Category: Minnesota Politics

by Dave Mindeman

Norm Coleman indirectly confirmed that speculation in oil prices is the real problem with the barrel price of oil right now. In an article in the Star Tribune:

If the energy problem is attacked on a wide number of fronts, he said, "you'd have an impact on speculation which would lower some of the [gas] price immediately, even though the technology itself may not be operational until the future."

Norm suggests that we must expand drilling in the outer continental shelf, increase nuclear energy, and promote development in alternative energy sources.

Now, alternative energy has been on the table for decades... Norm Coleman has voted to promote those sources (mostly ethanol) when he could, but the price of oil still went up. Nuclear energy has been under moratorium for quite some time....and maybe a limited expansion would be a good idea. However, that will take years and years to make a difference.... and it can only affect the price of oil in an indirect manner. The outer continental shelf has limited value also. We have millions of miles of shelf already available. Nobody really knows how much is really there. Test wells have not been very encouraging.

The bottom line is that you can say these initiatives will help all you want, but whether or not they can actually lower the price is, well, you might say "speculation".

The commodity futures in oil look at stability. Do we have a stable market? Do we have stable supply and demand? Do we have political issues that could affect the market? Are there dangerous variables involved?

To lower the price of oil, those questions have to be given solid answers. Supply, demand, and stability are all dependent on our foreign oil sources right now....because we have dragged our feet for decades on alternatives. Foreign supply is affected by terrorism, a tight fisted cartel, and simple greed by countries that do not like us. The oil futures market has lost confidence in our current policies. They don't believe the current administration can compensate for market vagaries...and they would be right.

It isn't tangible events and policies that will fix the price of gas. It can only happen with new leadership. That is something we can fix.

Category: Presidential Politics

by Paul Bartlett

The advisors that a president selects are nearly as important as the president that the nation selects. And as we venture further into
troubled economic waters, top financial people serving at the top of
government are critical. We've seen the result of eight years of White House ineptitude and cronyism, and it isn't pretty.

John McCain has selected Carly Fiorina -- best known for running
Hewlwtt-Packard into the ground -- as one of his economic gurus. It's bad enough that McCain, by his own admission, knows little about economic issues, but now he's taking advice from a person who knows even less.

Here's how CNN called it in 2005:

"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, is leaving the troubled computer maker after being forced out by the company's board.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard jumped 6.9 percent in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday on the news. But at one point, the stock was up as much as 10.5 percent.

"The stock is up a bit on the fact that nobody liked Carly's
leadership all that much," said Robert Cihra, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners. "The Street had lost all faith in her and the market's hope is that anyone will be better.""

McCain and Fiorina -- Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee.

Category: Society

by Dave Mindeman

Took a vacation trip this week that I have long promised myself. I ventured on a pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium in New York. They are tearing down the "House that Ruth Built" after this season and I didn't want to regret not getting to one game at that historical baseball shrine.

I have been to several of baseball's "ancient cathedrals"...Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley and Old Comiskey in Chicago, Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and the old Met in Bloomington.

But one of my biggest regrets is not making it to any game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. My youth is seered with images of Al Kaline and Norm Cash taking on the Twins in the '60's and '70s. I will never see that vaunted right field overhang in person.

I couldn't let that happen with Yankee Stadium.

Even though when we looked across the field, you can see the new Yankee Stadium going up. A near clone of the old, but "improved" with the millionaire boxes and the plush corporate digs.

This isn't the old national pastime anymore. No, sir.