You know it really isn’t the sex. Sure Americans are still fixated on what many consider illicict sex — prostitution, affairs by married folks, cheeky interns and presidents with over-large appetites. In fact — maybe Eliot Spitzer falls into the Clinton catagory in a way — ego plus appetite plus the “God’s other son” syndrome as my long ago former collegue Peggy Noonan so aptly put it. I guess quite a few Presidents (and leaders of other countries too) fall into that “I am so important I can get away with anything” catagory. But Spitzer was different. He was such a zealot in his prosecutions; he was so holier-than-thou in his public pronouncements; he went after people in an almost gleeful way - beyond the legal necessity. You got the feeling he was laughing wildly behind the scenes as he attacked individuals and prostitution rings like the one which finally tripped him up. Even his resignation statement was goody goody two shoes. As if all the tawdryness he has been a part of had never happened.
As I write I am listening to NY Democratic Senator Charles Schumer saying ” your heart has to go out to the Governor and his wife etc.”. No way! His wife — maybe; unless she choses to tell us we won’t know why she stood publically by him for both of his post-prostitution statements. I’m sure there’s much we’ll never know. But if Spitzer hadn’t come on like God’s other son — he might have been able to weather some of this. Maybe he’d still have to resign as Governor; but the shock wouldn’t have been as great and perhaps he could have salvaged something of his public life. I doubt that’s possible now. I think people hate hypocrites most of all. And Spitzer is now the poster child for hypocrisy. Next to him — our former President’s stupidity looks more like - well - just stupidity.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
$120 Oil
What's wrong with these people??? All of them. The ones in Washington. In the Bush administration, in the House, in the Senate. In the regulatory agencies. These people.
Crude oil futures spiked over $110 a barrel today before closing a few pennies lower. Analysts are now talking about $120 a barrel oil like it's perfectly normal. Meanwhile the economy is tanking and inflation is rising. Higher food prices, higher gasoline prices, higher transportation prices. And sky-high heating oil prices for those of us who have the misfortune to heat our homes with oil.
Why doesn't someone do something?? Why are speculators allowed to bid up at least a third of the crude oil price -- because it's a hedge against the tottering stock market and the moribund financial markets and the swooning dollar?
Capitalism and free markets are all very well -- until they affect the average person's ability to live comfortably -- or even survive miserably. This crazy oil speculation has reached the point where someone has to clamp down on it. Pass a law if necessary that speculation won't be allowed in essential markets when prices reach a certain impossible level. Like now.
Sometimes it seems like the Bush Administration really does want to build a fence around the United States -- not just to keep the illegal immigrants and would-be terrorists out -- but to keep Americans in --- unable to go to Europe or Asia or even Canada and find out how much people in other countries dislike our government. And - since we elected it - us. The dollar has fallen so low against other currencies it now costs nearly twice as much to hop over to London or Paris as it did a few years ago. And if $4 gasoline becomes a feature of the summer driving season -- Americans will be almost literally chained to their homes. Those same ones which have lost so much value because somebody didn't stop the housing speculation and the perhaps criminally creative mortgage industry before the bubble burst.
The other night I heard an economist say what we really have is a financial recession. Not an economic recession. Meaning the overly greedy financial markets brought their current paralysis on themselves by giving people mortgages who should never have gotten them. And then slicing and dicing those risky loans into securities so complicated not even the financial geniuses who rate those securities had the foggiest notion of what was in them. So one day the mortgage market imploded. And started taking the rest of us with it.
All because nobody did anything to stop it.
Crude oil futures spiked over $110 a barrel today before closing a few pennies lower. Analysts are now talking about $120 a barrel oil like it's perfectly normal. Meanwhile the economy is tanking and inflation is rising. Higher food prices, higher gasoline prices, higher transportation prices. And sky-high heating oil prices for those of us who have the misfortune to heat our homes with oil.
Why doesn't someone do something?? Why are speculators allowed to bid up at least a third of the crude oil price -- because it's a hedge against the tottering stock market and the moribund financial markets and the swooning dollar?
Capitalism and free markets are all very well -- until they affect the average person's ability to live comfortably -- or even survive miserably. This crazy oil speculation has reached the point where someone has to clamp down on it. Pass a law if necessary that speculation won't be allowed in essential markets when prices reach a certain impossible level. Like now.
Sometimes it seems like the Bush Administration really does want to build a fence around the United States -- not just to keep the illegal immigrants and would-be terrorists out -- but to keep Americans in --- unable to go to Europe or Asia or even Canada and find out how much people in other countries dislike our government. And - since we elected it - us. The dollar has fallen so low against other currencies it now costs nearly twice as much to hop over to London or Paris as it did a few years ago. And if $4 gasoline becomes a feature of the summer driving season -- Americans will be almost literally chained to their homes. Those same ones which have lost so much value because somebody didn't stop the housing speculation and the perhaps criminally creative mortgage industry before the bubble burst.
The other night I heard an economist say what we really have is a financial recession. Not an economic recession. Meaning the overly greedy financial markets brought their current paralysis on themselves by giving people mortgages who should never have gotten them. And then slicing and dicing those risky loans into securities so complicated not even the financial geniuses who rate those securities had the foggiest notion of what was in them. So one day the mortgage market imploded. And started taking the rest of us with it.
All because nobody did anything to stop it.
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