Posts with the tag 'oil price'
To the US dollar:
US stocks soared on Friday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and oil prices plunged.
The moves marked a key reversal of a trend that many investors had followed profitably for months – betting that high commodity prices would keep the dollar weak.
The dollar reached its highest in five months against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, while oil fell more than $5 to $114.87, 22 per cent below its record high of $147.27 last month. The S&P 500 closed 2.4 per cent higher in New York.
The shift in sentiment was triggered by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, who warned on Thursday that third-quarter eurozone growth would be “particularly weak”. This sparked talk that the ECB would be forced to abandon its hawkish policy stance and start cutting interest rates, thereby weakening the euro.
“This is the watershed week for the US dollar,” said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. “The magnitude of the dollar’s moves and the breaking of key technical levels suggest that a major shift in the outlook towards the dollar is occurring as massive positions are adjusted.” Other analysts described the widespread buying of dollars as “capitulation”.
The dollar hit a five-month high of $1.5055 against the euro and climbed 1.3 per cent to $1.9189 against the pound – its strongest since November 2006.
Traders said the violence of the move was testimony to the extent to which the market had been surprised by economic weakness outside the US.
“Mr Trichet was unable to convince the public that the ECB had not been surprised by the eurozone’s economic downturn,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann at Commerzbank. “Therefore, the last remaining rate hike expectations were taken off the table.”
Why is this? Because if you’re looking for security, there’s nothing quite as good as the American economy and American law - we actually have the highest business ethics in the world (I know, hard to believe, but there it is) as well as very transparant requirements in corporate reporting which makes the investor confident that when he plunks his money into the United States he’ll know where it is and what can happen to it. Couple this with the largest economy in the world (I know, the Eurozone is supposed to be that, but that is mostly a mirage produced by massive Eurozone government spending), and you get the bank of last resort, the United States of America.
Bulwark of liberty, engine of economic growth, bastion of Judeo-Christian civilization - the United States serves many purposes, and with this comes a great responsibility. We simply must protect this great thing, the United States of America. We daren’t negligently throw it away in a bid for shallow popularity - hard as it may be to take, if what the United States must do is protect fools in their folly, then that is what we’ll have to do, in the hopes that the fools will learn wisdom. The people who complain about us the most are those who live most solidly lapped in the wealth and privilege built up by the long peace guarded by the United States (meaning, of course, that it has been because of us that no world war has erupted in the past 60 years). They glory in their wealth and power and know not where it comes from - its not so much biting the hand that feeds them, but biting the hand of a benefactor they don’t even recognise.
Its all good - those who have wisdom and strength are to use it for the benefit of others, and if all we do is what we can for the best, then we’ll have done all that is required of us.
Tags: dollar vs Euro, EU, oil price
August 9th, 2008
Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi, certainly the very worst Speaker in American history:
House Republicans, who insist that Speaker Nancy Pelosi call the House back from its summer recess so votes can be taken on their energy legislation, continued for a third day to make speeches to GOP staff members and Capitol Hill tourists.
They did so in the dimly-lit chamber of the House of Representatives, without the aid of working television cameras or a public address system.
The Republicans became miffed last Friday when Democrats abruptly adjourned the House until September 8 without giving them a chance to speak on the floor about their energy plan, which includes exploring for oil in ANWR and more off-shore drilling.
Even though the House had officially gone out of session, some Republicans stayed on the floor and made speeches anyway.
After taking the weekend off, the guerrilla oratory continued Monday, with organizers of the talk-in estimating that 24 of the 199 House Republicans participated…
…With the House not in session, the chambers’ televisions cameras have been turned off for the three days of speeches. The lights in the chamber have been dimmed, which is normally the case when the House is not session. Also the public address system is off, forcing the Republicans to speak up so they can be heard in the large chamber.
Lucky tourists, many of whom just happened to be touring the Capitol, have been given the rare opportunity of sitting on the House floor. Wearing t-shirt and shorts, they became an impromptu audience for the speechmakers.
Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement on Monday saying, “This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence.”
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., referred to GOP tactics as “stunts” by a “smattering of House Republicans”.
