Why?
Is it because, for well over a generation, the world's body politic has been awash in the media reports of politician's refusal to answer the question directed at them, or address the issue at hand? I spoke of Obama's poor handling of Iran, and I got email about how all of the world's problems were caused by Ronald Reagan!
The GWB cause celebre has got to come to an end. Yo! You Democrats! You Liberals! You WON! Now you have to govern, and have your actions measured, scrutinized, reviewed, considered, reconsidered, etc... You have to ANSWER for your promises, your claims, your mistakes, and even your successes. Welcome to the winner"s circle. This is true in any high profile success. Hit it big as an actor, businessman, or politician - this is your reward.
All presidents after George Washington inherited somebody else's issues. Every generation blames the one before. But after a while... you gotta stand on your own two feet.
Barak Obama is not Chairman of the U.N. He is president of the United States of America. He better get over the idea that everyone is going to love him. Just ask Arnold out in Cal.
7 comments:
I myself would prefer talking about energy and how to profit from it, because government will not be able to do much about peak oil, etc.
But let's try to remember, not every president was left with the biggest asset bubble going boom in the history of humankind like Obama was. This gigantic theft of the middle class (purposefully done by shifty, greedy anti-regulatory Republicans and some Democrats) took several years to gestate, and Obama's six months in office is hardly much time to unwind such a massive bubble. Any unwind my take more time than even the Obama (first) term.
And GWB walked into the begin of a recession as well, started by the doings of Clinton and the story continues. These guys need to stay out of the business and banking arena.PEROID!
BO will need to pipe up quickly to keep the mad dogs at bay, or things will be very interesting SOON.
The energy issue is done. Put a fork in it.
U.S. supply of 20.8mm barrels per day ("bpd") in 2005 has become less than 18mm bpd in 2009 and will be under 16mm bpd by the end of 2012. What is left to understand? Is this the contemporary version of the 1980's "Die YUPPY, DIE!"?
The availability of Oil in 5 years or so is going to be brutal on the U.S.... so what? Most middle class folks have lost the majority of what little financial assets they had Most people are just trying to get through today (hell, if you are my age, you are more concerned with becoming the next Billy Mays or Michael Jackson - that old dropping dead at 50 is much more concerning when you are 48 or 49 than 28 or 38). If you did not make your move in 2006 or 2007 you probably don't have the ability to make a move now.
Politics are really going to matter now.
As we've agreed, life is not coming to an end because of peak oil. There will be alternatives. Lesser alternatives -- crappier alternatives -- but alternatives just the same. Each one has (few) pluses and minuses, and each one will be promoted by their most invested backer. I watched this with the corn ethanol (the first time I ever SAW a real Brazilian was watching the sugarcane ethanol news pieces). A lot of people stand to be ripped off if they don't know exactly what "great, new energy source" is being rammed down their throats.
While coming up with a viable substitute for oil for plastics and jet fuel will be a struggle, innovation sometimes does surprise us. And who knows, maybe Simmons is wrong and the Brazilians can get all that Tupi oil out and sold.
I think there is still much to be discussed. The easy part, declaring the "end of cheap oil," is indeed done.
Bureaucrat,
Politics does matter. Government has its stinky finger in everything. There is NOTHING that does not require a government permit (or a dozen) to do. Peak oil for the US came in 2005. GWB did not acknowledge it. BHO still hasn't. There is nothing the we can start now that will help in less than five years. The government is already doing very much. It says NO!
And this asset bubble was a bi-partisan effort blown over a 35 year period. For every thing the Republicans did that you can point a finger at, I can point at something that the Democrats did. This bubble is a much a symptom as it is a disease. There are underlying foreign trade and regulatory issues that created the conditions that promoted this mess. It is certainly more complicated than the elite liberal cure: "If we just had control of EVERYTHING..."
I'm pretty much a social liberal, and a fiscal conservative. In other words, I believe that people should be allowed to do what they want, and pay their own bills. I've had no one to vote FOR in years.
Regards,
Coal Guy
If social liberal/fiscal conservative was the easiest position to be in, we'd have more politicians being them. :) The social liberal side is going to require government money that the fiscal conservative side doesn't want to provide. Haha!!
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