We need more refineries, but we also need real, genuine competition on price.

I would favor making stock speculation illegal. It drives bubbles, harms the economy, is not equitable, and violates the theory of capitalism.

The Democrats want to do things that will hurt the poor even more, and BHO wants to go beyond that, and destroy the remaining family farms – black and white, with a heavy tax on capital gains. Speculation drives up land prices, and the liquid assets aren’t available to pay the higher taxes.

Alan Keyes actually said this while running against Obama in Illinois, but Keyes didn’t have the credibility with the voters, nor the political savvy, to make it stick. Despite being a political lightweight, though, Keyes is a very smart man, and not prone to saying unsupportable things.

More frightening to me is the seeming total lack of recognition of the role business plays in our economy. I’m waiting for the time when some Republican harkens back to the early Reagan years and uses “Profit is not an evil word!” as an applause line at a Rotary dinner. Some of the rhetoric is demagoguery and pandering to the base or target audience. That’s how Hilary’s ads hit me, as a little exaggerated but not over the top. Both sides of the aisle do this. But Barack’s ads seem to me to go a little bit further – a bit of the “I will protect you from the evil corporations and businessmen who prey on you” tone. Again, maybe an insight into what he truly believes.

The oil industry is cyclical; they go through “feast or famine” cycles. The “windfall profits” that Obama (and Carter, and Clinton, and every other Democrat) complain about are the “feast” side of the cycle. If they ever get to taxing the “windfall profits” of the oil companies, they’ll artificially reduce the margins those companies expect, drive investors away, reduce the economic upside of oil exploration, and the resulting change in their cost/return picture will drive the price of oil through the roof — we’re talking $6/gallon gasoline here.

We need strong, public declarations on a regular basis to the effect that strong businesses are the backbone of America’s wealth. If we don’t get this, the schools (controlled by leftists) and entertainment industry (controlled by leftists) will convince future generations to dismantle our ability to produce, and reduce the US to a third-rate economy.

Democrats, who understand economics less than John McCain (if that’s possible), seem intent on destroying America’s economic strength.

Robert

Don’t get me wrong, both had an almost socialistic slant that I think would have been hooted at a few years ago (sad times these days), but Obama seemed to be taking a more open, confiscatory position.

This is scary stuff to me. I have no great love for huge corporations, and I believe in harsh penalties for those who do break the law. However, who decides what is and isn’t a “windfall”? Once we crack down on the oil companies, why not hit the pharmaceuticals, and maybe insurance companies? And then why not extend it to small businesses as well? Who are they to profit unfairly?

My company was recently able to take advantage of some economies of scale and made a nice profit on a recent job. I guess rather than it being a matter of taking 25 years of hard work to know who to call and how to make it happen, I guess my work’s result is merely an unfair “windfall” that really ought to end up in someone else’s pocket who perhaps “needs” it more, as determined by a Democrat appartchik. Barack is not many steps away from advocating that every business owner or employer must only make so much “profit”, said amount to be decreed by government officials, with the “excess” profit to be distributed to the more “needy” among us, also to be decreed by the government.

That ain’t even socialism “lite”.