The Speculative Market Of Oil

Gas went from two-something a gallon to well over four dollars and approaching five, now it is back down under two dollars again. What a crazy roller-coaster ride it has been in the last couple of years for the cost of oil and its most beloved byproduct, gasoline. While I believe the recent decline in price has a lot to do with the falling demand of a sagging economy, it certainly does not tell the entire story. It wasn't so much that so much demand more than doubled the price at one time, but speculators looking to make a quick billion or two...all at the expense of the millions who fill up their cars.

From CBS:

To understand what happened to the price of oil, you first have to understand the way it's traded. For years it has been bought and sold on something called the commodities futures market. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, it's traded alongside cotton and coffee, copper and steel by brokers who buy and sell contracts to deliver those goods at a certain price at some date in the future.

It was created so that farmers could gauge what their unharvested crops would be worth months in advance, so that factories could lock in the best price for raw materials, and airlines could manage their fuel costs. But more than a year ago those markets started to behave erratically. And when oil doubled to more than $147 a barrel, no one was more suspicious than Dan Gilligan.

So we have a quick history about why Wall Street has futures trading, but no explanation to why it gets abused the way it does, yet. And Dan had already told 60 Minutes all about this speculative business back when oil was at its peak last summer. Then those in the market denied everything Dan said. Then this happened in September.

If anyone had any doubts, they were dispelled a few days after that hearing when the price of oil jumped $25 in a single day. That day was Sept. 22.

Michael Greenberger, a former director of trading for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees oil futures, says there were no supply disruptions that could have justified such a big increase.

Of course there is nothing out there to do that, unless we went to war with Iran and they blocked the Straits of Hormuz. Anyways, here comes the big academia investigation:

A recent report out of MIT, analyzing world oil production and consumption, also concluded that the basic fundamentals of supply and demand could not have been responsible for last year's run-up in oil prices. And Michael Masters says the U.S. Department of Energy's own statistics show that if the markets had been working properly, the price of oil should have been going down, not up.

"From quarter four of '07 until the second quarter of '08 the EIA, the Energy Information Administration, said that supply went up, worldwide supply went up. And worldwide demand went down. So you have supply going up and demand going down, which generally means the price is going down," Masters told Kroft.

"And this was the period of the spike," Kroft noted.

So, drumroll please, that means the increases were artificially created. So who is at fault? Well, that would include all sorts of financial entities, such as investment banks, hedge funds, commodities traders and the like. They were all looking for quick profits and found an avenue to do so in the oil futures market. So, I'll leave you with a sad joke from the interview, which pretty much sums things up.

Yes," Gilligan said. "I tease people sometimes that, you know, people say, 'Well, who's the largest oil company in America?' And they'll always say, 'Well, Exxon Mobil or Chevron, or BP.' But I'll say, 'No. Morgan Stanley.'"

Sad but true.

A Challenge From A Saudi Oil Kingpin To You

Last night on 60 Minutes, two sheiks that control a sizable portion of the oil that comes to the United States mocked our clean energy alternatives. The current chief of OPEC has every right to do so, because we as a nation have depended on their oil to make our economy move without much investment in clean energy. Well on the show last night he challenged us to find another way, so let's quit stalling and help put him out of business.

On 60 Minutes, Obama Backs Up His Pledge To End America's Torture

One of the many topics covered in last night's interview, the question of torture and closing Guantanamo Bay is extremely important to Americans and the way we are seen as a nation around the world. Going after OBL is also pertinent, though in my opinion going after the root causes of that terrorist and all that wish harm on us is the key.

Siegelman Saga Makes Karl Rove Desperate

Now that ex-Governor Don Siegelman has been practically vindicated after serving several months in jail, the heat is being turned up on Karl Rove. The 60 Minutes special a few months ago brought much of his story to light. Now so-called "Bush's Brain" is starting to lose his own marbles and taking his anger out against accuser Jill Simpson and 60 Minutes via GQ Magazine.

From RawStory:

In an interview with GQ magazine, President Bush's former political guru says he has never met Jill Simpson, an Alabama attorney and GOP campaign volunteer who has claimed that Rove tried to sabotage Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman's career.

CBS says it stands behind the "60 Minutes" program from February in which Simpson said Rove asked her to find evidence that Siegelman was cheating on his wife. Rove declined to respond to her allegations on the program.

Simpson, who has given sworn testimony to congressional investigators, has claimed she overheard conversations among Republicans suggesting that Rove pushed the Justice Department to go after Siegelman, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2006.

"She's a complete lunatic," Rove said in the interview. "I've never met this woman. This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her."

Asked why CBS aired her allegations, he said, "Because CBS is a shoddy operation." It aired the story to get good ratings, he added.

