The World Turned Upside Down
The Poseidon Adventure, 1972.
The bear market of the 1970s brought a new genre of film, the disaster flick. Apparently forecasting the long 1968-1982 bear market, the movie followed a handful of individuals trying to escape an ocean liner turned upside down by rogue wave. Later titles involved a skyscraper fire as well as earthquakes.
Befitting reality TV, we now have a series of real world disasters. Open Border features 212,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the US the last month. Where is Dirty Harry When We Need Him recorded over 80 shootings in Chicago just last week. Afghanistan is likely to fall completely to the Taliban by year-end. But our topic today is Back to the Mid East as yes, Team Biden begs OPEC for more oil.
The US finally achieved what Jimmy Carter wanted in 1979-energy independence courtesy of fracking. It has been so successful; the US is now an exporter of natural gas. Determined to do the opposite of Trump no matter what, here is the Biden 2021 record to date.
- Kill the Keystone XL pipeline
- Cancel oil leasing in Alaska
- Suspend oil leases on Federal Land
- Increase mileage standard to 58 mpg requiring electric cars near no one is buying
- Endangered Species act slows drilling in Western States
The collective result is nationwide $3 a gallon gasoline with prices approaching $6 in the San Francisco area. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan put it this way, at a critical moment in global recovery, the OPEC production expansion is not enough.
So we cannot depend on ourselves for crude oil, we need to return to the most unstable region in the world. And recall Iran, another oil producer, is behind the Talliban in Afghanistan causing lots of nervous reaction in the Arab Gulf States.
The move to 50% electric car production by 2030 is based on hope rather than proven batteries not to mention the lack of an expanded grid to support charging. And now we have about $4-5 trillion in new spending without the revenue stream to support it. What could go wrong? Extracting multiple thousand billions from the real economy to government ‘investment’, will only decrease productivity and inflation. That will be the real cost of AOC/Sanders program.
Oil prices may hit the mid 50s by September. Natural gas prices look stronger into first quarter of 2022.
How long before Americans, on the road again for the first time since COVID, start chanting, We Shall Overcome, the Texas Democrats theme song in exile?