But Republicans claim their unofficial floor sessions are gaining traction with voters who are wondering why Congress is taking a five week vacation while gasoline prices remain so high.
They vow to continue speaking out on the House floor rest of this week and during the weeks ahead.
Its fine for Nancy to say we need a serious debate, but having such a debate is rather impossible if the Democrats cut and run from DC and head for the hills rather than be forced to vote in favor of energy measures popular with everyone except the money-bags of the kook left. That is the thing, you see? Any floor vote on the GOP energy measures will result in a lopsided vote in favor of the proposals - only those Democrats in absolutely safe Democratic seats would dare defy common sense on energy, and so the vote in favor would probably approach 300.
But, its all good: Nancy and Co have handed we GOPers a fine “kitchen table” issue for the fall. We’re willing to do the hard work of getting things rolling towards American energy independence while the Nancy-boy Democrats hide. Come the election, we’ll be able to point out our willingness to make the hard decisions contrasted with the Democrats stark, yellow-bellied fear of doing the same.
Tags: John Shadegg, Nancy Pelosi, oil price, Steny Hoyer
August 6th, 2008
The Wall Street Journal wonders:
The “windfall profits” tax is back, with Barack Obama stumping again to apply it to a handful of big oil companies. Which raises a few questions: What is a “windfall” profit anyway? How does it differ from your everyday, run of the mill profit? Is it some absolute number, a matter of return on equity or sales — or does it merely depend on who earns it?
Enquiring entrepreneurs want to know. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama’s “emergency” plan, announced on Friday, doesn’t offer any clarity. To pay for “stimulus” checks of $1,000 for families and $500 for individuals, the Senator says government would take “a reasonable share” of oil company profits.
Mr. Obama didn’t bother to define “reasonable,” and neither did Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, when he recently declared that “The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy.” Really? This extraordinary redefinition of free-market success could use some parsing.
Take Exxon Mobil, which on Thursday reported the highest quarterly profit ever and is the main target of any “windfall” tax surcharge. Yet if its profits are at record highs, its tax bills are already at record highs too. Between 2003 and 2007, Exxon paid $64.7 billion in U.S. taxes, exceeding its after-tax U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion. That sounds like a government windfall to us, but perhaps we’re missing some Obama-Durbin business subtlety.
Why are Obama and his Democrats calling for a windfall profits tax on oil companies?
1. Because they still believe that class warfare works at the voting booth.
2. Because, quite honestly, they don’t know what else they should do.
Suppose Obama and his Democrats get their wish and soak Exxon for $100 billion. So what? By my rough calculation that works out to a figure equal to 3.33% of the annual Federal budget…and as that would be an increase of $35-odd billion, we’re really talking about increasing revenues by 1%…and that, of course, is to ignore the fact that if we tax away most of Exxon’s profits, we swiftly won’t have anymore Exxon profits to tax. As most, we’d realise about, say, $50 billion in additional revenue over a two or three year period. What is that supposed to accomplish? Especially as Exxon lays off workers and oil suppliers start to refuse to sell to America because they can make more profit selling elsewhere? As you stand in line to buy rationed gasoline in order to drive to the unemployment office, are you really going to feel better thinking that at least Obama “got” those greedy SOBs in Big Oil?
Keep in mind that I’m no fan of corporate America - after working for the past 7+ years in corporate America I can say with certainty that there’s nothing quite so contemptible as a large corporation…in fact, so bad are they that the only thing worse than Big Corporation is Big Government. Corporations at least produce some useful product or service - Big Government merely produces more government. Once I figure out a way to break up the large corporations without dislocating the economy, I’m on it for all I’m worth - but, meanwhile, the cretinous corporate behemoths are just part of the landscape (sort of like landfills on the otherwise pristine landscape of free market economics), and if you think they will behave in an irrationally self-destructive manner to please a President Obama, then you’ve got rocks in your head (they will, of course, continue to be irrationally self-destructive on their own hook, but that won’t help Obama and his Democrats).
