Economic Policy
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Thursday, October 6th, 2022I am always struck when I come to the end of the Good Samaritan parable in the gospel of Luke. The parable ends with the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham ridicules the rich man. Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and […]
Public Service vs. Private Profit
Thursday, September 15th, 2022Conservatives have been pretty clear about one aspect of their governing philosophy. They say that they will run government like a business. Liberals, however, see government as public services. The results are dramatically different. Liberal policies shaped American politics after the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt provided a role model for creating government services. The […]
Let’s go Joe!
Thursday, August 25th, 2022Between January 20, 2001 and July 14, 2008 prices at the gas pump rose from $1.47 per gallon to $4.11 per gallon. During that extended price rise, two Texas oil men sat in the Oval Office and made decisions. Dramatically, gas prices fell to $1.61 by December 2008. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney created […]
Let’s Go Joe!
Thursday, August 25th, 2022Between January 20, 2001 and July 14, 2008 prices at the gas pump rose from $1.47 per gallon to $4.11 per gallon. During that extended price rise, two Texas oil men sat in the Oval Office and made decisions. Dramatically, gas prices fell to $1.61 by December 2008. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney created […]
Team USA
Thursday, August 11th, 2022Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it gets better. Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the global recovery from Covid 19 stalled. Global traders panic, driving up prices and clogging supply chains. Market fears of a new, and wider, disruption never materialized, however. Energy supply remained strong, as Europeans carefully rebalanced their energy […]
It’s the Market Stupid
Wednesday, May 11th, 2022One year and 4 months after Donald Trump took occupancy of the White House, gas price averages rose from $2.46 to $2.99 per gallon. Two years later, in May 2020, the average price per gallon had fallen to $1.96. What causes these wild swings? What had Donald done in office? Nothing. Oil companies, not the […]
Break Big Oil’s Monopoly
Thursday, March 17th, 2022Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. The first oil shock happened in 1973. Energy prices are set by “the market. The global energy market keeps failing us. We have known the market is failing us for 49 years. We know what can fix it: conservation and competition. Conservatives […]
Natural Monopolies
Friday, March 11th, 2022In 1776, Adam Smith published a ground breaking book, The Wealth of Nations. Smith introduced the French phrase laissez-faire to the English speaking world. The phrase best translates as “free market.” Smith criticized European monarchs for subsidizing domestic production and granting monopolies for foreign trade. He argued that monarch redistributed income from small farmers and […]
Build Back Better
Thursday, December 9th, 2021President Joe Biden won the 2020 election by promising that America would Build Back Better. Slowly, the Democratic Congress has been fulfilling that promise. A big step occurred last month. Democrats crafted a bi-partisan infrastructure bill. It included $110 billion for building, repairing, and replacing roads, bridges and bicycle paths. The infrastructure bill also included […]
Building a Brighter Future
Thursday, November 11th, 2021Last week America won. It received strong news about the present economy and the outlook for the future. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress delivered on their promise to create and improve American jobs. The CNBC headline read “Job creation roars back in October as payrolls rise by 531,000.â€Â This rate of job creation […]
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