Amidst the economic collapse and economic bailout of the wealthy who engaged in creative gambling schemes permitted by deregulation, high energy prices, and more specifically, OIL seems at its core.
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Having listened to lengthy explanations of convoluted SWAPS, derivatives and much else, it is clear that neither Paulson nor any stadium filled with economic experts possesses clear definition of causes, nor adequate solutions. What is clear is that this Administration ignored the warnings signs, the escalating home foreclosures, the misery of families displaced and communities destroyed, until major financial institutions imploded. One must question the wisdom of allowing those who watched the structure collapse to now supervise the $700 Billion reconstruction.
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It is also clear that Congress, including both Presidential candidates lack clear answers without an independent investigation into the causes that is clearly written for the lay person's comprehension. The failure to mandate adequate reserves on the financial gambling of the Big Money Boys is a good start toward correction, but the final answers are more complex.
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And just maybe, it's time for some major lobbying reform.
.Democracy Now interviewed an author of a recent book, excerpts below, but worth reading in its entirety (emphasis mine), that provides part of the explanation:
Why are oil and gas prices so high?
ANTONIA JUHASZ: Well, they went up last week, the highest one-day jump in the history of crude oil prices, back down, as you said, to $90, now back up to $93. They are this high, and they are this volatile, because of deregulation, the exact same deregulation that fed the mortgage meltdown, the exact same deregulation that gave us Enron, if folks remember Enron, deregulation of crude oil futures markets led by the lobbying efforts of Big Oil and big banks, who are now reaping big benefits.
ANTONIA JUHASZ: Well, they went up last week, the highest one-day jump in the history of crude oil prices, back down, as you said, to $90, now back up to $93. They are this high, and they are this volatile, because of deregulation, the exact same deregulation that fed the mortgage meltdown, the exact same deregulation that gave us Enron, if folks remember Enron, deregulation of crude oil futures markets led by the lobbying efforts of Big Oil and big banks, who are now reaping big benefits.
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The banks that have survived so far: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, the two banks with oil companies that founded their own unregulated crude futures exchange, on which the majority of crude oil futures are now traded, which have sent the price skyrocketing and put, essentially, control of this—the most important factor determining the world economy into the hands of speculative traders, many of whom are former Enron traders, working at the banks, working at the oil companies and working at hedge funds.
The banks that have survived so far: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, the two banks with oil companies that founded their own unregulated crude futures exchange, on which the majority of crude oil futures are now traded, which have sent the price skyrocketing and put, essentially, control of this—the most important factor determining the world economy into the hands of speculative traders, many of whom are former Enron traders, working at the banks, working at the oil companies and working at hedge funds.
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Campaign contributions...about $1.6 million by the oil industry to McCain-Palin, a little less than $400,000 to the Obama-Biden ticket, a pretty clear difference there, about 75 percent of oil given to Republicans overall. But campaign contributions are just the very tip of the iceberg. It really is lobbying, where the big money comes in. It’s the front groups that you don’t even know are associated with the oil industry, where the influence comes in.
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..the US Chamber of Commerce, which is getting more and more and more money from the oil industry and doing more of its bidding. The US Chamber of Commerce is by far the largest lobbying presence on the Hill.
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...terrible for the environment—really quickly, on Governor Palin’s constant statement, “clean” offshore drilling? Just like clean coal, absolutely unreal, an unreal statement, for many reasons. One of them is that drilling at water depths of 500 feet or greater—and now we’re talking about water depths of 1,000 feet, 5,000 feet—any drill that—any hole that’s 500 feet or lower releases methane, a greenhouse gas at least twenty times more potent to climate change than CO2. There’s no such thing as clean drilling. It’s just clean and easy for the oil industry to book reserves, environmentally devastating for the rest of us.
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AFRICOM, the new US Defense Central Command for all of Africa. Many members of the Bush administration and even generals who are participating in Africa have been quite clear to say it’s about oil, it’s about making sure we can control African oil. The Bush administration has used our military to expand access to oil all over the world..
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In the context of the failure of regulation and government oversight, the MMS scandal is worth revisiting: The 'Drill, Baby Drill' Scandal
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