Couldn’t Help But Notice (022108)
This is a week old, but worth noting.
Current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said we’re probably going to avoid a recession. Fair enough, and hope he’s right.
Meanwhile, current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made yet another of his megathousand-dollar speeches. It is becoming more clear with each passing day that under his watch, the mortgage lending and housing sectors went on an unregulated, uncommented-upon, and from all I can tell, unnoticed (by him) speculative tear.
Now Greenspan says we’re “clearly on the edge” of a recession.
Okay, Alan. If a recession occurs, when is your “I was wrong, I am sorry” going to arrive? Actually, the “I’m sorry” needs to come anyway, because the difficulties in those two sectors noted earlier could easily have been avoided.
Or is Greenspan going to try to unfairly pass the blame to his successor at some date in the not too distant future (or stand by while Old Media does it for him)?
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Hugo Chavez would love to stop selling us oil. There’s only one problem: He can’t afford to:
Venezuela sells more than half its oil output to the U.S. It can’t quickly shift to new customers because its thick, sulfur- rich oil can only be handled by refineries designed specifically for its characteristics. Most of those are on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
….. (Venezuelan Oil and Energy Minister Rafael) Ramirez said today during the television program that there is a global shortage of oil, and that Venezuela won’t have problems finding new buyers. Chavez, who says the Faja has reserves of more than a trillion barrels, said reports that PDVSA is in financial trouble are false.
“Supposedly Venezuela is going to go under, PDVSA is going to go under, because only the U.S. has refineries to process our oil,” Chavez said. “Don’t believe these lies.”
The president said he’s considering the creation of an “unexpected gains” tax on the oil industry. The levy would be charged progressively as oil prices rise above average levels, Chavez said.
PDVSA is the state-run oil enterprise. I’ll betcha it’s in plenty of trouble. This explains the need for what is, in essence, a resurrection of a 1970s idea — Jimmy Carter’s “windfall profits” tax.
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Only in Old Media could a Democratic presidential candidate run for over a year (in this case, Hillary Clinton), and then come out with a “new economic message,” without any curiosity as to what happened to the old one.
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Speaking of Mrs.Clinton, Emmett Tyrell at Townhall is bemused at the awe in which her husband Bill is held in Old Media circles, and the presumption that he is an asset in his wife’s campaign:
For that matter, why have members of the press insisted on claiming that the former Boy President is a political genius? The Democratic Party went into decline almost everywhere throughout the republic while he was bemanuring the White House. Truth be known, when Boy Clinton began campaigning for her, her prospects darkened. The stubborn minority of journalists who have remained undeluded by the Clinton legends and aware of the Clinton record recognized the impending danger.
….. Hillary’s staff always has been uneasy about the presence of her big loveable lug on the campaign trail. Anyone who might bother to contemplate his record as a campaigner would recognize that he is poison when he campaigns for others. In 2004, of the 14 fated Democrats he campaigned for, 12 lost.
It will be interesting to see how Bill handles the apparently imminent demise of his wife’s candidacy, and how much, if any, support he provides to the presumptive Democratic nominee. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him act as a saboteur.
