Crazy? Well yes, but perhaps you better check out that fox before you jump to conclusions. Just this weekend the Financial Times reported that camel demand on the Asian Sub-Continent is soaring ("Camel Demand Soars as Oil Price Makes Tractors Too Costly to Run," 05.04.08). Or as the Financial Times...

In a classic example of how perverse reporting on matters oil have become, how slanted the information we are presented, the somersaults the oil company flacks perform to keep a somnolent public and government in their trance of inaction, and a gullible press happy to pass along oil patch pitches...

Ironically, last Sunday the New York Times' front page headlined " Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand". On the front page of the Week in Review section Jad Mouawad set out to instruct us that oil's future is murky ("The Big Thirst"). If ever a commentator on a...

Hugo Chavez is not a friend of ours, but he does come up with some good ideas. As reported in the Wall Street Journal ("Venezuela Passes New Oil Tax," 04.16.08), on Tuesday, at his direction, Venezuela's National Assembly passed an oil windfall profits tax that will be assessed against...

Excuse my cynicism. Excuse my sense of anger at the blatant self-serving hypocrisy of this administration and its oil-addled policies. We, as a nation are told our young men and women are dying in Iraq and we are spending trillions to bring democracy to the people of Iraq while our...

Our oil whiz, Secretary Bodman of the Department of Energy, perhaps a distant cousin of "Heckuva Job Brownie" of Katrina fame, wrote a letter to the New York Times on March 30 rebutting points in an editorial, "Pain at the Pump and Beyond" from March 25, proceeding, I...

December 29, 1940. Nazi Germany had conquered much of Europe and allied with Italy and Japan, and collaborating closely with the Soviet Union, was mortally threatening Britain, the last frontline holdout of democracy. On that day, in one of his venerable fireside chats, Franklin Roosevelt highlighted the phrase that America...

We did it! You can well imagine the high fives, the cheers and hugs as Vice President Cheney met with King Abdullah in Riyadh last week. $100-plus oil as the norm! What a triumph for King Abdullah and his protectors and cheerleaders in the current administration, spearheaded by the oil...

In a classic example of how Washington works our government has just
shown us how to get things done. Wall Street, in a paroxysm of self indulgence
parlayed share holders equity, counterparty funds and investor money into one
of the greatest busts in financial history. Billions...

The price of oil has diverged from fundamentals in such a dramatic way that it is placing our economy at grave and immediate risk, not to speak of the consequences of the enormous, unprecedented transfer of wealth that is taking place.

There are no crude oil shortages. Commercial inventories of...

Yesterday's New York Times had a front page article "President Fails to Budge OPEC on Production." In its inimical manner, the Times reported OPEC's rebuff to the president's pleas to OPEC to increase production in the straight-faced uncritical manner, visiting on us with what could have been an OPEC...

From the very outset the administration's Iraqi oil policies have been a disaster. There are many such as Alan Greenspan who adjure that oil was the reason for the invasion. If that is indeed the case, the priorities it imposed perverted our mission from the very outset, whether it was...

Bill Buckley was a great man, a giant among mere mortals. No need here to detail his many feats and accomplishments. Tributes to him abound in journals throughout the land.

For me, in commemoration, a few words of homage and thanks are in order. Just under three years ago my...

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. As the world's governments acquiesce to the outrage of OPEC's collusion to manipulate the price of oil another storm is looming in the near distance. Grain prices are lurching forward. Wheat prices have reached new records and soybeans (including soybean...

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell, coming off the most rapacious
quarter in its history with a 60% increase in earnings to $8.47 billion,
spurred on in large measure by OPEC-inflated crude oil prices,
announced that it had successfully obtained the drilling rights to...

With a slowing economy, rising inflation, the 'S' word, 'stagflation' is being bandied about. Now comes Hugo Chavez and threatens to cut off oil shipments to ExxonMobil in retaliation for Exxon's $12 billion court ordered freeze of Venezuelan assets for alleged breach of contract, and confiscatory actions against Exxon in...

On Friday February 08 the lead on USA Today's Business Page headlined "Less Driving Could Mean Lower Prices". continuing "High prices and a slowing economy are leading consumers to significantly cut back on their driving, a development that could limit the pain at the pump this spring and summer"....

Virtually the same day that Exxon announced their gangbuster record earnings of $11.66 billion the New York Times ("Exxon sets profit record..." 2/2/08) reported that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), having held production levels fast this month, signaled it would be ready to cut production when it...

Consider this: Citigroup Inc. has ended last year holding at least $18 billion in mortgage-backed junk which they have had to write off. Their share price has been halved in a year causing their shareholders billions in losses. From a venerable bank, they have been reduced to a tincup institution,...