The fairy tale world of Obama and his Democrats in on display here - they live in a world where Evil Corporations make life miserable for Little Workers and what is needed is Selfless Liberals to save the day. Thing is, you’re just as likely to find a pinhead on the production line as in the corporate boardroom - or in the Executive Branch of the United States government. People are people and a certain percentage of them, at any given time, are being complete boneheads (yes, yours truly, included). To assign to a class of people virtue or vice is as stupid as assigning to various skin colors certain advantages or disadvantages - we have to take things as they are and judge each person’s actions on the merits of their case. If a corporate boss is being a rapacious, greedy SOB, then we should point that out and work to thwart him - but because one creep is a CEO it doesn’t follow that all CEO’s are creeps. Nor should we think that being poor automatically means being virtuous - some poor people are poor because they are shiftless, ya know? Given this reality, the last thing we need is a bunch of liberals coming to save the day - by punishing corporations they will be taking a stripe off the good and the bad, and by pouring out funds on the poor indiscriminately they’ll be benefiting both the hard worker and the layabout.
Leave off schemes to tax corporations - it serves no useful purpose. Heck, any addtional taxation will just be passed on to the consumer, anyways in the form of lower wages, higher prices, lower employment or a combination of all three. Leave aside the nursery-room fairy tales from the Marxist-Leninist view of economics. Deal with things as they are - if you really want to do something to make oil companies less profitible, invest your efforts in finding larger sources of oil and alternatives to same. That will cut into Exxon’s profits more usefully than any windfall profits scheme, as well as doing something good for everyone.
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, oil price, windfall profits tax
August 5th, 2008
I guess his handlers have seen some polling showing McCain and the GOP clobbering Obama and his Democrats on this issue:
In An Interview With The Palm Beach Post, Obama Said He Would Support Offshore Drilling:
Obama Said He Would Be Open To Offshore Drilling Because He Wanted A “Comprehensive Energy Policy That Can Bring Down Gas Prices.” “U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said today he would be willing to open Florida ’s coast for more oil drilling if it meant winning approval for broad energy changes. ‘My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,’ Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. ‘If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done,’ Obama said.” (Michael C. Bender, “Obama Would Consider Off-Shore Drilling As Part Of Comprehensive Energy Plan,” Palm Beach [FL] Post, 8/1/08)
But Obama Has Vehemently Opposed And Derided Offshore Drilling:
Just A Few Days Ago, Obama Called Offshore Drilling A “Scheme.” Obama: “Now the latest scheme is well, we’re going to drill offshore. Now, I want to be absolutely clear to everybody about this. If I thought that I could provide you some immediate relief on gas prices by drilling off the shores of California and New Jersey , I understand how desperate folks are. I met a guy who couldn’t go on a job search that lost his job, couldn’t go on a job search because of the high price of gas. Just couldn’t fill up his tank. I met a teacher in South Dakota who loved her job as a teacher on an Indian reservation, she had to quit because the drive was too far, it was taking up too much of her paycheck. I know how bad people are hurting. So If I thought that by drilling offshore, we could solve our problem, I’d do it.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Campaign Event, Springfield , MO, 7/30/08)
As Matt noted recently, Obama’s “bounce” from his “Teach me, please” foreign tour had dwindled, and with Gallup’s tracking now showing Obama and McCain tied for two straight days, Team Obama is probably starting to get worried…though I doubt, at this point, that Obama is. While Obama does have to real solid political “nuts and bolts” troopers on his side, he seems to believe he’s the Chosen One Destined to Save the World.
As I’ve been saying, if “story” (in the children’s fairy tale sense of the word) is most important, than Obama gets sworn in on January 20th…if, on the other hand, the election turns on competance, then we’ll have ourselves President McCain come January. The Gallup tracking is a good poll, as far as polls go, and while it will warm GOP hearts to see it tied for a while, we can expect it to fluctuate around a bit. When Obama selects his VP he might get a bounce, but so might McCain when his VP selection is announced. Ditto with the respective conventions. But the fact that Obama has only very temporarily ever opened up what can be considered a lead (ie, a poll lead outside the margin of error) shows that there are grave doubts about Obama in the general populace, and this is the are McCain can exploit - especially as we get closer to the vote - to derail the Obama express.