Wow Karl, I think a five year could have come up with sharper remarks than that. What happened to the cool, calm and collected Presidential adviser we all used to love to hate? Is the pressure getting to ya? Perhaps you only get one get out jail free card in your life? Whatever it is, I.....think Mr. Rove might just have his goose cooked on this one.

Al Gore Calls Out Wingnut Climate Change Skeptics

On the upcoming episode of 60 Minutes this weekend, Al Gore is on the show and he is fighting back against critics who still have their heads stuck in the ground. Al and many of us in the reality-based community are sick and tired of hearing the lame excuses that delusional people such as Senator James Inhofe come up with in order to cover their eyes from the massive 800 ton gorilla sitting in the room with all of us.

From CBS News:

Confronted by Stahl with the fact some prominent people, including the nation’s vice president, are not convinced that global warming is man-made, Gore responds: "You're talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,” says Gore. "That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off," he tells Stahl.

Gore’s campaign to make the world more aware of man’s role in global warming won him the Nobel Peace Prize last year. He donated the $750,000 prize money to The Alliance for Climate Protection, the non-profit he started to help him on his quest. He and his wife, Tipper, tell Stahl they not only matched the Nobel money with their own, but they are also donating to the organization the significant profits from his book and Oscar-winning documentary film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." The funds will help The Alliance for Climate Protection execute a new $300 million ad campaign on global warming set to start next week.

Some of the ads will feature unlikely alliances to drive home the message that people of all stripes are concerned about global warming. These include the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Pat Robertson, Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks, and Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich.

See, even some on the right can realize that our planet is in serious danger. If people like Pat Robertson and Newt Gingrich can understand, then hopefully the remaining demented naysayers can come to grips with reality as well.

This issue should no longer be up for debate, our climate should not be political issue. We all live here and we all are and will deal with the consequences of how we treat our planet. People long ago gave up the idea that the world is flat, now it is time to let go of this fallacy too.

It Doesn't Get Much Worse Than This

I recently watched Michael Moore's SiCKO again and realized that the documentary is still a tear jerker, exposing the awful realities that is our excuse for a national health care system. Of course there are the deniers out there that will dismiss the findings just because Michael Moore has his name on the exposé. Despite anyone's feelings about Mr. Moore, the tragedy that is the reality in the U.S. is hard to escape unless you are ultra-wealthy or live in an area where poverty has been swept away. Perhaps the wealthy Republican elite will dismiss CBS' 60 Minutes as liberal scum, but folks, the camera doesn't lie when you hear about what is going on in the South.

From CBS News:

In a matter of hours, Remote Area Medical set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Tools for dentists were laid out by the yard, optometrists prepared to make hundreds of pairs of glasses, general medical doctors set up for whatever might come though the door. Nearly everything is donated, and everyone is a volunteer. The care is free. But no one could say how many patients might show up.

The first clue came a little before midnight. Stan Brock, the founder of Remote Area Medical, opened the gate outside. The clinic wouldn't open for seven hours, but people in pain didn't want to chance being left out. State guardsmen came in for crowd control. They handed out what would become precious slips of paper - numbered tickets to board what amounted to a medical lifeboat.

It was 27 degrees. The young and the old would spend the night in their cars, running the engine for heat, but not much - not at $3 a gallon. At 5 a.m., Pelley took a walk through the parking lot.

"We got up at three o’clock this morning and we got here about four. We’ve been out where a little while it's cold," Margaret Walls, a hopeful patient from
Tennessee, told Pelley.

"Why did you come so early?" Pelley asked.

"'Cause we wanted to be seen," Walls replied.

That is the reality for the uninsured in America. Moore talks about the insured in SiCKO, this is about the other 45 to 50 million Americans out there. These people can't afford insurance, not at the high premiums that companies like Cigna, Aetna and Blue Cross offer. The worst thing about this story was that not everyone was able to be seen because there were just too many people. A group that donates their time and money to conditions in third world countries don't have to go very far to be helpful, a short trip to Tennessee will do just fine.

And The "Curveball" Is....

Besides being a type of pitch in a baseball game, "Curveball" is the name of a source that the U.S. government used to justify going into Iraq. The scary scenario that Colin Powell portrayed was one where Saddam Hussein had mobile biological warfare capabilities. Unfortunately, the tall tales of Rafid Ahmed Alwan were all part of an attempt to get a green card. Alwan was simply a bad student of chemical engineering who worked at the Djerf al Nadaf plant where the WMDs supposedly were...with talent that partially deceived intelligence agents in Germany and the U.S.

From CBS News:

More than a hundred summaries of his debriefings were sent to the CIA, which then became a pillar - along with the now-disproved Iraqi quest for uranium for nuclear weapons - for the U.S. decision to bomb and then invade Iraq. The CIA-director George Tenet gave Alwan’s information to Secretary of State Colin Powell to use at the U.N. in his speech justifying military action against Iraq.

