Gas Wars and Woes

Yes grandma Oddball and I are old enough to remember gas price wars. Real price wars not like these wimpy wars shown in the accompanying picture and in those days the wars included give aways like drinking glasses, free maps and restrooms. These gas stations are pikers compared to the prices we remember. When we lived in Idaho (1960s and 1970s) gas prices were typically $ .309/gallon (yes, just 30 cents/gallon!) and at the peak of the price wars the price dropped to $ .179/gallon (back then the 9/10 cent tax surcharge was actually a significant amount). Ah, the good old days when there was real competition not the pseudo-monopolistic situation we find ourselves facing today.

The Naked Economy

"Look, the economy has no clothes", we marvel as we watch unemployment grow, watch our life savings evaporate before our eyes, and see crisis after crisis evolve.

"What? " you protest. "Things can't be that bad. Don't we know more than ever about running an economy. Surely this is really just a minor bump and those in charge will fix things! In fact aren't things starting to get better."

Oh yeah, you go on believing that fairy tale and while you're at it buy some swamp land in Florida to retire on. As Abe Lincoln once said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Maybe so, but apparently you can fool the people for a long time, long enough it seems to create an economic disaster.

Throw the Rascals out!!

Banks in trouble, high unemployment, poor paying jobs, the housing market in shambles, credit crunches, our infrastructure falling down - the list goes on and on and on. What an economic mess we're in. And I think it is much worse than is reported. Why? Well, let me elaborate: