Oil to Ollie
BP in the Gulf. Now two pipelines explode in China. You'd think we'd see more upward movement in USO, but I'm not holding my breath. * * * * * * * The duplicity is incredible: When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government's “power to lay and collect taxes.” An unfair angle from the National Review? Nope. It's the opening passage from a New York Times article over the weekend. * * * * * * * What the heck? When quality people like this go off the deep end, it makes you lose faith in humanity: "Jason Andrews was a bisexual Chicago DJ with a British accent, whose chiseled jaw and good looks landed him roles in countless gay porn videos. Amanda Logue was a married, bleach-blond Georgia woman who once owned a lingerie shop, dabbled in prostitution and starred in several X-rated videos herself. Florida detectives claim that together they stabbed and bludgeoned to death a 41-year-old tattoo shop owner with a sledgehammer." * * * * * * * Oliver Stone is making a "10-part documentary series for HBO, Oliver Stone's Secret History of America." I gotta say, I've never been a big Stone fan, but this has me intrigued, probably because I'm in the middle of Jeff Riggenbach's highly-engaging Why American History Is Not What They Say. Riggenbach is one of the von Mises gold standard guys who thinks (with reason) that American history since 1789 is a looting of America through the unholy alliance of big government and big business (I over-state the premise a bit, but not much). I'm thinking Stone might share that sentiment. From an interview:
What would your father have made of the Wall Street of the last few years? I ask. "Look, he was pissed off when we left the gold standard in '73, although'73 is actually very interesting. It's a really crucial year, because the income of the average working man flattened out in '73 and never went up in spending ability. But meanwhile the productivity of America went up like this. Where did that money go? It went to CEOs and stock holders. It went to the banks."
