STICKER SHOCK: Is Everything Really All That Hunky Dory in Lala Land?

Have you by any chance noticed that the price of gas has risen over the last three or four years? If you haven’t, I’d really like to know what brand of scotch you have been drinking. Speaking of which, have you noticed that the price of scotch has risen over the last three or four years? Maybe you noticed that, at the same time commodities have been subtly increasing in costs at the register, housing values have peaked and begun to nosedive? Well, to cap this opening paragraph off, how many people out there honestly feel that property taxes are going down as housing values have been decreasing? No show of hands?

With unemployment figures on the upswing, housing values heading for the basement, property taxes staying the same or going up, and the price of everyday goods such as groceries, clothing and condoms skyrocketing, how long will it take for the consumer to yell and scream bloody murder?

There IS money to be made in this market. If you go and buy gas at $3.50 a gallon, instead of selling it at $3.65 a gallon you stick 50,000 gallons into your underground tanks and sit on it for 30 days, you will be able to sell it for $4.15 a gallon. Or, if you buy 100 tons of rice at $100 a ton and sit on it for 30 days, you may be able to sell it as high as $200 a ton.

This is called a “run up market,” otherwise known as inflation.

Here’s what feeds that mentality. With prices going up and with the retailer who sells gas for a living purchasing gas at $3.50 a gallon and selling 10,000 gallons at $3.65, there is a $1,500 gross profit. But, at the same time, he will need to replenish the 10,000 gallons at a cost of $3.75 a gallon, and he has just LOST $1,000 from a cash position. So, the logical answer is to buy quantity and keep the cost per unit down, sit on it until the resale value goes way up, then sell. That’s called, “maximizing your yield in an inflationary market.” And, of course, that inevitably feeds inflation like a roaring fire and may cause spot shortages.

Just apply that philosophy across the board on every product you can think off that doesn’t have a prescribed shelf life. My friend, we could be in for a very tough ride that I don’t know we’re prepared for.

Here’s more.

The increase in the minimum wage has stoked the furnace. Mind you, I’m not saying that the increase should not have happened. It needed to happen. Inflation, although slowed over a number of years, was still eating away at the value of the dollar while those most impacted were minimum wage earners. Considering the escalating price of gas at the pump, I think a lot of those minimum wage earners would have been priced out of transportation to their minimum wage jobs. But, the fact still is that someone has to pay for that increase in the minimum wage, and it you know darned well who it’s going to be: you and me.

Energy prices for heating and air conditioning are on the very verge of skyrocketing. Prices at the pump, slated to be over $4.00 a gallon “sometime this summer,” have already passed the $4.00 mark in much of California, while energy czars everywhere are smiling at unparalleled increases on bottom-line profits. Shell is making $80 million plus, per day. Executives of the five biggest oil companies, Exxon - Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Conoco - Philips and Chevron, were called to testify at a congressional hearing where lawmakers raked them over the coals for making enormous profits while investing next to nothing in the development of alternative sources of energy. They received over $18 billion in tax breaks last year while their 2007 profits hit $123 billion as they passed the blame to OPEC (and the rising cost of crude.) Horse shit! (Pardon my French). Congress, in what appears to me to be a dog and pony show, didn’t do a damned thing after hearing the testimony.

Nationally, gaming revenues are down over 5%; that fact alone is an ominous indicator of a slide in the disposable income of Americans. Layoffs have been going on for weeks, 80,000 here, 40,000 there, ad infinitum. The tax burden on Americans is already backbreaking, and yet two Presidential candidates appear ready and willing to add to it by nationalizing health care. The plain fact is that Congress has drastically screwed up the Social Security system and turned Medicare into a national nightmare; these two factors are perilously close to adding to the national per person monetary burden of all of us.

My fellow Americans, this is really going to be a long and hot summer. We’re probably looking at massive stagflation again, coupled with high unemployment and only God knows what else. We’re just now beginning to get lip service on the subject, let alone solutions. Those in the positions of being able to do something about it are either too busy running for reelection or appearing on news talk shows.

I’ll be very surprised if this magnanimous tax rebate now being rushed to the mail does anything at all for the economy. With what we are facing, most Americans will either pay down debt or save it for a rainy day.

But, November is just around the corner, and we do have the ability to vote them all out. A change of guard is most certainly long overdue. Isn’t it time to stick the sticker shock where the sun doesn’t shine?

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.

HAS THE POPE’S VISIT MANAGED TO STIR THE AMERICAN CONSCIENCE?

