Really. It’s too much. Yesterday, George W. Bush told foreign leaders “Our aim should not be more government, It should be smarter government.” Didn’t Bush just spend the past eight years embodying the exact opposite? Where was the smart part creating an “ownership society” with phony money? Where was the smart part of running up record deficits? Or the war in Iraq?

- But W. didn’t stop there. Apart from wanting governments to be “smarter” (who doesn’t?), he called for called for leaders to recognize that “government intervention is not a cure-all” for economic problems. So what was Fannie and Freddie all about? Or Hank Paulson’s Troubled Assets Relief Program. Or the bailout of AIG? If government is not a cure-all, then why has Bush orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the free markets in history? Is he really that unaware of

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Really. It’s too much. Yesterday, George W. Bush told foreign leaders “Our aim should not be more government, It should be smarter government.” Didn’t Bush just spend the past eight years embodying the exact opposite? Where was the smart part creating an “ownership society” with phony money? Where was the smart part of running up record deficits? Or the war in Iraq?

- But W. didn’t stop there. Apart from wanting governments to be “smarter” (who doesn’t?), he called for called for leaders to recognize that “government intervention is not a cure-all” for economic problems. So what was Fannie and Freddie all about? Or Hank Paulson’s Troubled Assets Relief Program. Or the bailout of AIG? If government is not a cure-all, then why has Bush orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the free markets in history? Is he really that unaware of

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A couple of anecdotes.Yesterday at the studio for my segment just about everyone there was asking me about the market and what to do. One of the guys looked at his 401k balance while I was there and he became bummed out.A couple of different friends said they saw the segment but didn't really know what the segment was about.The first one tells me that people who don't usually follow the market closely are paying more attention than normal. Obviously this belies more fear or some other emotion as the market is lower and maybe the regular news covering it more than normal too. BTW my visit to the dentist on Monday was similar.The second anecdote might be important. The segment was about the (financial) news of the day but still it was difficult to follow for ...

Article Source Time to reassess the potential for recent oil price increases to contribute to an economic downturn. The sharp spikes in oil prices associated with the 1973-74 oil embargo, the 1978 Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, and the first Persian Gulf War in 1990 were each followed by an economic recession. However, when oil prices started to rise again five years ago, many of us suggested that things would be different this time, in part because the price was rising much more gradually and so should be less disruptive of consumer spending patterns. Others emphasized that, despite the price increases, oil was still cheaper than it had been historically if you took into account inflation. However, once you include the most recent data, neither of those claims would still be true. Average monthly dollar price of West Texas Intermediate (from FRED divided by ratio ...

One way Nigerians spend a romantic evening is watching the after-glow of another terrorist attack on oil production facilities. Well, it’s a cheap date!

This leads me to my ongoing bitch complaint regarding the lack of “any” energy policy in the US since the first oil embargo in 1973. I mean, c’mon–34 years of no action! No drilling off any coast anymore [thank you Nancy, Jeb & Co.], don’t touch Anwar [thank you Dems], no nuke plants in our backyard [thank you Jane], no wind farms near Cape Cod [thank you Ted] and no more fossil fuels at all [thank you Al]. In the meantime strategic interests owing to our own shortsightedness have us at war for the stuff [thank you George I and II]. So given this litany you’d think we’d have done something in …