As it relates to offshore drilling, only the most dyed-in-the-wool liberal thinks its the wrong idea - in fact, more than that, one has to be a downright fool to say we shouldn’t. If you’re going to have a plan to get America to be all or mostly energy independent, expanding domestic production of oil is a vital piece of the puzzle - not as a permanent solution, because the solution is to find an alternative to oil, but as part of the bridge between oil and alternative. McCain sees this, Obama didn’t - untill pressed to it by the hard facts of life, and the risk of a loss on his own part.
The problem here is not so much that Obama is slow off the mark on these common sense ideas, but that he has to be under threat to his own success before he’ll move. Again and again, only the risk to his own political prospects makes him ditch the liberal/left ideology and deal with facts as they are. This is the recipe for weak President who will be the laughingstock of the world, as our enemies exploit his weaknesses and our friends shake their heads in wonder that we managed to elect another Jimmy Carter. America should not place itself at risk just because one guy is telegenic and speaks well in a set piece campaign rally.
UPDATE: NRO’s The Corner has an eyewitness account of what happened when the Democrats cut and ran from the energy debate:
It’s too bad they’ve turned off the cameras and microphones in the House of Representatives because the Republicans are orchestrating an excellent political scene. As I was making my way over to the House chamber, I could hear the crowds inside chanting, “Drill! Drill! Drill!” Families, staff members and press were sitting in the gallery space above the floor listening to one speech after another - there were even some families and staff members sitting down on the floor - when one of the members came to the floor and said,
“The Capitol Police are going to be closing the Chamber in a few minutes, which means all of you are going to have to leave. But we’re not going to let that happen. Instead, we want everyone in the gallery - yes, everyone - to come down to the floor so they can’t kick you out of the Capitol. Members will be coming up to escort you downstairs right now.”
And sure enough, one member after another starting bringing groups of us down to the floor. The place was packed and people continue to come into the chamber as members were speaking without microphones from the central pit in front of the dais. The atmosphere reminded me of a session of Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons. People were shouting out from the crowd that they wanted to Democrats to come back to debate this issue, members were requesting the President to exercise his constitutional right to request the House to come back from recess to debate gas prices, and when I left the floor five or six Congressmen were hosting a press conference outside the chamber.
According to one speaker, forty-eight members had come to the floor to speak for a total of more than five hours.
Can you believe this chickens*** nonsense? Using the cops to clear the floor? Turning off the microphones? Never in the course of American history has there been a more cowardly act than these Democrats - Obama’s Democrats - running away rather than dealing with the people’s business….and the fact that they ran away gives us more understanding of what Obama is up to. He knows he’ll be crushed on the oil issue, and thus wants out of it…the House Democrats, on the other hand, are afraid to move either way for fear of angering the kook left or the center…
Tags: energy policy, John McCain, Obama Deceptions, oil price
August 2nd, 2008
We were wondering just how we were going to get some traction for the House races this fall:
Do-Nothing Democrats Vote to Adjourn House of Representatives Without Taking Action to Lower Gas Prices
Putnam: “It’s Time Democrats Put Their Boarding Passes Back in Their Pockets”
WASHINGTON – Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement shortly after the House of Representatives voted 213-212 – with no Republicans voting in the affirmative – to adjourn for five weeks in August and September without taking action to lower gas prices and break our dependence on foreign oil:
“The Democratic Congress should be held in contempt for voting to skip town without dealing with America’s energy crisis.
“Democrats are out of touch, out of excuses, out of support and out of time. Americans are hurting. Independent polls show they overwhelmingly support House Republicans’ all-of-the-above energy solutions.
“It’s time Democrats put their boarding passes back in their pockets and get to work by voting on the American Energy Act.”
As NRO points out, this is a Godsend to the GOP - its the perfect “kitchen table” issue and the GOP is entirely on the side of Joe and Jane Average on this issue. As with the Obama campaign, the only thing I can figure is that Pelosi and Co figure they’ve got their House majority sewn up and there’s no worry about what might happen in November. Of course, just as with the Obama campaign, we have to rate the Democrats as having the advantage in keeping their majority in November’s election…but there’s nothing for sure, and the GOP only needs a net of 19 to take an absolute majority…but even a GOP gain of 10 would give the GOP de-facto control over the House (with the remaining conservative and centrist Democrats scared to death of crossing the GOP). Meanwhile, if there was ever a year for Democrats to expand a majority, 2008 is it…so even a one seat gain by the GOP would be a crushing loss for the Democrats, given the political circumstances at the dawn of Campaign ‘08.