I note with interest that the media, seemingly hell-bent on drumming the 2008 Presidential campaigns into the ground, suddenly stopped dead in its tracks when the Alitalia Jet Liner landed in Washington and the Pope emerged. It appeared to me that Fox, for one, did not intend to cover the visit to the extent that it has; I think they were caught off guard when America’s television sets zeroed in on every move the Pope was making. Suddenly, the networks changed their programming and the Pope ended up being in charge of the day.

Just what is it about this guy that has jerked us out of our armchair prognostications about the election long enough to follow his path as he has made his way from Washington to New York, wowing audiences with his every nuance?

Perhaps we are entranced by the pomp and circumstance surrounding his visit? The trumpets announcing his arrivals? The choirs, like angels, singing praise to the Lord? The Popemobile? The fact that leaders from all walks of life and all countries have stopped their daily routines to pay honor and tribute to His Holiness?

To observe his demeanor as he winds his way through the crowds and to the alter, the way he displays gracious humility when in the presence of the President, the world’s ambassadors, and American public is somewhat akin to watching poetry in motion. Yet, he has no hesitation in making it clear that the message he proffers is the most urgent and important business of the week.

Surely, if he had time to catch the late night news, his stomach must have turned many times. On the one hand, the polygamy issues in Texas and Arizona have occupied a fair amount of the remaining news time. So have the teenage beating videos. I’m sure I could make the list of national shames as long as I wanted to. The only major thing missing this week was another Britney saga.

What the Pope seems to be saying is, “Stop this nonsense and get your acts together!” And, we seem to be tuning in.

Could it be that the American sway to the extreme liberal left is being jerked back toward the center spectrum of life? Is it possible that we might be rethinking our obsessions with coke, crack, pot, sex, and other hedonistic indulgences? I read recently that Americans are starting to come back to the religious flocks in droves and the fascination with the Papal visit seems to fit right into that trend.

It may well be that the propriety of our national history is about to be restored, and that we are about to regain our leadership in this world when it comes to ethics and morality. What a breath of fresh air that would be. And, if the message being delivered by the Pope happens to be the nudge that makes it all happen, his visit will most certainly have not gone in vain.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.

MAO Short Shots

Please note: “MAO” is an acronym for My American Opinion and has nothing to do with either sandwiches or Chinese history.

The proposed boycott of the Chinese Olympics is a moot issue. Once the Congress repossesses all of those credit cards that have been abused, no one is going to be able to go anyway. Further, if they TRY to go, they’ll have to swim, now that all of the planes are grounded…. Except, evidently, Air Force One.

The urging by Clinton and Obama to boycott the Olympics demonstrates just how very shallow their understanding of Chinese-American relations really is. We can’t we just rice to the occasion? They probably also think that the Chinese invented checkers. Get a life.

Since my dad was born in Scranton, PA, I am a tad miffed at Obama’s recent put-down of Pennsylvanians. Those remarks weren’t fit for minors or miners. They also open the door a crack about who the real Obama is. I wonder whether he was talking about white Pennsylvanians or black Pennsylvanians. Oh? They were gray? More later.

The fact that Uncle Sam is going to bail people out of their mortgage problems that they themselves got into, underscores the sad fact that Americans are no longer responsible for their own actions. I heard somewhere that Americans spend less time reading the fine print and understanding the terms of a house purchase than they do in buying a computer game. I would be willing to bet that the average American male does not know the R factor of his attic insulation and what that means, or whether or not his studs are 4 inch or 6 inch, or even where his main water shutoff valve is. But, you can bet your sweet buns that he knows how many USB ports his laptop has and what the clock speed of his processor is. Why I should bail him out is beyond me; isn’t this… Communism?

Who’s in charge of port operations at major U.S. cities these days? Sorry, I guess that’s still a sore subject.

Speaking of global warming, did you see the look on Hillary’s face while Petraeus was testifying on the hot seat the other day? Or, did you notice Lieberman riding McCain’s coattails into the meeting room and hanging at his very elbow almost until the meeting started? One thing you surely didn’t see was Kennedy giving Hillary a nice, big fat kiss of fond and loving affection. Maybe he was going to take her for a ride later?

Hillary says she knows how to end the war in Iraq. Okay, babe. Jump on a plane and head right on over there and let us know when it’s over. Don’t forget to sit on your flack jacket on the final approach and to duck under the flack on the tarmac at the Baghdad Airport!

