ShareThisJust what we needed: In the midst of a global war to defend the West from radical Jihadists, we get a global financial crisis caused by the incompetence and/or corruption of Washington and Wall Street bigwigs.The economic cloud has a threadbare silver lining: The price of oil has been falling. But that does not mean Tehran will slow spending on nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, terrorist groups -- and the sundry ways these elements can be combined to threaten, intimidate and perhaps inflict damage on those it views as its mortal enemies. Speaking at the UN last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted that the "American empire is reaching the end of the road." You can be sure that he, Osama bin Laden and others of the militant Islamist persuasion will be attempting to speed that journey through whatever means - military, political and economic - they can devise. Leftists such as Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez and autocrats such Russia's Vladimir Putin will assist them. Middle East sheiks also are unlikely to tell the terrorists they've been funding to do more with less. They know it's not just America's 401k plans that have taken a hit: It's also America's confidence. How would a devastating, new terrorist attack affect the national mood? You can bet this question is being discussed in various palaces and caves.Also, don't expect the Saudis to slash the funds they give to their many agents of influence in Washington, on American college campuses and in the growing number of mosques taken over by Wahhabi clerics. For these reasons, if slightly lower prices at the pump lull us into thinking that developing energy sources not controlled by hostile regimes is no longer an urgent matter, we'll be making yet another disastrous mistake. We all reeled when we were told that the government's rescue plan or bailout or whatever it's called would cost $700 billion. Coincidently, $700 billion is also the sum we send abroad in a single year in exchange for oil. This historically unprecedented transfer of wealth, Texas tycoon T. Boone Pickens says in his television ads, is "wrecking our economy." Should a global recession lead to oil falling below about $60 a barrel (it's just under $80 as I write this), we ought to break out the bubbly (French vintners will need the business) and then use taxes to set a floor on gasoline prices so that the development of alternative fuels is not undermined again, as it was following the oil shock of the 1970s. Other taxes can -- and should -- be lowered to compensate. Such an energy policy, would reduce future fuel price volatility (you may never again fill up for $1.50 a gallon but you won't pay $5.00 either) while strengthening America's energy security and national security -- two concepts now firmly joined at the hip.A story was told during the Cold War: Two businessmen visiting Moscow spot a man with binoculars atop the Kremlin. They ask what he's doing. "I'm watching for the coming of communism," he says. The businessmen huddle and then approach the man again: "Whatever they're paying you, we'll double it. We'll give you an office in the Empire State Building. You'll watch for the coming crisis of capitalism." The man considers, then demurs. "Sorry," he says. "I have a family. I require permanent work."Indeed, the promised communist utopia never arrived. And capitalism seems to be suffering no end of crises. Most Americans - military personnel excepted -- have enjoyed the fruits of capitalism coupled with freedom while doing little to earn these blessings and less to defend them. To protect the American way of life for future generations will require a recovery of vision, courage, determination and energy (both liquid and moral). I'm not confident the crises we are now experiencing will produce that but, if they do, they will turn out to have been just what we needed after all. Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. (Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. E-mail him at cliff(at)defenddemocracy.org)
Will financial crisis spur a wiser American energy policy?
Submitted by SHNS on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 14:41
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
End the crisis now - Privatise the BIG oil companies
It is illogical to have the nation's most important asset in the hands of a few individuals.
The current crisis only enriches oil executives and oil company owners. These people can afford to conspire to drop gas prices to lull Americans into believing the economic crisis will pass ... till it is too late to do anything about it.
IMHO, oil companies are terrorising America and have Prescott ghosts in the Whitehouse from which to do it.
TAKE 'EM OVER!
America, Don't waste your time on buying banks with printed monopoly $money. The REAL MONEY IS IN ENERGY and the US people MUST control OIL COMPANIES directly if they do nothing else in this crisis. I would expect to see a permanent stabilisation of stock markets occur if this is achieved reasonably soon. Oil magnates have so much hidden wealth and monkeying around in the US economy that when they are retired a wave of relief will flood across America and the whole world.
Further, RETIRING oil company owners will NOT harm CAPITALISM ... It will simply rid it of the CORRUPTION at all levels without doing anything else.
And another thing. Oil company owners are dynastic. Their grandaddys just got lucky where others missed out by a hairs breadth.
But this LUCK is no longer a thing to admire when it so threatens US national security and integrity and is inculcated with active lies, propaganda & corrupt practices that make American DEMOCRACY the nuclear armed JOKE of the whole planet.
End the crisis now - Privatise the BIG oil companies - everyone else will fall into line & America will regain global respect and a permanent economic stability. For starters, all those ideas the oil companies have bought to kill energy competition can be dusted off and put to use. Oil rigs can be freed up to drill for permanent GEOTHERMAL energy reservoirs that never run dry and America can be free from OPEC jihadist tyrrany forever.