Month: May 2011

The Donald, You’re Fired!

Donald Trump may hold people’s attention in New York City, but here in the boondocks of middle America, he just looks stupid.  He’s insistence that the President show his “long-form” birth certificate to prove that he was born in the United States is ridiculous!  Well now that the President has shown his long-form birth certificate what will The Donald do?  Well, he has his real estate holdings, his TV show The Apprentice, and other business interests.

Now he has threatened to run for President of the United States.  The Donald would not make a very good president.  His personal experience is so far removed from main stream America, that he would likely fare worse that George W. Bush.  Also his ego would not fare well in a presidential campaign, as evidenced by his stone-faced expression through most of the annual White House Correspondents dinner, where The Donald was the butt of jokes from the President and the dinner’s featured speaker Seth Meyers, the head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor for “Saturday Night Live.”  Well played, Mr. President!

Since he announced he would make a decision and declare it on his TV show, I cannot help but think The Donald was simply using the situation as a way to increase the decreasing audience for his TV show.  I for one will not be viewing the finale.  Donald, go back to doing whatever you do, but leave us out of it because you’re fired!

Get over cheap gasoline

I am watching the news and the collective hand-ringing over $4.00/gallon gasoline.  Candy Crowley of CNN asked  John Hofmeister, former president Shell Oil, how high with gasoline price go?  He answered with a combination of market forces and advocated that U.S. citizens should demand their politicians do more to increase domestic oil production.  Later on the same show, Donald Trump stated that we should tell OPEC what to charge us for gasoline.  Try that with your neighborhood gas station.

The truth is gasoline and the oil it comes from is a limited resource. All the oil that we will ever use was created hundreds of millions of years ago.  The conditions were very different for today’s climate.  Probably a much hotter climate.

As a limited resource gasoline will get more expensive as we use it up.  Any attempt to control the price will bring many unintended consequences.  The U.S. has enjoyed cheap gasoline because we are a large producer, but we have become an even larger consumer!

The price we pay for gasoline does not reflect the real cost of a gallon.  The U.S. consumes more that it produces, so we must import oil.  So our government has gone to foreign producers and made deals, invaded, and fought wars to keep oil cheap for us.  This added cost is not added to gasoline costs.

Letting the price rise will cause alternatives to be developed, conservation will be increased without large market boom and bust cycles.

Gasoline will get more expensive.  The price of gasoline will go up.  All the way to the top!  Get over it!