Today is Memorial Day - I have such mixed emotions about traditional Memorial Day having been moved to the last Monday of May. On one hand, it’s nice to officially have the three day weekend, that many people took anyway, and it’s nice to have a “official” start of Summer. On the other hand, Memorial Day has been cheapened by the move, and it is no longer observed with the reverence and respect that it should be.
The day originally began as Decoration Day, proposed by the GAR - the Grand Army of the Republic - a veterans’ organization. Decoration Day was proposed on May 5, 1868, and was set for May 30 every year because flowers would be in bloom everywhere in the United States, as a time to remember those who had fallen during the Civil War. The first observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, where flowers were strewn by the GAR on graves of Union AND Confederate graves. As a part of the ceremony, small American flags were placed on each grave, a tradition that is carried on yet today.
My grandmother, who was born in 1898 and grew up in the early years of the 20th Century, knew the day as a time to memorialize fallen veterans of The Civil War but it was not until after the War to End All Wars that the day was expanded to honor all American war dead. Grandma continued to call it Decoration Day until she died in 1971.
For me, this will always be Memorial Day, and following tradition, I will observe a moment of silence at 3:00 PM today, to honor Americans who made the supreme sacrifice to protect my way of life.
AARP has discovered a way to take pop-up advertising to a new, and all time annoying, level.
One, they’ve figured out how to get around pop-up blockers.
Two, they’ve figured out how to embed a Flash animation into their annoying ad.
Three, they’ve figured out how to disable the right mouse button so you cannot dismiss the *#@ #*&%! box with your mouse.
The only way to get rid of this insideous thing is to refresh your browser window, then wait for it to pop up again.
Shame on you, AARP. Take your pop-up ad and pop it right up your membership channel.
“You’re making more money than ever. In effect, your industry has no problem in doubling your profits, in tripling your profits, even when prices at the pump go crazy, you have no problem in keeping up with your increasing profit. It doesn’t seem fair guys, it just doesn’t seem fair.”
So said Senator Herb Kohl, Owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA Team, as he was grilling oil company executives yesterday.
Gee, Senator, I just went and looked at tickets for your basketball team. Ticket prices keep going up but your industry seems to have no trouble increasing your profits. You’re making money and your team members are getting paid millions and millions of dollars. Still, you expect little old me to pay you well over $125 for a decent seat to see a game. Oh, sure, I can pay you $10 for a seat up in the rafters someplace, and go watch the game on the monitors at the snack bar for a better view.
And all at the same time, you’re making millions and millions of dollars.
It just doesn’t seem fair, Senator, it just doesn’t seem fair.
Americans woke up to a revolting development this morning - gasoline prices jumped up about 25ยข per gallon overnight. You can expect outrage and anger from your co-workers and neighbors today, looking for someone to blame for the overnight hikes. So just why did gasoline prices spike so high overnight?
The answer is really quite easy. I went to the local gas station about 11:00 last night to top off the tank and encountered a man with a large SUV. He was topping off his tank and filling about 4 gasoline cans.
What did we know that you didn’t? We were paying attention yesterday. Oil, on the world wide market yesterday, closed at a record price of over $130.00 per barrel. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out that prices would go up this morning as the world demand for oil skyrockets.
Demand? Comedian Don Novello, as his character Father Guido Sarducci, proposed opening a five minute university, His course in Economics consisted of, “Economics? ‘Supply and Demand.’ That’s it.” Many graduates of Father Sarducci’s Five Minute University seem to have forgotten everything they learned about economics.
For decades, the greatest demand for oil came from the United States, in fact, it still does. Starting in the early 1970’s, it became obvious that America’s thirst for oil was a problem. In 1973, the price of a gallon of gasoline doubled overnight. There were spot shortages and long lines of automobiles at gas stations, waiting to buy a rationed amount of gasoline. It was a harbinger of things to come, but the lessons were not learned.
OPEC increased the supply of oil and the price stabilized. Thank you to Father Sarducci, it was a perfect example of supply and demand.
Today, the world demand for oil is on the rise. Americans are discovering that China is a developing economy and is competing in the world market for oil. So is India, where automobile maker, Tata, is doing for India what Henry Ford did for America 100 years ago. India needs oil. Russia needs oil. The United States needs oil. China needs oil, and especially now as power plants are offline from the recent earthquake and much of China’s electricity is coming from emergency generators.
The result? Demand is higher. Supply is lower. Prices are higher. What did Father Sarducci teach in his five minute university? “Economics? ‘Supply and Demand.’ That’s it.” Thank you, Father Sarducci. The only way your gasoline prices will stabilize, or even go down, is to increase the supply.
Being an election year, of course, the bloviating about gasoline prices is shifting into high gear, but remember, the baloney coming out of Washington these days will have no effect on gasoline prices.
The oil companies are not to blame for high gasoline prices, nor are “excess profits.” While crude prices have gone up more than 25% in the last 60 days, gasoline prices have only gone up about 15% - so much for gouging.
“Excess profits” makes a handy scapegoat, but it just isn’t right. BP Petroleum was number 5 in total profits in 2006, well behind the most profitable company in the United States, Microsoft. BP made about 9% profit margin while Microsoft made 22% profit margin, so why isn’t Congress going after Microsoft? We’re all paying too much to a virtual monopoly for operating systems and word processing software.
Nationalizing the oil companies or stealing their profits, as Jimmy Carter unsuccessfully tried to do in 1980, won’t lower gasoline prices. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.
Suing OPEC won’t stabilize prices, in fact, that is one of the dumbest ideas to come out of Congress since the Volstead Act.
Dropping the federal fuel tax will provide short term price relief and will demonstrate how deeply Uncle Sam has his hand in your pocket, but long term, it won’t help. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a howitzer wound.
As Father Sarducci taught us, the only way to lower gasoline prices it to decrease demand, or increase the supply. Newsflash: Demand is not going to decrease any time soon. Electric cars aren’t going to do it - they merely shift the fuel supply from your tank to a power plant. Hybrid cars might help, but won’t lower prices anytime soon. We’ve proven that putting moonshine in our tanks won’t do it. We do need to continue exploring alternative energy sources, but let’s be realistic: demand for oil is not going to go down any time soon.
The only way to stabilize gasoline prices, or even lower gasoline prices, is to increase the supply. There are millions of barrels of oil in the United States that the oil companies are not allowed to go get. In 1994, people with vision foresaw today’s incredible demand for oil and proposed drilling in new locations in the United States - ANWR and offshore, to name two - but the President vetoed the bills. The oil remains underground where it is not doing anyone any good.
Even if we were to increase our own domestic oil production, much refining will have to be done offshore, because the same forces preventing drilling for oil have also prevented building any new refineries for the last thirty years.
We are told by the woe-is-us crowd that if we were to start drilling in ANWR today, it would take 8 years to see the results in the market. Had we started drilling there in 1994, we would be enjoying that supply today, thank you, so we should get started now, drilling for oil and building refineries to process that oil.
There is no magic bullet and no quick fix. High gasoline prices are here and they are here to stay. The best way to stabilize energy costs and minimize dependence on imported oil is to produce our own.
It’s time to stop talking and start drilling.
