Iraq has being posting record profit from oil revenues, almost 80 billion in the current fiscal year. It is time for the US to scale down its financial help for Reconstruction and military assistance and let the Iraq's government take control of their own future.
However, because of the large exodus of Iraqis' professional (around 3 million left Iraq) and the dismantling of the Baath party by the US in the early stage of the invasion, Iraq has a lack of competent administrators to deal with the budget surplus and make life of Iraqis citizens better.
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Showing posts with label Oil prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oil prices. Show all posts
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
US Election polltracker
The race for the White House is getting closer. McCain has found traction with the energy issue and his claim that off shore oil drilling can lower gas prices. Most experts think that it would take a long time for oil production to be online and that the impact on oil prices would be very limited.
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More oil firms report big profits
Exxon, Chevron, Total are reporting record profits.....once again. Keep it in mind next time you go to a gas station.
McCain, just like Bush, advocates off shore drilling, in our current context it seems to resonate with US voters. McCain forget to mention that this type of new exploration wouldn't increase oil production for a while and would have almost no impact on oil prices.
On the other hand, it seems that taxing oil companies and getting rid of their tax rebates is what should be done.
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McCain, just like Bush, advocates off shore drilling, in our current context it seems to resonate with US voters. McCain forget to mention that this type of new exploration wouldn't increase oil production for a while and would have almost no impact on oil prices.
On the other hand, it seems that taxing oil companies and getting rid of their tax rebates is what should be done.
read more digg story
Monday, July 21, 2008
Could another " New Deal " be what America needs?
After almost 8 years of incredible mismanagement by the Bush Administration, America is in a state of complete shamble. Last year, I took a photographs of a graffiti sprayed on a crumbling house in the lower 9th ward in New-Orleans; it said " America needs help". This is probably, in a nutshell, the most accurate political statement of today.
The numbers can make one's head spin. Our budget deficit is 9 trillion, the dollar has reached record low against currencies such as the Euro, the Yen, and the Pound.The low dollar is not really helping our manufacturing sector either, it is more or less gone thanks to the strategy of corporation such as Wall Mart of exporting jobs to India and China. The jobs left to maximize corporate profit and they won't come back.In this insane hyper-capitalist logic Americans were supposed to be the eternal consumer with a credit card never maxed out.
Well, guest what, Americans ( except the super wealthy ) are going broke. Since the burst of the real estate bubble, they can not borrow on their houses any longer. In the mean time, the skyrocketing oil prices is triggering inflation. In the last few weeks, the Feds had to take over a Bank and are tracking a few on their " at risk " of going under list.
The so call economical " stimulus" from the Bush administration ( remember the $600.00 you spent already) was insulting, inefficient and pure political pandering. Another symptoms of the drastic economical misconception of this administration. Bush wanted people to spend the money....well they should have saved the money instead.
Americans have been spending money they don't have for too long consuming stuff they quite often don't need. It is time to re-think our behavior or face the consequences. What we have being doing for years with our own financing management reflect at a much smaller scale the " economic model" of the Bush crack team. The best example is the two wars on installment plan ( with money borrowed from China and Japan) at a cost of 1 trillion combined and counting.
What the next president will have to do to prevent America to become a 2nd or even a 3rd world country is to revisit the type of ideas that FDR implemented to take America out of the great depression in the " New Deal". The next president and the next Congress will have to put a real stimulus plan together, not based on consumer spending but one focusing on fixing the infrastructure of the countries ( roads, bridges, levees, sewage systems, ports, public transportation).
Our country is falling apart, and spending on infrastructure generate much more growth than cutting taxes.
We also need to re-think our conception of " free market" in the long run. It is a paradox that the Bush administration, now a day, is practicing a socialized capitalism consisting of private gain and public losses. With just happened with Fannie & Freddie is an illustration of this point.
It is time to spend money in America not on wars that we can't either afford or win.
The numbers can make one's head spin. Our budget deficit is 9 trillion, the dollar has reached record low against currencies such as the Euro, the Yen, and the Pound.The low dollar is not really helping our manufacturing sector either, it is more or less gone thanks to the strategy of corporation such as Wall Mart of exporting jobs to India and China. The jobs left to maximize corporate profit and they won't come back.In this insane hyper-capitalist logic Americans were supposed to be the eternal consumer with a credit card never maxed out.
Well, guest what, Americans ( except the super wealthy ) are going broke. Since the burst of the real estate bubble, they can not borrow on their houses any longer. In the mean time, the skyrocketing oil prices is triggering inflation. In the last few weeks, the Feds had to take over a Bank and are tracking a few on their " at risk " of going under list.
The so call economical " stimulus" from the Bush administration ( remember the $600.00 you spent already) was insulting, inefficient and pure political pandering. Another symptoms of the drastic economical misconception of this administration. Bush wanted people to spend the money....well they should have saved the money instead.
Americans have been spending money they don't have for too long consuming stuff they quite often don't need. It is time to re-think our behavior or face the consequences. What we have being doing for years with our own financing management reflect at a much smaller scale the " economic model" of the Bush crack team. The best example is the two wars on installment plan ( with money borrowed from China and Japan) at a cost of 1 trillion combined and counting.
What the next president will have to do to prevent America to become a 2nd or even a 3rd world country is to revisit the type of ideas that FDR implemented to take America out of the great depression in the " New Deal". The next president and the next Congress will have to put a real stimulus plan together, not based on consumer spending but one focusing on fixing the infrastructure of the countries ( roads, bridges, levees, sewage systems, ports, public transportation).
Our country is falling apart, and spending on infrastructure generate much more growth than cutting taxes.
We also need to re-think our conception of " free market" in the long run. It is a paradox that the Bush administration, now a day, is practicing a socialized capitalism consisting of private gain and public losses. With just happened with Fannie & Freddie is an illustration of this point.
It is time to spend money in America not on wars that we can't either afford or win.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The global food crisis: Stop putting corn in your gas tank.
According to The Guardian, the World Bank reveals , in a secret report, that the use of biofuel ( mainly ethanol from corn) forced global food prices up by 75 %, instead of the 3 % previously indicated by the Bush Administration.
The report was not released to avoid " embarrassing President Bush " said a World Bank senior official. If you want 200 million people to starve keep putting corn in your gas tank.
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The report was not released to avoid " embarrassing President Bush " said a World Bank senior official. If you want 200 million people to starve keep putting corn in your gas tank.
read more digg story
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Is a world wide depression worse than 1929 in the forecast?
The month of June was the worse month on Wall Street since 1930. With the financial sector still shaky, price of oil at record high and the US dollar at record low against the Euro, how can the US afford two wars at a cost of 1 trillion,so far? Are George W. Bush's policies bankrupting the US economy and bringing down the world wide economy?
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" The World is entering a danger zone"
According to the World Bank president Robert Zoellick,ahead of the Japan's G8 summit, is urging world leaders and oil producers " to act now to address the man made catastrophe " caused by soaring food, commodities and oil prices. This blog contains the direct link of the letter sent by Zoellick to Prime minister Fukuda and the other G8's leaders.
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read more digg story
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