Energy Policy/Drilling Policy

I spend a lot of my time saying don't drill here, don't drill there, don't drill yet, save it for when we really need it.

But what should our policy be?  We need a general plan so that we can be prepared for when our energy situation gets out of hand.   Setting up oil rigs is energy intensive in itself.  And if wait too late, we might not have the resources to get additional drilling up and running.

I still think it is too early to get started.  I don't want to see more oil wasted away on SUVs and suburban sprawl.  But how long would it take to get something up and running?  If it takes 10 years to get something up and running and we are currently 15 years away from when things will really get bad, then we can wait a few more years.

The problem is that I have no clue on either of those, I just randomly chose those two numbers.  ASPO (The Association for the Study if Peak Oil), has a much better sense of these numbers, but no one knows for sure.  They may not know for sure, but they know enough to scare me.

Trust Busting

The public trust has been busted by companies labeled "too large to fail".

Maybe it is time to adjust our antitrust laws. (I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so this might not actually fall under antitrust laws, although I suspect they do). I suggest that we create rules to create any one company from becoming "too large to fail." Once a company reaches that size it must break up into smaller companies. If the situation changes, the companies could merge back together.

I realize this is highly reactive, it does not deal with whatever the next problem on Wall Street will be. And as with many well intentioned laws it may cause unintended harm to some organizations (I would hope not as bad as SOX). But even with that, I think it is worth considering.

What do you think?

-- Andy

Something's Got to Give

Gasoline shortages are here.  We are lucky as these are only temporary shortages due to refinery shut downs from the hurricanes.  But they will be good to learn from when shortages become more frequent, more wide spread, and longer.

NBC did a 2 minute piece on the gas shortage on the Nightly News.  The  comment from one driver really spoke to me.  "Something's got to give."

I think she is right.  But I don't think she would like my answer.  I think that what is going to have to give our our lifestyles and our attitudes.  We can't keep spreading out into sprawlville.  We need to get used to our food arriving from local sources, and paying more for it (and wishing we hadn't paved over the best farmland acres to plop down ticky tacky houses).   I suspect there will be some tough times ahead.

Insight for the Day

I was listening to TWiT today (http://www.twit.tv/twit) and there was an interesting comment that was worth sharing.  I believe it was from Jason Calicanis or Andrew Horowitz.  I am sure it is not an exact reflection on the TWiT comments  -- I report on it from my own perspective, and add my own little rant in the final paragraph.

The comparison was between our current financial mess and youth sports. 

Youth sports have dissolved into the mindset of: "everyone is a winner -- you all get trophies."  We don't want to damage the egos of our little ones (we also tend to be over protective in keeping them from physical pain too, but that is a post for another day)

Wall Street seems to be heading the same direction.  "It's OK that you lost billions of dollars.  Don't feel bad.  It's not your fault that you gave money to someone with no chance of ever paying you back for a house worth less than the person paid for it.  Here, have a nice severance package -- it will make you feel better."

Parents may be able to coddle their children for a while (and maybe keep them as children for a while longer if the coddling keeps the child from maturing).  But Uncle Sam is an old man who is already deeply in debt.  Sometime (and sometime soon) he is going to have to admit to his Wall Street boyz that he can't bail them out.  That they need to grow up, become men, and take responsibility for themselves.

-- Andy