Last update: 11:25 a.m. EDT May 5, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Crude oil futures surged nearly $4 Monday to above $120 a barrel for the first time on concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and weakness in the U.S. dollar. Crude oil for June delivery soared $3.89 to an intraday high of $120.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in mid-morning trading, a new record high for a front-month contract. Nigeria's rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said Sunday it was responsible for an attack on a Shell oil flow station in the south of the country, according to media reports. The dollar index fell 0.3% to 73.26 Monday, boosting oil's dollar-denominated prices.
dryheavesdaily:
Who Will Tell the People?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.
They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.
Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.
We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
That’s why Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: “You go to war with the army you have.” Hey, you march into the future with the country you have — not the one that you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.
How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.
And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”
http://tinyurl.com/6nxxg3
Enigmafan420:
Thank God Thomas Friedman is generally considered a left wing lunatic-he should move to Singapore-It is people like him that are causing this "oil shortage" by refusing to allow American Ingenuity and manufacturing prowess to develop domestic energy sources.
martscan:1. How, exactly, does Friedman prevent "American ingenuity" from doing anything?
2. What/where are domestic energy sources?
Enigmafan420:
To Martscan:
Let us count the ways Sir Thomas and his ilk prevent energy independence:
1: No drilling in Alaska
2: No drilling in Dakota
3: No drilling in Gulf of Mexico
4: No drilling on West Coast
5: No new Nuclear Power
6: No Coal to Oil Conversion
7: "Windfall Profits tax" on Oil corporations-because EVERYONE knows that corporations actually pay taxes-NOT.
Liberals always want us to "conserve" our way to prosperity but can't point to one society where that has actually worked. If today's liberals had been around in the late 1800s, one wonders if the industrial revolution would have occured.
And don't give me any c*** about Western Euorope-The Whole continent is smaller than the USA-OF COURSE smaller cars and mass transit work better there-when you can drive across an entire country like the UK or France in under 12 hours-Takes me 24 just to get 1/2 way across the USA. And-anyone tried to take a train across country lately? You can do it, of course, if you don't mind the one a day schedule, and the 4 days it takes to do so. Amtrak is great, if getting there is part of your vacation-but for business travel, not so much.
sivere:
Thank you Enigmafan, and let me add:
we are in the midst of a total financial collapse (see www.siv0.com ). Let's set aside the speculation about "global warming", and not let CO2 release be an issue in developing these sources. Let's develop what we can as quickly as possible, and give the scientists another couple hundred years to figure out if global warming is real or myth, and in the mean time save our nation!
let's also:
www.TakeBackTheFed.com
martscan:Enigmafan:
What does Friedman have to do with preventing "American ingenuity"?
What/where, exactly, are the domestic energy sources?
Enigmafan420 :
I just gave you the facts-you choose to ignore them...
Which party is it, exactly, that is refusing to increase domestic energy production? Which party is it that thinks if CAFE standards are 38 MPG that everything will be okay?
And what c*** about Europe? Are you REALLY going to deny the geographical differences between the 2 continents?
Your 500,000 oil rig count, where did that come from? And currently operating rigs in this country are mostly mature. It is not like in Arabia (Uncle worked for ARAMCO for 20 years) where you can almost literally put a pipe in the ground and get an oil flow.
You sir, are confirming that you are fool-YOU are the one speaking with no substantiation. Just because you don't like mine doesn't mean I didn't provide any.
And by the way, I do my part-I drive a Hybrid Civic-it is just that I believe the answer is two fold-increased efficiency coupled with increased production. Most liberals oppose any increase in production, at least domestically.
martscan:Enigmafan:
You are full of it. You right wing-nut, neocon holy rollers controlled all 3 branches of govt for 6 years and its you, incompetent underachievers that you are, that have failed to do anything constructive about energy, a Wall Street driven beyond sanity by greed, growing erosion of the middle class and our standard of living, a sham security policy built on fear, a criminal invasion of a sovereign, non-aggressive country, murder of 4,000+ American kids and untold innocents and you have the temerity to shoot your mouth off about liberals...you should be ashamed of yourself and this government that doesn't have a clue how to govern.
Enigmafan420 :
Underachiever? I am a CPA-what are you? You can't even spell or use punctuation.
And, in typical liberal fashion-you resort to name calling when you loose an argument.
Post any replies you like-you are continuing to show your ignorance.
martscan :We presently have over 500,000 oil wells in the U.S., they produce an avg of 10.5 bbls a day, is there an oilman in this country that wouldn't give his eyeteeth to in crease production if he could? ANWR will take 7 years to produce to capacity of about 875,000/bbls a day...that is about 3.7% of our daily consumption, hardly a panacea. We will need oil, the very life blood of our economic existence, for at least 50 years...and that oil is in the middle-east and Russia, and we sure as h*** aren't going to get it in Russia...that is why we invaded Iraq and that is why we will eventually either invade Iran or effect a tractable regime change in Iran...anyone that thinks the U.S. is acting in terms of "freedom and liberty" for anyone but ourselves is ignorant of history. Countries do NOT act in terms of ideology, they act in terms of their own self economic interest. All the rest is BS.
martscan:Enigmafan:
For Christ's sake, get off your high horse and Google some facts...YOU tell me, how many oil rigs are in the U.S.? And, goody two shoes, what the h*** are doing driving a Japanase car if you're so big on things American? You b**** about buying foreign oil then buy a foreign car to put it in...you are a fraud. I suppose you also eat Brie and drink chablis.
Duo :
I do believe we nearly have a flame war here folks, do you mind taking it to PM's?
martscan : Enigmafan: You are quite comical, in fact, you have me in stitches! A CPA? WOW!! How bout that!! Do you actually admit to it? Don't CPAs have the second highest rate of suicide, next to dentists? Its certainly understandable, given the nature of the work. One looks at rotten teeth all day, the other looks at numbers all day, same thing. Were you crowing from the standpoint of income? Please, enough laughter for today. Have you ever considered stand up comedy...or perhaps therapy? You've got to get out of the office more...you need some fresh air.
"........you can't even spell or use pronunciation." I beg your pardon? Did you actually write this...or do you have a talented pet dog? While I am loath to presume what's inside an oatmail brain, I think I'm on safe ground presuming you failed to properly convey your thought..ill conceived though it be....I'll go easy on you, you did mean to say ".....spell correctly or use proper pronunciation.", did you not? Its not your fault...its probably a congenital flaw. Poor baby, petulance does not become you.
As to arguments, again, I'm on safe ground stating that I have never "loosed" an argument. I can't say the same for some CPAs.
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