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No one seems to be complaining about the falling price of oil. I suppose it would be naïve to think there was no connection between the current condition of many trading houses in the United States and the plummeting price. Before the recent election, there were innumerable television ads calling for the closing of the so called Enron loopholes. The backers of this movement were convinced that trading practices were driving the price of oil to the heights we saw in the spring of 08. The lower volume of trades being made throughout the entire financial spectrum today (as a result of the tight credit markets) certainly adds a great deal of ammunition to those who thought the price of oil was being artificially inflated. The lack of speculative trading has resulted in the falling price, they would argue. I do not mean to suggest that this is the only driving force of the drop of the price of a barrel of oil. For example, it seems the estimate of growth in Chinese demand was greatly overstated.

There are other factors as well. But I thought there was merit in the Enron loophole argument. So it was with no little interest that the open letter to president elect Barack Obama by the Commodities Market Oversight Coalition caught my eye. The entire letter can be found at http://accidentalhuntbrothers.com/ The committee calls for more oversight into the overseas markets, the so called dark markets and more transparency in the transactions within the United States. There are sixteen signers of this letter including such varied interests as the Consumer Watchdog group, The Air Transport Association, the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association and the Independent Oil Merchants of New York. When there is a cry from a particular industry imploring the government to add regulation to their own industry, it tends to make more of an impression on me. Their letter is a cry for stability in what has been a particularly volatile commodities market.

I suspect the president-elect gets a few hundred of these things a day, but this one, I think deserves his attention.

And by the way, there are those who feel the price of oil is no where near bottom. Reuters reports that crude oil prices could drop as low as $20 a barrel in 2009. That sounds outlandish, but so did the July 2008 prediction by the same people of $50 a barrel when it was trading at three times that level at the time. www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8119626

Just another thing to watch as this new administration begins its already historic reign. Who needs reality tv with all this real life drama?

By Myron Gushlak

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President elect Barack Obama has named his choices for a new economic team. Citing

an economic crisis of historical proportions

Obama is quickly moving into the fray even before his inauguration. Lest anyone be alarmed at the current state of the union, the public has been filled in on the impressive credentials of all economic team members.

Lawrence Summers is nominated for director of the National Economic Counsel. Summers was Treasury Secretary to President Clinton, and as been quoted numerous times in this series of blogs. Mr. Summers is an unusually gifted man having enrolled at MIT at age 16 and at age 28, he became one of Harvards youngest ever tenured professors. His personal kryptonite is women, environmentalists and civil rights activists who he continually alienated during his five years as Harvard University President. Though he can neither fly, nor see through walls, it is believed he can breathe underwater, making him the ideal candidate in this current flood of debt.

Timothy Geitner is nominated for Treasury secretary. He is the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has been working alongside of Henry Paulson trying to fix the country’s credit markets. He is bulletproof. He operates from a cave and drives a specially built car that can cause the market to fluctuate three hundred points with the push of a button. His known enemies on both sides of the aisle are all easy to spot because of their various eccentric outfits or nicknames. He works best at night, for some reason.

Melody Barnes was chosen to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council, and has been an advocate for the progressive policies of the Democratic Party. According to the Dallas Morning News, she looks particularly good in a cape, and has a golden magical lasso that can do things that unambiguously aid the general population, though no one could specifically say exactly what it is that she does with her powers.

And finally, Christina Romer will chair the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She is a student of the Great Depression, and an economic professor at the University of California at Berkeley. She believes in the idea that tax increases restrain economic output, and in truth, justice and the American way. It is not yet clear whether she will generally wear tights and a cape, but assures the American people that in the very least, she will carry around a green lantern. Her spokes people would not say why.

Both Marvel and DC Comics are currently negotiating long term deals with all economic members. Fear not America! Help is on the way!

By Myron Gushlak

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Wow! Those crazy Americans were serious about that

equal opportunity for all

crap. Who knew? The cartoonist, Sidney Harris described a cynic as

not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

Yesterdays election struck a blow against cynicism throughout the world. The election of a black man was bad enough, but when one factors in the fact that Barack Obama is extremely intelligent, stereotypes about the American electorate are disappearing faster than Christmas party invitations to Lehman Brothers executives. What about the Adlai Stevenson rule of politics that proved on more than one occasion that the American public will not vote for anyone they perceive as being more intelligent than themselves? What about the George W Bush rule (see above)?

