- is feverishly pumping millions into Ethanol distilleries and causing a major disruption in the corn markets! Your food bill will reveal this skullduggery by 2008!

Meanwhile, beware of getting too fixated on this OILTHING! The people you should watch this Election Year are folks like George Soros and MoveOn.org! Sorus did not come here a few years ago simply because of our hospitality or our better climate. He has specific things he wants to see happen in our country and he has written extensively about them. When prices rise, the first place to look for the cause is the SPECULATOR like Soros! Wall Street is the Jewish Machine that will eventually impoverish every American because the American Consumer is an incurable CREDIT HOG! CREDIT is the modern solution to a LACK OF EDUCATION AND COMMON SENSE! If you don't have the skills to earn a better living, your Liberal politicians and Wall Street Money Lenders will gladly load you down with debt because the more scandals we have involving Folks who are loosing their new unaffordable homes, the greater political furor there is if you blame it on the Conservatives!   

Part II will take up the subject of how Pricing of Products has been manipulated into a high crimes and misdemeanors game a long time ago. You are just beginning to notice it because the Oil Industry has decided that it is not getting its fair share of the American Consumer's dollar! One of the lesser reasons -- of many -- for price increases is the appearance of Hybrid cars! Ponder that! Yes, as we begin to appear to recognize our problems and their real sources, everyone who sees their control of the Marketplace threatened will increase prices! Isn't that a bit strange? That reaction simply increases our resolve to find new energy sources or new places to drill for oil! Which do you think it is, Pilgrim? Do we really know what is happening? And, why does it seem to happen when we have a national election?

THE NEW CORN SCAM COMETH!

The move toward Ethanol processed from Midwestern corn should be watched carefully. Senators and Reps in Congress from those states are already protecting their Voters and you will find every product from corn will increase in price by nearly 40-60% by 2010AD -- or sooner!

Bottom Line: Even if we shift to using Ethanol like Brazil, the greedy farmers and distillers in the Corn Belt will rip us off! If you can commute to work by train or bus, you might try that. You might find that you like it!  I did years ago!

cqh  4/24/06

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