"Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare." - Rene Descartes
The U.S. Oil Import data to compare 2009 to 2010 are in: Net imports for the first 105 days of 2010 are DOWN 8.9% as compared to the first 105 days of 2009. Domestic production of Crude, Natural Gas Liquids, and Ethanol were all up. Some of this is just good fortune (in the form of ethanol) and some random acts of nature (The Gulf hurricanes of a few years ago damaged production that has now been brought back on line). Where will the domestic production come from in the future to make up for the decline in Oil imports?
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I dislike Goldman Sachs. I nick named them "The Anti-Christ". That does not mean that I want them indicted if they did not commit a crime. This was a politically motivated action, and win or lose, it won't hold up on appeal. It is EASY to get a conviction against a member of the elite if you stack the jury with regular Joe's and appeal to their sense of anger and resentment. Surviving the appeal process is another story all together. Just ask Rudy Giulianni (the OTHER anti-Christ). He won ALL of his cases that went to a jury in the 1980's Wall Street witch hunt. He lost 100% of those cases when they went up on Appeal.
You see articles about how people lost money in a Goldman CDO or derivative. What you DON'T SEE, and should, is that all derivatives, and all bonds (including CDO's), and all commodity futures contracts are zero sum games - for every winner there is an equal and opposite loser. OF COURSE somebody lost money! Somebody else MADE that money on the other side of the trade... and these were NOT widows and orphans. These are the most sophisticated folks on the bleedin' planet. Shed no tears for them.
We are a nation of laws - disgusting, mean-spirited, slanted, bought and paid for laws... but laws just the same. Encouraging the government to commit political prosecutions has not worked out in the past.
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4.5% of the world's population sustains 50% of the world's military spending. That would be the U.S.
Does that sound like an imbalance to you? It sure sounds like one to me. Entrenched interests and the temptation to USE that power has all sorts of issues and unintended consequences. How much collateral damage do we and the ROW have to endure?