Already this morning, Ive heard the word

Camelot

on two different American networks. Im reminded of the puzzles in the childrens Highlights Magazine when I was a child. Theres a picture of the White House with little children chasing a puppy under the Oval Office desk.

Whats wrong with this picture?

the caption asks.

Ah, but maybe this one time its a trick question. Maybe theres nothing wrong with this picture. What’s a cynic to do? Perhaps a donation to the Dorothy Parker Foundation would be in order.

What happens when a quarter of the population no longer feels disenfranchised? The words

potential

and

possibility

are creeping into my writing this morning. My personalized spell check is underlining them in green, uncertain from past experience what Im trying to say.

By Myron Gushlak

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The worlds largest particle collider passed its first test last week in Switzerland. The test was remarkable on many levels, not the least of which was the fact that two countries, France and Switzerland joined forces on this $10 billion project that has been ongoing since 1984. For physicists, this is enormous. Within a few weeks, or perhaps a couple of month, a couple of atomic particles will be sent on a collision course around the 17 mile tunnel in what the physicists believe will be a simulation of the original Big Bang, which scientists believe formed the universe as we know it. This upcoming test will go a long way towards proving that theory. It could also provide us humans with our first glimpse at new dimensions, the proof that

dark matter

does exist as theorized as well as giving us further information on the nature of anti-matter. They collision might also cause several black holes, though scientists expect them to have a life of less than a second, and not swallow the earth as some doomsday internet pundits have predicted.

I cant profess that I know all or even many of the ramifications of this discovery. The idea of curved space still eludes me, but I think it is a phenomenal achievement by other human beings. Not the least of which is the tenacity to finance and move forward with this project for over thirty years. As a financial man, I can tell you that is no mean achievement. Perhaps never before in history has so much empirical information been so close at hand. I personally cannot get enough of this seemingly science-fiction fodder, and I could fill pages with the fractions of information I do have about the upcoming test.

But I was amused at the juxtaposition of this story in my local newspaper with a story about the United States vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin- same day, a couple of pages apart. It seems that Mrs. Palin, possibly the future next in line

ruler of the free world.

It seems she is a Creationist. Does anyone else see the humor in this? All right, if I was an American, I might not see it as being so funny. But really, if I made this up, no one would believe me.

By Myron Gushlak

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Do you remember a few years ago when two bodies were discovered in Antarctica? The bodies were men who had died there on an expedition in the early years of the twentieth century, but their corpses were preserved as if they had died mere hours before being discovered. It was a feast for the scientific community. One of the things that the forensic scientists discovered after testing the corpses of these men was that both of them suffered from lead poisoning. Virtually all of the food brought along on the expedition was stored in lead cans, as was the norm at that time. The scientists theorized that both men, and possibly most of the expedition were insane at the time of their death because of the lead poison.

I dont know what made me think of that. Maybe it was George Bushs speech the other day where he condemned Russia for invading Georgia. No one seemed to be bothered by the incongruity of a President with an invading army in Iraq lecturing another country about an invasion. Everyone just seemed to nod in silent agreement. Not that there is any shortage of examples of mass insanity. Maybe a hundred years from now, scientists will discover that the people of the early decades of the twenty-first century were all victims of

"artificial coloring insanity"

or some similar thing. It would certainly explain a lot of what is considered to be

"normal behavior."

By Myron Gushlak

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Continue reading "Still A Hundred Dollars a Barrel" »

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The governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, was implicated yesterday in a prostitution ring. Allegedly, he called a prostitute. I wanted to get my two cents in before anything more specific is proven or even alleged, just so I can have an opinion unfettered by facts. When I heard the news, I smiled. I admit it. A big stupid grin came over my face. Not because I have anything against Mr. Spitzer. I know almost nothing about him. Nor do I have anything against his politics. I confess I dont know where he stands on anything. I just love the irony of a man who runs on an ethics platform, and is known as

Mr. Clean

being tied to a prostitute, no pun intended.

You can consider it a flaw in my personality if youd like. I have no defense. I also laugh when evangelist preachers are implicated in fraud or sex scandals…Priests with young boys? Yeah, I snickered a few times. I dont know why. I dont laugh when people trip and fall on the street, but I probably would if they first bragged to everyone that they were such great walkers. I agree with George Orwell who said

saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.

Ill stop smiling soon. Really. Sorry to hear of your news, Mr. Spitzer. Really. I mean it.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)