re: #304 mr.fusion

See, this is what drives me absolutely nuts about the fact that we’re even having an argument about this. And it has nothing to do with the fact that the science is 100% settled. It’s that there’s no reason not to do this. I think if deniers were asked the overwhelming majority of them would agree that it would be extremely beneficial from a national security standpoint to become more energy independent. Of course that usually turns into a fight about turning our land and seas into one giant oil rig…

I think our best chance for coming together on this was September 12, 2001. Had President Bush come out and made the factual case that our dependency on foreign oil contributes mightily to our enemies coffers and asked us all to sacrifice and put together a Manhattan Project like effort for new technologies think of where we would be today.

Instead he asked us to buy duct tape and invaded Iraq.

Meanwhile the cost of gas has risen 60 cents a gallon in the last six months or so. Imagine the outrage had President Obama come out six months ago and proposed a 60 cent increase to the gas tax to go toward R & D. Calls of socialism and job killing would no doubt ensue…but put that money into the pockets of foreign companies and nary a peep.

:sigh:

Commodities are rising across the board. Part of the problem is plain old inflation. We’ve doubled and redoubled the monetary base in just a few short years. This has to be passing through into M1, and thence into the price pipeline.

Now, the observation that “M0” has grown so much so fast has been called insane, so I’ll provide exact details. First, what is the “monetary base”? read it hereSecond, who says so? Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Jimmy Stewart is Dead, ISBN 978-0-470-58155-1, pp 4-5.

The printing presses are already running overtime. The monetary base measures the amount of money Uncle Sam prints in order to buy things, whether those things are financial securities, tanks, space ships, or lunch for the president. On January 1, 2008, the monetary base totaled $831 billion. On June 1, 2009, it stood at $1.8 trillion!

Uncle Sam printed more money (just shy of $1 trillion) over those 18 months than was printed in the entire history of the republic. And it’s just revving up. The Federal Reserve has pledged to print another … ($1.75 trillion) during 2009 to lower long-term interest rates and thereby continue to bail out the economy. …and could, if banks start lending again, culminate in a quadrupling of the nation’s M1 money supply and, ultimately, of prices!

Wikipedia reports different figures, but Kotlikoff’s book has been favorably reviewed by several heavy hitting financial gurus. He probably got this right.