What does it say about America when an accomplished national figure goes on television every day, month after month, says something that isn't true, and isn't challenged?
According to T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil man, the high price of oil on world markets has transformed the oil trade into the biggest transfer of wealth in history.
Not so. The oil trade doesn't result in even a small transfer of wealth. It is simply the aggregate of a large number of ordinary business transactions.
Let's say a refinery in Texas buys a million dollars' worth of oil from Saudi Arabia. The refinery gets oil with a market value of $1 million and pays $1 million to the Saudi producer. The Saudi producer ships away the oil, but now has $1 million in U.S. currency on account.
The wealth of the U.S.and the wealth of Saudi Arabia are unchanged by the transaction.
If, on the other hand, Iraq invades Kuwait, takes control of its oil fields, and sells the oil to Turkey, that is a transfer of wealth.
So why does Pickens take this line of attack?
Probably because scare stories have been working so well.
Take Al Gore, who parlayed global warming into wealth, fame and a Nobal Prize. It all started with the hysteria he and his accomplices whipped up, a hysteria based on nothing more than a 1 degree increase in the world's average temperature over a century.
If Pickens can kindle a fear among Americans that their country's wealth is slipping away through the oil trade, it is bound to heighten fears already aroused that their homes have lost a lot of value and may lose more.
Now that global warming is cooling off as an issue, it's a fine time to turn the spotlight on our shrinking individual and family wealth.
Our wealth is, in fact, shrinking in one sense, but for reasons largely unrelated to the oil trade. Because of reckless mismanagement of spending, including bailouts and entitlements, by the White House and Congress, the U.S. dollar has been losing value. As a result, the dollar buys less and less of the foreign-made goods that make up a bigger and bigger slice of a family's spending money.
So why does Pickens focus on alternatives to oil instead of the shrinking dollar?
Beats me. But a peek at Pickens' investment portfolio might yield an interesting answer.
About Me
- TheRightFieldLine
- A farm boy in Minnesota, I acquired my first rifle at 5 and my shotgun at 9. At 10, I was living in Duluth, in a tough neighborhood. So I sawed off the barrel of my rifle and whittled a pistol grip. The farm boy was now ready for life in the city. In the army I expanded my repertoire to the M1, the bazooka, machine guns and other things that make loud noises. It was a blast, and I didn't have to pay for the ammo. Along the way, I broke bones playng football and spilled blood on hockey rinks. No regrets. Sports were a blast. Still are. I spent two years at two elite universities, but got my education at the University of Minnesota. A career journalist, I loved my craft until it took up social emgineering in the mid-90s. An industry that had welcomed bright, witty and irreverent free-thinkers was suddenly filling up with not-so-bright leftist zealots on a mission. So I quit. Since then, I have skated, roller-bladed, skied, sailed, canoed, worked out, traced my family roots, honed my churlish side and set up this blog. The old instincts are coming back. Life is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment