I’m old enough to remember – first hand – even/odd gas rationing. I’m guessing that the young pups out there who are trying to make long-term predictions based on a few months of data weren’t even born in the “bad old days” of the Arab oil embargos.

It’s so sad to see America’s collective attention span demolished by MTV and the 30 second ad spot. Can you imagine anyone in today’s US that would attend 19th century debates, or go to town to listen to 18th century speeches? Or attend all day Sabbath services? Lincoln’s Gettysburg address would be considered too long by today’s standards.

I must be older than all of the talking heads and “consumer psychologists” put together. Heck, I can even remember back to 1988, when Joe Biden stole that other guy’s life and had to quit the presidential race. Has everybody forgotten that, too? Or is it that what passes for a reporter today wasn’t even born during that campaign?

“We’re going to have a bold energy plan that says that we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 20 or 30 percent over the course of a decade or two. We are going to ask all citizens to participate in that process, not just government, but each and every one of us are going to have — are going to make commitments in terms of increasing fuel efficiency in our cars and homes, and the government is going to be in partnership with citizens to make that happen..” — Obama at Columbia

Interesting that virtually nobody seemed to notice this metric. It’s even more detailed than the Obama web site.

With all the ads from people telling us … energy independent in 10 years, and the U.S. 70% dependent on foreign oil .. it will be at least 3 or 4 decades to be independent.

With cries for “energy independence” dating back to before Carter, somehow Obama’s plan doesn’t seem very bold and it certainly isn’t independence any time soon. It may slow the bleeding, but it really underscores the necessity of opting for all energy sources.

For those who weren’t paying attention, or who haven’t figured it out yet, properly speaking there were no gas shortages in the 70′s, but rather there were shortages at the prices mandated (directly or indirectly) by the government.

Right now, today as we speak, there is a massive, mind blowing, gob smacking, previously unheard of shortage of oil at $20 per barrel. However there is no shortage of oil at todays market set prices of a bit over $100 per barrel.

If the government chose to set the price of oil at $80 there would be gas lines and “absolute shortages” of oil all over the US, despite there being the exact amount of oil available worldwide as there was previous to the economically obtuse law that set oil at $80 per barrel.

Hence there are no lines at gas stations today under market set prices. There are reported “shortages” in states affected by anti-price gouging laws thanks to recent/concurrent hurricanes, however to claim that these are market set prices is profoundly ignorant.

I thought those were artificial shortages?

Dear Kit,

I see a permanent shift, where people like you, i.e. “morons,” suddenly become irrelevant, particularly when the price of oil drops below $100/bbl, and gas drops to $3/gal.

I also see a permanent shift where news outlets (The Arizona Republic) which publish your idiotic remarks go out of business.

Signed,

I have 2 economics degrees, unlike you Kit

The only thing I can guess is that this is the front end of some leftish/Obama polical message that we need to keep slamming on government conservation directives and alt-energy subsidies even as prices fall.

I love the logic that says, “Nope, we’re never going back to this. So we’d better create some laws to make sure we don’t.” It seems to me that if the first statement is true, the law is pointless. Or if the law isn’t pointless the first statement can’t be true.

A “permanent shift” on a few months data?

Clues in above snip:
“consumer psychologist”
“San Francisco’s Golden Gate University”

Firesign Theater comes to mind. Waiting for Yoshidad, or someone like him.