Do you think this will have any impact?
I will never happen. Even if Obama gets elected, Obama will never have the pull to get legislation passed to close that loophole.
I do have an issue with blaming the rise on speculators. This "loophole" has been law for 8 years, yet the smartest money makers in the world never took advantage of it? People whose jobs demand that they make millions of dollars a quarter never used this little secret to turn large profits? I don't belive it, it is too simplistic a solution.
Having said that I have to admit I am baffled by the increase in fuel costs. It makes no sense from a supply and demand standpoint, and futures are determined by supply and demand. Somebody or something is pushing the market up. Part of it is the weak US dollar, but that only accounts for a small percentage of the increase. I have heard rumors of Iran buying huge qualtities of oil and storing it in tankers off their coast, still not enough to make a difference. China and India can't account for that much. Maybe the speculators are betting on a ME war, or maybe somebody running out of oil?
The world's politics are varied, but the world's finances are based on supply and demand. If you have no supply, you are the demand and if youare the supply, you profit from the demand. It is the reason why Sudan is stil a country and why the USSSR is now Russia and a bunch of little country/states. George Bush saw it coming and filled the strategic reserve as prices started going up.
America should do everything in her power to get out from under the ME oil mess. Drilling is a good start, it will take ten years to pay dividends, but ten years ago the argument against drilling was it would take too long to see any effect. Refining capacity will have to be improved on a regional basis, with major refineries in every geographic region in America. They are UGLY, and huge and dirty, and did I mention UGLY, but they will drop the price of fuel by 25%. Then, after we have become our own producer, we shut the whole ME OFF. Let them eat oil, drink oil and bath in oil. Then we can minipulate the food market and make them pay through their nose.
Last on my rant is alternative propulsion sourses. If we can eliminate the need for new internal combustion type engines, then we can decrease the need for new oil capacity. In the past we have requested alternatives to oil, I suggest that we demand new forms of propulsion. Get rid of the V8 and replce it with electric/Hydrogen/Oxygen/nuclear/fill in the blank forms of automobile. They must be competitive with todays performance and cannot cost any more to produce. They MUST go from 0 to 60 in less than 15 seconds, why you ask, because they MUST be an alternative and not a sacrifice. The government should provide a reward for the first 5 companies who succeed in the quest within 10 years, let's say $100,000,000 ea put in an interest bearing account, each winner gets one. Nothing motivates like money, even if the winners lose money in the deal, the competition will drive development. At the same time we look for alternative fuel sources, but not like the Carter Mobil One debacle. Two or three labs, working in secret from each other, funded by the US government, doing nothing but experimentation. The greatest minds recruited for the cause, top pay and a budget that is approved in 5 year increments. Show results and you get 5 more years. I know, you are all saying that we could feed the poor and what about the children, but what about the vast majority of America who will benefit from such successes and in the end, the poor and children will benefit also.
We don't need taxes and we don't need threats. We need motivation and inspiration and competition. It will work and the results will bring on a new age! OK, maybe a slightly modified age, but the potential success will be enough. Think of it as another challenge in the "America in Space before the end of the decade" type challenge. Win or lose, it is an approach that will excite America, an idea of hope instead of an idea of failure.