Jimmy Carter’s going to talk with Hamas? Now ain’t THAT sweet! Maybe he’s going to sell them some peanuts?

Now, doesn’t that Iranian hot shot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have a radioactive personality? Maybe Big Al would like to talk with him about global warming! I hear the guy will shoot any one dead on the spot if they can’t pronounce his name.

When’s the last time you heard of a gas price war in this country? Except for the three stations in Lee Vining, California who have a race going on to see who can raise prices the fastest…

Jesse Ventura is sounding more and more like a Presidential candidate every day. I totally agree with his statement that he can’t stomach the building of a wall between us and Mexico, because we’d need one between us and Canada, too. Then, we’d be in East Berlin. There has to be a better way to solve that illegal immigration issue. On the other hand, it’ll go away pretty soon on its own, because they’ll all be here anyway… Frankly, I think he could wrestle with a lot of our nation’s problems better than any of the other three major potentials at this point.

I wonder how many Americans, knowing now who their Presidential candidates are, would give their left ear lobe for a rerun of the primaries?

Hey! If you think I’m playing on words in this piece, just get over it.

Things got so bad during the Writer’s strike that I even caught some reruns of old Lassie segments on the tube. Actually, once you get used to them, they’re better than sex. Really. You bet.

That’s a great lead in to my next tidbit. Did you know that roughly 97.389% of the married people in San Francisco are either male or female? (Well, I don’t know either; maybe the rest are lawyers.)

When I was a kid, “spring break” was what caused you to throw your watch into the trash can. These days, what with the drinking, drugs and sex parties, it seems to me that Spring Break is a lame excuse to act like Congress.

Don’t you really love the idea of having your medical records on the Internet? When they find out where I’ve got some of MY warts, they’ll probably reconsider the idea.

Katie Couric will probably end up on Airhead America. She has no where else left to go.

Considering the prejudice that American women have survived, and considering the discrimination that people of any color have faced over our history, I think that the flap about Michelle Obama’s statement of being proud for the first time to be an American is much ado about nothing. I think I know where she is coming from, having risen as a black woman to the level of being married to a black man who might become President… that being the metamorphosis that has transformed her feelings about America. I’m much more concerned about Obama’s feelings about America; to me, he’s got one helluva lot of explaining to do, and he really should get rid of the Clintonesque way of worming his way off the hook. It’s just not Wright. (Oh, darn! There I go again!)

Lots of fuss about a vodka maker’s redrawing of the Mexican border. Considering the number of Mexicans, illegal and otherwise, now living in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, it appears to me that the map’s depiction of those states belonging to Mexico is already and Absolut-ly correct. Those raising the ruckus want something done about it? I have a fishy feeling that pulling the ads won’t change the demographics.

Have run across a great site for you to visit. This’ll be my first recommendation in over two years of producing these blogs, so you must know that I value my opinion highly and reserve recommendations for only the best. Please, no emails to tell me how you value my opinion….. Take a look at www.michellemalkin.com The site is refreshing and pretty much hits things right on target. Never mind the cute pictures; her husband took them.

That’s a wrap until next week.

A REAL Solution For Rising Fuel Prices?

How do we whack America’s politicians across the head hard enough to get them to pay attention to the toll the rising cost of fuel is taking on our economy? How do we force them off their portentous posteriors long enough to become interested in solving the problem?

The economic emergency staring us in the face has been simmering for months and is on the very verge of boiling over. Just this week, we’ve witnessed the shut down of three major airlines and the loss of over 80,000 jobs in the month of March. The already outrageous cost of fuel is forcing truckers to park their rigs because they are actually losing more money when they drive than when they don’t. Suddenly, the public is shocked into a bigger reality when the cost of goods at the grocery store takes a sudden and major jump; the fuel costs mean higher transportation costs, and the trickle-down reaches the tomato bins.

You think that’s bad? Just wait until the new minimum wage kicks in on July 24^th. The rise in gas prices has put the lower income earners in this country behind the same 8-ball that everyone else faces; they need to make more money to pay for fuel. So, the minimum wage goes up, and there will be another hike in the price of sauerkraut and eggs, (imagine THAT combination!)

With these rising prices, people will cut back on travel, on purchases, and we’ll have more layoffs. The tax-rebate isn’t even going to make a quiver in the overall economy. The fact that prices at the pump have more than doubled in the last 18-24 months while Washington has barely done more than pay lip service to big oil, is now like a flock of chickens coming home to roost.

