I think I have done enough dry market analysis to warrant some almost baseless rhetoric. Which brings me to the point to end all points. The point the TV just can't let go because the pointers want it looked at, but only temporarily. What's the point? I ask myself the same kwestion, but no, it's OIL!
I hear Warren Buffet talking about this "system" that America created which is driving our growth and economic power, and he says the emerging markets are now unleashing their potential. I say the "system" is nothing more than a code for OIL and cheap labor that oil provides. Our entire economy is based on it, which is why higher oil prices are seen as a market negative.
Who is to blame for the blinders on our eyes? A lot of people is the short answer, the real answer is probably hard to imagine and impossible to prove. I think that it has a lot to do with generations and the fact that people live and die. I remember talking with an engineer in Pennsylvania about the oil problem, at the time oil was hitting $150. And his response was that he didn't care because he would die before the problem blew up. I think that statement and mentality is a microcosm for the whole problem. My grandparents parents started oil and it was good, then generation after generation they laid down their prayer rugs in homage to the oil gods. The oil put food on the table, and that's all there is to it. This mentality breeds among the people like a virus, but the virus could end up killing the host.
I'm not saying we run out of oil tomorrow, or even in the next 10 years, but oil's availability is undoubtedly heading lower. The real kwestion here is what will we do after oil and what are we doing now to get there. I think the short answer is no one cares. The long answer so far is that, there will be a giant disaster due to oil suddenly "vanishing". Corporate structure and political structure is unforgiving to dissenting views and the old players are at the top. They've been told since the 70's that this ride would ultimately be unsustainable and their arrogance has showed.
My hope is that in some secret government lab, they have a new age of energy sources waiting to be unveiled like a new TV, 1/2 an inch thinner than the last.
My worry is that there is a plan for the end of oil, but it has nothing to do with a replacement. I worry that oil is to become a Pearl Harbor and a rallying cry for the same idiots who thought moving into Iraq for WMD's that weren't there was a good idea.