Guy Berger

Yes - Hymn is the best one from the electric RtF and quite a good album. "Where Have I Known You Before" is not bad either, but really a pale shadow of the "real thing". (Agreed that "Song to the Pharaoh Kings" or whatever the closing tune on that album does kick some butt.) Romantic Warrior I can't get into. The whole thing just oozes cheese. Though Lenny White's tune is nice as is the first long Corea track. Guy

This lineup of RtF struck me as a bad parody of Mahavishnu. Based on your comments I do not think you would enjoy the music. Guy

Let's be fair here. Remember what a Cadillac looked like the the mid 80s? They did respond, but the demand for large vehicles quickly returned with a vengeance. The U.S. automakers get all the heat and yet Toyota in this article clearly takes the position of, "we're not going to panic and sales for the big stuff will be up again real soon". I don't see any of the Foreign manufacturers backing off production of full size gas guzzling models. I do however see them constantly praised as models of efficiency. But I wonder, was the U.S. auto industry so badly mis-managed? Some perhaps, but what shape would Nissan and Honda be in of they had to pay bloated pensions, healthcare for ex-employees and inflated wages for current? After all, their workers are not union. When people were cheering the UAW for going on strikes and sticking to the man, they forgot something. Maybe it was too expensive to re-tool and downsize models because the union still insisted on $28/hr for the guy washing the windshields. Meanwhile, for many years they were cranking out a shit product while demanding higher wages. I realize some of that shit back then you can maybe blame on engineers, designers and upper management, but what about the dude putting on the drive shaft half ass? Well, he's retired now with a pension, full healthcare, AND he gets a 40% ex-employee discount on a new car for himself plus all his friends and family. No doubt the legacy costs are hurting these guys. But let's be frank. The Big 3 have now captured less than 50% of the market share in the US for the 2nd month in a row. For the first time in 16 years the best-selling light vehicle in the US is not the Ford F-series pickup, which is being outsold by 4 popular "Japanese" sedans (I would guess that most are produced domestically, hence the quotes). Honda has outsold Chrysler for only the 2nd time ever and Toyota is within striking distance of GM. The Big 3 are very poorly prepared for the car market that lies ahead. (And it's telling that Toyota, the Japanese company that moved most aggressively to compete with these guys, is the one that is struggling the most.) Guy

Nope - definitely written afterward. There was a separate article on GM's announcement earlier this morning.

The US economy is adjusting to higher gas prices. I wonder how long it will be before the Chrysler brand is owned by a Chinese or Indian company....

You can read the full report at the Brookings Institute website.

I must admit I found the conclusion of this study to be a surprise. One more reason to move to SoCal...

Yup, it's ugly. An industry expert at (IIRC) RBC Greenwich Capital was quoted in The Economist predicting that by the time this all blows over, 150-200 small banks (and presumably other depository institutions) in the US will fail. Shades of the S&L Crisis. Guy

Or a Bad Cheop Day!!! (Sorry, comrade, I couldn't resist.) Haha Menace, good one! Guy

I don't care what label it's on though I would prefer better sound. According to Losin there are three dates:

Yes, should have started working on it HARD back in the mid-70's as far as I'm concerned. But with the big oil companies lining the pockets of politicians for decades so they could protect their little energy monopoly...didn't happen. We're going to seriously regret it and sooner than we'd like. Steam Engines weren't such a bad thing... I think it's important to keep in mind that investing in alternative energies, more efficient energies, etc is not a freebie - it has costs and there is some optimal balance between bearing these costs and bearing higher energy prices. That said, to lean on my "energy diet" analogy further, it is more comfortable to lose 50 lbs over the span of two years than all in one week. Guy

A former Saudi Oil Minister once said “The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” It's probably true that given current technology and sources of energy there are "limits to growth", but I've never been convinced by Malthusian arguments like the one below. As the price of crude oil increases previously uneconomical sources of both oil and other energy become economical. R&D into alternative energy accelerates. Technology improves energy efficiency. Consumers and businesses alter their behavior to reduce energy consumption. In the short and medium run we'll have to undergo an "energy diet" (implying slower growth) but once this adjustment is complete economic growth will return to trend. Guy

Ah yes, the Democrats, is there no problem they cannot solve??? Superman wishes he had the track record of Democrats! I cannot wait til the Dems sock it to an American cartel like OPEC, and American companies such as British Petroleum, and Dutch Shell!!! Well, there is plenty that could be done because the private companies (Shell, BP) have assets in the US and geopolitical pressure could be brought to bear on OPEC. That said, it is unlikely that any of those actions would do much to stop the long run upward trajectory of crude oil prices. Guy

Interesting article. No real conclusion but it does set out the issues clearly.

Interesting article -- I know that cricket has been slowly commercializing and it is probably inevitable that golf will do the same.

I think the question is whether earlier investment in alternative energies, more efficient engines, etc would have reduced our dependance on petroleum for energy. But that investment isn't free either -- we would have lower energy prices but higher taxes and/or lower government spending. Guy

It's not just an issue of "what's left in the ground" -- there's lots -- but also that not much of it is getting pumped out and a lot of THAT has to do with the policies of countries that own it. Guy

Because prices are rising to adjust. That's the point of supply and demand -- when supply decreases or demand increases, prices go up. Guy 'cept that ain't the result. Demand has not fallen to keep the supply up. Back to the classroom. I'm not sure what you are saying here. My sole point was responding to Jim's argument that a supply-demand framework requires shortages. It doesn't - prices adjust. As far as the US, recent data suggests that gasoline consumption is in fact decreasing. Finally, rising prices don't necessarily imply a fall in quantity demanded if other factors are driving an increase in demand. China and India have a rapidly growing need for energy due to industrialization, hence the quantity of oil they consume is increasing even as the price goes up. Guy

Krugman may or may not be right on oil prices currently experiencing a speculative bubble. (Which can largely be boiled down to the idea that the actual price of crude oil has diverged from its "fundamental value".) However, he is 100% right that the fundamental value of oil (and other forms of energy) IS increasing, due to rapid growth in India, China and other developing countries. It's a little late here for me to dissect the article posted by Berigan, but it strikes me that this is largely a mishmash of accusation and doesn't contain many serious arguments. I would like to say that: (A) "Speculation" (as commonly understood) is not the same as a "speculative asset bubble". Plenty of speculation can happen in situations where assets trade close to their fundamental values. (B) "Market manipulation" is different from "speculation" or "speculative asset bubbles". The latter two can happen without any market manipulation whatsoever.

Because prices are rising to adjust. That's the point of supply and demand -- when supply decreases or demand increases, prices go up. Guy

I am not an expert on the oil industry, but how much oil does "big oil" actually own? Most reserves are in countries that have nationalized their oil industry. Guy