We’re in trouble. And, it doesn’t seem to me that a President’s proclamation that we’re not in trouble is going to restore 80,000 jobs or bring back three airlines. We have to do something…. more than burying our heads in the sand and pretending the problem doesn’t exist, or that it isn’t serious and growing.

Quit shopping at Exxon and Mobile and send a message to big oil? The only thing that will accomplish is to put thousands of small-time convenience store and service station owners in the poor-house. Exxon and Mobile will either sell out to someone else, or sell their gas to independents, and the amount of oil coming out of the ground won’t change one iota.

Where’s all of the money going that big oil is charging at the pump? According to them, the Arabs and the rest of the cartel are getting it with their + $100 a barrel oil charges. If that were the real answer, it seems to me, our major oil company profits would not be UP by billions per quarter…. The money would be in some other country. So, that claim appears to me to be a big fat and blatant lie.

“Oh,” they cry, “we’re out of refinery capacity, and the environmentalists won’t let us build any more refineries, so the market is driving the prices.” If that is the case, why wouldn’t they expand production capabilities at their current facilities? Cost prohibitive, probably…. Some lame answer like that. Billions of dollars in increasing profits per quarter?

There’s no doubt that the world’s oil supply is growing smaller; at some point in time, we will run out unless we curtail our use or find another energy source. And, at the same time, demand is growing as third world countries start to motivate. So, there is some credence to the claim that the market itself is driving prices up. But, the extent of unchecked big oil profits defies any and all reason.

So, what to do?

Is grumbling about it getting anything done? What effect does our crying and occasional email or letter to our Congressional delegation having on the situation? Well, it appears that all they are doing themselves is to grumble and cry to the oil companies…. where billions of dollars of increased profits can either threaten any one’s reelection or guarantee a hefty contribution to a campaign. Talk about the tail wagging the elephants and donkeys!

Back to the opening question: How do we force them off of their big butts to DO something? First of all, of course, you have to remember that Congress has done absolutely nothing about anything for at least two decades now. So, getting their attention and getting them off of their duffs and in actual productive motion is going to be a bigger project than moving Mt. Everest.

Nevertheless, one thing that is guaranteed to get their attention is to have big money interests come pounding at their Congressional office doors. No one can argue that statement. So, how do we turn the issue from Joe Z. Public vs. Big Oil Pockets to Big Corporate America vs. Congress? How do we whack our wonderful leaders across the chops and get their attention? We need a big, solid whack; a fly swatter simply won’t do.

The idea of not buying gas for a day won’t work either, because we’ll just buy it on another day. But, the intent of that suggestion bears some consideration. The idea is to take a day’s profit out of the big oil pipelines and to get their attention that way. Let’s expound on that thought.

Take a work day, any day, say the 4^th of August, (I like that, because it’s a play on the 4^th of July, being Independence Day). On August 4^th, beginning at 12:00 AM and lasting until Midnight that night, everyone walks off the job. No one goes to work. Everyone goes home and stays there. Have a big hootin’ block barbeque party.

Think about it. There’d be no one to sell airline tickets, no one to fly planes, no one to drive 16-wheelers, no one to dig gravesites. My God, we’d even have to clean our own bellybuttons! Oh, we’d keep essential skeleton crews going in hospitals and emergency services but, outside of that, the national economy will come to a screeching halt. For just for 24 hours, imagine no domestic product being created, no services, and no sales tax revenues. Hell, if you’d take that day without pay, there’d be no income tax revenue, either!

Would that make a statement, or what? The truth be known, I think that statement would reverberate around the country and the world for years, even decades, to come.

Do you think that the big corporations, the Wal-Marts and MacDonald’s of the world, wouldn’t be madder than wet roosters? Do you think that state governors would be crying the blues over the loss of sales tax revenues? Do you envision that big oil would be standing there on the sidewalks with their jaws hanging open?

Wow! I actually think this would create enough pressure in the halls of Congress to actually move Mt. Everest!

And, now that we have their attention, why don’t we force big oil to take some of those billions of dollars in increased quarterly profits and plow them back into research for the creation of alternative sources of energy? Tax their earnings big time and use the revenues to endow universities and other research venues to tackle the problem, but give big oil a tax break if they direct some of their own revenues into internal alternative energy research.

Would I give up a day’s pay to accomplish this? Damned right! I think the dividends to us and our children would be damned well worth it. At the same time, we just might get the reminder message to our elected Gods that they don’t run this country. We do.

How about it? August 4^th? That’s a Monday, you know. Makes a nice three-day weekend……

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.