"There is no problem that is not so bad that it cannot be made worse by Congress fixing it."
--REBierce
The heads of U.S. oil companies completed the second stage of their Congressional Big-Oil-Bash-Athon yesterday by answering questions from largely-economically illiterate congressmen--and women.
Congress took time out from pandering in person to pander in front of the TV cameras. The big winner of the "Comrade Stalin" award was Maxine Waters, who threatened to nationalize (seize) the oil company's assets.
Apparently, Waters is committed to bring the same brand of efficiency to the oil companies that government has demonstrated at the Post Office and Social Security.
Link: sevenload.com
Rep. Waters seemed a bit confused on what she was calling for--"socialization" was on the tip of her tongue--and it was guessed that she was wanting Big Oil to "work and play well with others".
The congresswoman declined to elaborate immediately afterwards--no doubt until she received further talking points from Hugo Chavez.
Of course, the Congresswoman is one of the reasons that oil supply is restricted: she's voted against opening up U.S. oil fields in Alaska. But, being a member of Congress, she's used to changing laws.
Waters will find that The Laws of Supply and Demand will continue to defy her best efforts. However, Waters is a gamer and one is assured that she will continue in her quest, no matter the facts.
Any number of rulers throughout history have drug their countries down the broken path of price controls: Rome, Russia, France, Great Britain, the United States are the examples that come to mind. All of them got a lesson in economics; when you control prices, there are less people willing to sell less of something for less money. Scarcity is the result. The next step is to criminalize those people who are not willing to give away their products for less. "Hoarding" is the charge that's most often heard.
Allahpundit was right on the money on this one: "Befitting the catastrophic stupidity of this idea, she doesn’t even know what the proper term for it is."
For those with the slightest historical recall, Congress has been here before: in the 1970s oil and gasoline prices were controlled by a government hellbent on demonstrating that There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch.
Sadly, the inelastic laws of Supply and Demand trumped the U.S. government's best efforts then: "Windfall Profits Tax" and "price controls" soon meant that gas stations were open a couple days a week--and when they were open, motorists waited hours in line for privilege of filling up.
When Ronald Reagan was elected, gasoline prices in 1980 were in the $1.50 per gallon range. One of his first acts was to decontrol the oil prices. Pundits and Democrats screamed that gasoline would soon hit $2/gallon.
The Democrats in Congress were just as economically savvy in 1980 as they are 28 years later: within weeks, gasoline prices dropped to 60 to 70 cents/gallon and there were no more supply problems. Chalk one up for the philosophy of "government is the problem, not the solution".
9/11 changed that a bit for some people. The struggles of the Homeland Security leviathan to do anything effectively--other than spend tax money--should have reminded people of the abilities of government control.
It has taken 28 years for Democrats to figure the American people had forgotten that 1970s episode of Congress "fixing" gas prices.
By calling for the nationalization of U.S. oil companies, Maxine Waters is betting on the "amnesia" of the American people.
by Mondoreb
hat tip: AllahPundit @HotAir
images: polizeros
Source: Video: Maxine Waters threatens to nationalize America’s oil industry
A: Hugo Chavez
If Hugo Chavez were working on a tree farm somewhere in Vermont, he would be a candidate for psycho-therapy.
The Venezuelan strongman, who only last week threatened to "cut off the oil supplies to the United States", said yesterday he was only kidding.
Chavez said U.S. motorists "shouldn't worry" about Venezuela cutting off oil supplies.
"We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the United States," Chavez said on Sunday during a visit to heavy-oil projects in Venezuela's petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last year.
Elsewhere, it's been reported that Chavez sent his ambassador to the U.S. to beg the U.S. to beg Exxon Mobil Corporation not to freeze Venezuelan assets.
Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S. has asked Sen. Richard Lugar to press Exxon Mobil Corp. to drop legal measures that have frozen $12 billion in assets worldwide.
"Through tactics that can only be compared with the very discredited strategy of pre-emptive war, Exxon Mobil has clearly violated the terms of the arbitration process," Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., said in a letter to the Indiana Republican that was released by the embassy Friday. Lugar is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Of course, if Exxon Mobil were a Venezuelan corporation, there'd be no begging. Chavez would just arrest the officers of the company, throw them in jail and then spend the accumulated wealth from their work on trying to prop up his government.
As Anna said:
Of course Venezuela would not be over a barrel and begging the war-mongering gringos of the United States if they had abided by the contract they had with Exxon.
Instead Hugo Chavez thought, since he was in charge, that he could merely violate a written contract between the country of Venezuela and Exxon to fully exploit an oil field in the name of social justice.
Exxon has merely acted in the interest of its shareholders, who's money is invested in this oil field, to protect its investments, to keep sacred such contracts in the future, and to prevent anyone else from trying this trick.
We'll agree with all that.
Maybe the U.S. should send Anna to Venezuela to be the ambassador.
Or perhaps Chavez should hire Anna to advise him on the perils of nationalizing a foreign company's assets in the first place.
Of course, if Hugo Chavez were working on a tree farm somewhere in Vermont, he wouldn't need an adviser or help with the consequences of his nationalization actions.
But one suspects, he'd still be a candidate for the psycho-therapy.
by Mondoreb
image: spokanetogo
Source:
* Hugo Goes Begging
* Chavez: US Motorists shouldn't worry about Oil
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