Tenet gave the information to Powell despite a letter - a copy of which 60 Minutes obtained - addressed to him by the head of German intelligence stating that Alwan appeared to be believable, but there was no evidence to verify his story.

Through a spokesman, Tenet denies ever seeing the letter. "[Tenet] needs to talk to his special assistants if he didn’t see it," says Tyler Drumheller, a former CIA senior official. "I am sure they showed it to him and I am sure ... it wasn’t what they wanted to see," he tells Simon.

Of course there were also many in the intel community that did not believe him. Surprisingly, the higher-ups did not want to hear anything of the sort. Now Presidential Medal of Honor winner George Tenet can't remember anything about the letter....seems to be a common trait of people who work under George Bush.

Oh and Mr. Alwan is reported to be living in Germany, free and under a new name, just as he had wanted.

A Trans-Fat Lobbyist

Whenever there is a good cause to help people in their daily lives from the evils of consumerism, you can almost always find a lobbyist that is fighting for the particular industry that might lose revenue from pertinent legislation. New York City led the way last year by passing a ban on trans-fats. Lard companies in the tri-state areas must have been furious. Bakeries were dismayed. Cardiac surgeons were....well, lets not go there, but you get my point. So there has to be someone that tries to defend trans-fats, and guess what, there is.

From RawStory:

60 Minutes reported Sunday on "Dr. Evil," the nickname of lobbyist Rick Berman, who specializes in defending all the products others decry as unhealthy and destructive. Berman, who sees himself as a defender of personal freedom against the "nanny state," told CBS, "Businesses themselves don't find it convenient to take on causes that don't seem politically incorrect and I'm not afraid to do that."

60 Minutes showed an ad produced by Berman's ConsumerFreedom.com, decrying the "food police" who tell you what you can or can't eat. Berman's favorite targets also include animal rights activists, trial lawyers, and union leaders. Berman does not reveal his clients, who are alleged to include numerous fast food restaurant chains and junk food manufacturers, but relies instead on a "clever system of non-profit educational entities," including the Center for Consumer Freedom and the Center for Union Facts.

"While those tactics have made him rich and powerful, it's difficult to find someone who provokes as much venom as Rick Berman," CBS reported. There are many sites online dedicated to countering Berman's claims and exposing the corporate interests behind him, such as ConsumerDeception.com and PRWatch.

It just goes to show that in corporate America, there is a job for anyone who wants to play in the cesspool of lies and deception.

Memo To America: We're $crewed

In addition to climate change and the war, our country is facing a huge crisis. A financial crisis that looms so large that most politicians do not want to face it because making the tough decisions to combat it can be highly unpopular. 60 Minutes' reporter Andy Court inteviewed the U.S. Controller David Walker this week and the news isn't pretty:

Mike Wallace Takes On O'Reilly's Ego

If there is one thing I have to hand credit to Bill O'Reilly on, it is his undying belief that he thinks he is right no matter what. Even if the truth is slapping him continually in the face, the man does not waver. Bill believes he is still a middle class guy who is fighting for people like him. Apparently there are millions out there since they flock to his show every week, ratings don't lie even if he does.

Mike Wallace did a one-on-one with Bill for 60 Minutes this week and tried to expose the guy that lives inside the ego-laden fortress. From what I saw, nothing is going to penetrate what O'Reilly thinks about himself. His father beat him up as a kid and now he beats up others on his show, figuratively that is. Whether it is a WTC victim, a boy scout or a child abducted from his home it makes no difference. Bill does whatever it takes to make himself look good (in his own mind) and won't take a second look at the wreckage he leaves in his path.

The interview a la Crooks and Liars:

Download (1105) | Play (1012) Download (1013) | Play (675)

Some highlights from the transcript at CBS.com:

What does he think of talk show host Rush Limbaugh?

"I respect Limbaugh for basically making a success out of himself and putting on an entertaining program. But he's not a primary source of information, or shouldn't be," says O'Reilly. "He's an entertainer. … I'm a journalist who provides a program that is entertaining."

[…]

"I'll never win any awards for stuff I'm doing now," says O'Reilly. "Because the intelligentsia who distributes the awards thinks that I'm misguided. I'm a barbarian. I am a Hun."

Does it bother him?

"No, I love it," says O’Reilly. "I love to be the outsider."

For a guy that hangs out with Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, that certainly makes him an outsider. His vitriolic approach to the political left in this country has done nothing but made him powerful friends on the right and a ton of money in his pocketbook via Fox News and his books that spew the same garbage in print that can be found on TV or radio on a daily basis.