I’ve been observing politics for a long time now, and I’ve never seen a party so sure of themselves as the Democrats are. We’ll find out in November if its well-founded, or whether hubris and arrogance turned likely victory into defeat.
Tags: Do-Nothing Democrats, energy policy, House Democrats, House GOP, Nancy Pelosi, oil price
July 31st, 2008
Seems to be more and more the case that while Obama will outspend McCain, the overall battle between Democrat and Republican will be more equal:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain raised more than $22 million in June, his best fundraising performance of the year, and ended the month with nearly $27 million cash on hand.
Campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday that McCain and the national Republican Party together entered July with about $95 million in the bank. The Republican National Committee, which has been raising money jointly with McCain, collected nearly $26 million in June and had nearly $69 million on hand, officials said.
The campaign’s fundraising has given McCain the ability to spend more on television advertising than Democrat Barack Obama in key battleground states. Davis said about half of its income had been spent on television advertising.
Obama has not revealed his June fundraising.
In announcing McCain’s fundraising, Davis portrayed the campaign’s financial position as far brighter than ever before. He said the joint RNC-McCain fundraising through direct mail is now exceeding President Bush’s direct mail fundraising in 2004.
“We will have significant resources to prosecute a campaign that is very robust,” Davis said.
I wonder why Obama hasn’t released his June totals yet? I guess he doesn’t have to - but you’d think that if he were greatly outpacing McCain, he’d want to trumpet that…hey, just askin’….
The really crucial thing here for the GOP is the $69 million the RNC has - McCain is taking public financing, so all the money McCain raises must be spent by the end of August. That $69 million (which is likely to rise) will be used on party efforts to help McCain - and down-ballot GOPers (where we are trying to turn expected losses at least into holding our own). Meanwhile, the DNC is effectively broke, the Democrats can’t raise enough to pay for their convention and while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a good sized bank account, it seems that Obama is sucking up all the rest of leftwing money, which opens the question about how down-ballot Democrats will fare even if Obama wins.
Things like the money totals; the continued ability of the military to secure recruits; the ability of President Bush to win on FISA and on war funding; the abysmal Congressional approval ratings….all fo this indicates that while Obama is still the favorite to win in November, he’s only marginally so and, meanwhile, the overall left - and the Democratic party - can’t figure itself a shoo-in (though, of course, they do believe that…and I hope they keep on believing they’ve got it in the bag).
My view is that the American people are worn out - tired out Iraq, true (but not so tired they are willing to lose in order to get out), but also tired of Congressional scandals (and, Donks, William Jefferson - you forced him to resign, yet?), tired of political back-biting, tired of heated rhetoric on energy while gas prices continue to rise, tired of shrinking home equity…change is, indeed, wanted and that is the whole point of Obama…but if specific change is proposed, which way will the electorate go? McCain is offering concrete proposals, while Obama keeps things as vague as he can. Which will actually resonate come November?
Tags: Barack Obama, Defeaticrats, fundrasing, John McCain, oil price, RNC
July 11th, 2008
Can’t win for losing with these nuts:
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry”…
…Alex Daue, an outreach coordinator for the Wilderness Society, an environmental conservation group, praised the government for assessing the implications of large-scale solar development.
Some enviros say “go solar” and then other say “halt construction because there’s a squirrel out there”(and yes, the fate of a rat with a fluffy tail - ie, a squirrel - is one of the concerns). Pick one, already. Life ain’t perfect and there’s always a trade-off - in order to go solor we are going to have to actually build stuff, which will mean that part of that natural environment you whackos are always on about will have to be modified for human use…but the payoff will be less greenhouse emissions and thus we’ll be “fixing” that global warming nonsense you’ve been having a heart attack about lately.
