The punitive fine being proposed for the Exxon Valdez oil spill is about three days worth of profit for them, or $3.5 billion. Even so, they are protesting that they have suffered enough already over this accident, and should not be held to account indefinitely. Yet, without hefty punitive fines for this kind of ecological disaster, it will almost certainly happen again and again. It’s pretty hard for people to feel very sorry for Exxon in this economic climate.
Speaking of oil, remember the Iraqi oil fields? Whatever became of those anyway? We never hear about them anymore. Are they still there? Are they producing oil? Where is the oil going? Who gets the profits? It’s as if, having been in the war for over four years no end in sight, the American imagination has turned Iraq into little more than a really dusty, really ugly desert country with bad plumbing, no infrastructure, and lots of fecal matter and death. But remember when it was famous for oil? Now that we’ve pretty much ruined the country, whatever became of their most valuable resource?
Oil hit $102 a gallon yesterday, yet Bernanke announced yesterday that growth is the biggest problem facing the US economy right now. It may well be the biggest problem facing the stock market, but I think for the average person prices are the biggest problem. Hitting the market with another jolt of heart-starting rate cuts isn’t going to revive it if it has a terminal illness. I mean, it’s not angina, we’re talking chronic fatal illness here unless the fundamentals of the US economy change and change fast. We can’t be a consumer economy if nobody can buy anything because everything costs too much.
Inflation already spiked in January, and I predict with the cost of oil going up and up, it will get much worse. This is not a temporary crisis brought on by political unrest like it was in the 1970s. We need alternative, renewable energy and we need it, well, yesterday. Watching this whole drama play out, I can’t help but think that we are still just focusing on the very short term, with mostly the pockets of rich people in mind.
Nearly everything we buy is trucked to market, including and especially food. Milk is already $4 a gallon. Dairy products and meat are skyrocketing. Wheat is next. It’s more than a little alarming.
Two more days for me of full-time work in hell taking verbal abuse from bank customers. Next week I’m half time, and soon, I hope, no time.
God I hate that job.
