Cyreenik Says
It gets old. <sigh>
But I guess we shouldn't be too surprised at this 22 Apr 11 WSJ headline, White House's Task Force to Probe Oil, Gas Markets, by Carol E. Lee. The US government is going to get its knickers in a twist over rising gasoline prices, but will pay no attention to rising gold prices as outlined in this 22 Apr 11 article World Is Bitten by the Gold Bug by Carolyn Cui, or bubbly silver prices as outlined in this 23 Apr 11 article Hi Ho, Silver: Some Fund Investors Could End Up Tarnished by Jason Zweig, or all the other rising commodity prices.
Just gas prices at the pump.
This is a text book example of the "shooting the messenger" response to a problem that the public deems important. It gains political points, but it's hand-waving rather than problem solving. And the fact that Obama can make points for going through this kind of busywork makes us, the American public, look like naive rubes.
The heart of this problem is inflation -- inflation that is being done with the good intention of saving American jobs, by boosting the economy, by making money as easy as a twenty-dollar whore. (Used to be ten but...)
But money goes where money goes, not where government officials want it to go. In this case I think we've been "QE"'d enough and it's time for the government to stop shooting messengers and instead get responsible about its purse strings -- which is the message the messenger is trying desperately to bring to this government.
Update: GET OUT THE TOMMY GUN! The blunder is ratcheting up. Now, to combat high gas prices, Obama wants to end oil subsidies. ...Eh? Details in this 27 Apr 11 WSJ article, Gas Price Surge Triggers Political Brawl by Neil King Jr. and Carol E. Lee.
This 20 Apr 11 WSJ article, US Issues New Rules On Airline Passenger Rights by Josh Mitchell, talks about how the government is extending its passenger rights enforcement into new ground. It will now cover how fees are refunded and tarmac waiting for international flights as well as domestic flights.
Airlines are chronically hit hard with The Curse of Being Important. This is an activity that many people are interested in because it fires the imagination so. It is also an activity that many people engage in even though they find doing so quite scary. And finally, many people consider flying important.
As a result the community is quite tolerant of letting a lot of chefs help make this broth.
The airlines went through some deregulation in the Reagan era, but it has never been anything close to a deregulated industry. Governments directly run the air traffic control network and the airports. Government regulations run all through the maintenance and operation processes. And government handles the most visible elements of airport security. Now the government is telling the airlines how to handle its customer service.
Yes... The Curse is strong in this one, Obe Wan.
This 3 Apr 11 Washington Post article, Afghan protests over Florida Koran burning continue for third straight day by Joshua Partlow and Javed Hamdard, talks about the protesting now rising up in Afghanistan.
In some ways this is surprising, and in some not.
o It's surprising that man-on-the-street Afghans are paying attention to the actions of a fringe American preacher, Terry Jones, in heartland Florida.
o It's not surprising that the Afghans are participating in the Middle East Spring movement.
o It's not too surprising that the tone is anti-American: America is "The Man" in Afghanistan.
What comes next will be a tough test for American leadership. I don't envy Obama, Petraeus and crew as they try to convincingly explain why Gaddafi is a bad buy and Karzai is a good guy.
This is just as much a worst case scenario as the Japan earthquake/tsunami/nuke condition. And the damage that will come from handling it poorly will be just as devastating and just as world-wide.
Ouch, ouch, ouch! Truly rock and hard place time!
-- The End --