Tags: Climate Change, global warming, oil price, solar energy
June 27th, 2008
Excellently illustrated recently in a debate between Donna Brazile (who is actually a very smart woman, but she’s got little to work with these days) and Bill Bennett on CNN’s Situation Room, as noted by Catholics in the Public Square:
WOLF BLITZER: If you had been at that news conference, Bill, and you had a chance to ask one question, today, what would you have asked, if you were a reporter?
BILL BENNETT: I think when he brought up Chicago I would have said “why are you to the left of NARAL, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein when it comes to abortion? Are you really there?” Not that it’s the only issue in the campaign, but I gotta question the guy’s moral judgment, who doesn’t see a problem with killing a baby after it’s been born after eight months.
DONNA BRAZILE: But he’s had an opportunity in several debates to talk about his position on abortion –
BENNETT: What is the answer to that question?
BRAZILE: Bill, look –
BENNETT: What is the answer?!
BRAZILE: You want to have a conversation about narrow issues –
BENNETT: That is not: that is fundamental!
BRAZILE: It is a fundamental issue, but the American people want to talk about gas prices …
More accurately, the American people are concerned with gas prices; it is Democrats who want to talk about it, because Obama and his Democrats have no actual plan for energy, but do feel they can score cheap points off the issue, as well as keep people off the subject of Obama’s manifest incapacity to be President of the United States. That aside, this also shows the very smallness of modern Democrats. Leave foreign affairs to the UN; use the military as a social services agency and please lets talk about gas prices as if the price of a gallon of gas is the largest issue in the whole, wide world. Truth is, it only modestly annoys me once per week when I fill up the tank - but even then I can pat myself on the back for not purchasing an SUV, as so many liberals do (one of the larger problems I noted in getting around Santa Monica, CA is the massive number of SUVs clogging the roads in that oh, so liberal city). Most of the time, the price of gas doesn’t come up - what with worries over the old man’s health, the purchase of a new dog and, you know, that life thingy that we’re supposed to be doing instead of worrying about gas prices.
Meanwhile, a very large number of my fellow human beings will be murdered this year, mostly because some people have been suckered into thinking that its no big deal to kill the unborn. Somehow, the death of a human being looms a little larger in the grand scheme of things than the difference between $3.25 and $4.25 a gallon…
Tags: abortion, energy policy, libderal lies, oil price
June 27th, 2008
For energy independence, as noted by Jonathan Adler at NRO:
Speaking Monday at Fresno State University in California, Sen. John McCain put forward what may be the most promising and important energy-policy proposal of the campaign: a $300 million prize for the development of advanced battery technology. “In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure,” he noted. Yet rather than have Washington pick winners and losers from within the energy industry, McCain suggested that the government should reward innovation and actual achievement. “From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success.”
As outlined by McCain, the prize would be paid the first innovator to develop a battery technology that “leapfrogs” existing electric car and plug-in hybrid technology, in terms of size, capacity, power, and cost. The aim is a battery technology that capable of powering motor vehicles at 30 percent of current costs. This would be a significant technical breakthrough, greatly enhancing the ability of battery-powered vehicles to compete in the marketplace.
Government-sponsored prizes for innovation are based upon the same principle as the patent system: Encourage innovation by rewarding inventors and entrepreneurs with the promise of super-competitive returns. A patent provides such a reward by giving the innovator a temporary monopoly for his invention. A prize goes one step further by placing a bounty on a particular type of innovation, increasing incentives for potential investors.
$300 million is a good deal of money, and I wish now that I’d bothered to study engineering and that sort of stuff like my Dad wanted me to (well, he never said, study engineering, but I got the distinct impression that the man who worked on the space program and the Stealth fighter wanted very much for one of his children to follow in his footsteps). Be that as it may, it is a great incentive and rather than having some bureaucrat - under pressure from whomever donated the most - select which research programs to subsidize, just throw the prize out there and left people self-select themselves for the effort, and the reward (’cause it wouldn’t just be that $300 million - there would also be the patent rights, and the bonanza of cash for that). This is the sort of real change McCain offers as opposed to Obama’s false change, which is really just warmed-over Carterism.
Now, any techno-geeks out there in the audience have any ideas on how to leapfrog to this new technology?
Tags: energy policy, John McCain, oil price
June 25th, 2008
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