Crude oil, but not behavior, took a sudden drop last week. Since nothing's changed, except a weaker dollar, it's likely to be only a cough on the path to inflationary-pneumonia. Predictably, as fuel prices continue to rise, so does the cost of most everything else, further torpedoing the household budgets of Americans at all economic levels. Pump prices go up when demand exceeds supply. Complain about the oil companies and the speculators all you want. The core cause, and solution, rests with the Administration, faced with two choices: increase the supply of oil or decrease its demand. Increasing the supply means more domestic production from our huge reserves, on and off-shore. It's painfully obvious that's not going to happen because: (a) it makes sense, (b) new or resumed drilling is purposely-frozen, and (c) because America-first isn't in the Soviet-style playbook. Although to be fair, the President did recently support new off-shore drilling…. in Brazil.
Rejecting supply leaves only decreasing demand, by allowing, repeat, allowing fuel costs to rise, so we're forced to either drive less, or use carrots and cabbage for fuel, which conveniently can be processed in a blender. Back in 2008, now-Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, actually said the following (quote): "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe." And there you have it. Under Bush, high fuel prices caused media and lib-politicians to howl. Now, silence from both. Officially shifting the blame to Big Oil hastens the intended crippling of all fossil fuel companies, despite the fact that real, cost-competitive, mass-accepted alternatives are still decades away. With the lid purposely tightened on supply, prices go up. If Americans get hurt along the way, too bad. So, the next time your debit-card melts at the pump, remember, fondly, it's D.C.'s objectives that matter, not yours.
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