Profiteering

Profiteering is back in vogue. There's no other way to look at gasoline prices at the pump than to call them profiteering. There is no worldwide shortage of crude (like there was when the oil fields of Qtar burned after Desert Storm). There is no lack of capacity (like there briefly was after Katrina). There IS a deep recession in the US economy--let's not split hairs about it, shall we? It's still a recession for everybody except "dismal scientists" until unemployment is below 5%. That equates to a national emergency.

Could we just get real about it, the endless dithering inside the DC beltway notwithstanding. There is a national emergency happening now. Yet, the price of the fuel we need to get to work, drop and pickup the kids at school, go to the store for groceries, go to the doctor for the required checkup, haul the goods, pick up the garbage, plow, plant and harvest the fields, run the few factories we have left, has shot up as though oil field armageddon has hit. It hasn't and it isn't likely to. Libya is still producing. The Suez canal is open. The Saudi's have said they will replace any lack of production to prevent any disruption in supply. China's consumption is down. Overall reserves are up. And yet, we are getting punked at the pump, and we do not "drill, baby, drill!" because we can't get permits for that. There was this spill in the Gulf which caused a phantom disaster. I see the commercials--The Gulf Coast is open for business! Just not for deep drilling.

Just as with the speculation in the housing market, the speculation in the oil market has quietly ballooned like an aneurism. And like an aneurism, it is likely to burst, and do horrendous damage when it does. Then, of course, we'll all cry out for triage, and then we'll get, what? Another stimulus? Meanwhile, enormous hidden systemic damage will have been done. More For Sale signs. More Closed signs. More tiny chisel marks on the face of America inflicted by chislers busy profiteering during this crisis.