This is how US "democracy" works: the more money you have, the more "free" you are. The only completely "free" Americans are "the men behind the curtain" in Zeitgeistmovie.com and the rest are not so free, including at least 40 million who are much less "free" than average Europeans.

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It's an interesting story, to an extent. I thought by the headline that there would be some reference to older history, to set context and draw out the story.

"Big Oil has maintained its spot as the largest economic victor the world has ever known, profiting from an area of "voluntary regulation" that should be far more worrisome for the average American and for the global economy"

That part is certainly true, but much more can be said. The de-regulation, the 'Enron loophole', these are a comment on the recently past 'play' by those nice gentlemen of Big Oil. But look back a few years, say to 1945 and examine the story of Oil & Finance.

That year is an arbitrary choice, someone else may wish to comment on the activities of Socal, of Prescott Bush, of Rockefeller. In the years after WW2, Oil consolidated it's grip on the world economy. Fine, that might be 'only business'. Except that their methods included disinformation, assassination, military and other coups, grief and poverty compounded by it's impact on the poorest in society.

As against that, oil industry apologists can argue that the compact energy source that is petrocarbon fuel, has been an enormous motor for change, and has improved the lives of 100s of millions of people. Which is nearly true.

That they are also part of an enormous scam, to control the price of commodity by manipulation of market sentiment, by suspect 'statistics' of oil reserves, by political measures such as persuading mostly US people that
(a) no need to give up your high energy lifestyle. Drive a Suburban or a Hummer (and of course gasoline powered. Diesel was too efficient)
(b) that there is no significant impact on human life, by increased CO2 production.

Lies, but profitable. It was the Carter presidency that tried to wean American off excessive consumption 30 years ago. It was the Reagan presidency, generously helped by the oil industry, which killed that. That's the way they do it, in USA

In other parts, they heavily influenced the CIA to depose Mosaddeq, the democratically elected leader of Iran, in 1953. They manipulated US government agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA, & ? others) in the attempted destruction of Aristotle Onassis, in 1954-56, because he had the temerity to challenge their monopoly (in a deal, the 'Jiddah Agreement', with the Saudi leaders of the time).

Richard Nixon was involved in that series of events. He was apparently, the tool of those oil interests. Starting with Socal, for obvious reasons. The 1956 Suez crisis queered that one, but rapprochement with Onassis was rapidly reached. Hey, nothing personal, it's only business. At least the way this gang of dishonest shits play it.

(I have often wondered at the nature of the relationship of Onassis & Jackie Bouvier-Kennedy. Leaving aside the obvious aphrodisiac attraction of great wealth, was there a shared knowledge of who organized and paid for what, in November 1963)

And they are still getting away with it. The whole energy 'story' is still successfully distorted, lied about, to retain a pattern of centralization & private control. They persuade poor ignorant fools that this is 'freedom'. And others that "alternative energy does not work, more research is needed, yadda, yadda, yadda."

And a backstop position of discreet support for a nuclear industry, and for a 'Hydrogen Economy' Both of which, I suggest, are niche rather than central to a survival strategy for humanity. But both are nice and expensive, and the money and the earning stays where they wish it to stay.

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If you're waiting for the "October Surprise", you can relax.

The collapse of the financial markets was intentional and could have been prevented.


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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The author may want to mention the indisputable fact that renewables such as solar, wind, hemp, geothermal, and even the possibly upcoming renewable petroleum from algae actually enforce conservation and frugality. Unfortunately, what we're seeing is BIG OIL getting DESPERATE so they're trying to lower their prices to make it look like the GOP are "saving" America from high oil prices. The only thing it's doing is making more people GAS GUZZLING PIGSHITS and crowding up the fucking roads as early as 5 AM !! Obama had better be prepared to face BIG OIL's potential coup when they see to it that oil goes to 200/barrel because then they'll misuse that to revive the "conservative" wing of the GOP at all costs. So I guess we can forget harmless solutions and once again count on

GOD TO KEEP PUNISHING AMERICA WITH A SUPER TOUGH ECONOMIC SPANKING, NO MAKE THAT THRASHING !

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The videos below are about change, inspiration, belief and compassion. I hope you like them and share them with everyone you know. We are headed in a new direction in the world we live and we as a society can embrace this new era with love. I ask for your support in helping spread the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM58nqX1ehE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN_pGy_1bEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD0iAQN7VPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpfHz_WeXHw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH9BtZwTyHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVGsuNecYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UssvnQMn-EM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdfvQmh3b90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Enn5yiY-0



Go to youtube and do a search for "thinkverybig" and watch all of those videos. The one called "We Must Change" would be fitting to recite at Obama's Inauguration.

Here's a community organizer that's reached out to over 20,000 youth and has a goal of touching a million by teaching them the game of life using the game of chess. Click below to watch video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLFENGymr34

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is because the relentlessly growing human population needs more and more electrical energy every year. So, if you want to reduce the power of the oil barons, reduce the human population, peacefully with family planning clinics Worldwide. Otherwise, pollution will overwhelm you.

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Over the last 30+ years, the nation was coaxed into believing the free-market, rugged individualism theorists, until such time that they finally bought it hook, line, and sinker! So, now that that idea has blown up in our collective faces, it is time that everyone face reality! It was a sham, we were bambozzled into buying the pie in the sky theory - all so that the profit margins of the few would increase at the expense of the many!

This is a nation that is supposedly built on laws! Those laws are not just arbitrary things because they are to restrict people from doing, they are there because as a society they help us all! It is to guard against the oligarchic, imperialism for the few against the many that these rules and regulations have come into being! Just like there are rules for driving a car, there must be rules and regulations against the outright hubris and avarice of the few against the many!

As a nation we have forgotten that, it is a society we will either make it or go back to lawlessness, and society will disintegrate! Educating the society is good for us all, for where else will our future leaders, teachers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, inventors, et al. come from! Not many in the upper 1% are fulfilling any of the above positions! Health-care is the right of all in this nation, for if everyone is to contribute to society they must be healthy! Our food must be free of pesticides, and chemicals - agribusiness is in it to make money! They are not concerned with our food supply unless it interferes with their bottom line!

It is only when we learn that these lessons are irrespective of party affiliation, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, color, and age that we as a society will be able to demand that our elected officials tow the line not for the corporations, but for us all!

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Come on now...You link the Deregulation's Economic Fallout (Phil) with Energy,Finally- even get to the epicenter of it (Enron)...and Drop the Ball.
Put A DAMN BOW ON IT ALREADY!!!!

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The NY Times recently published an article on some of the details about where Obama's campaign money has come from. Some excerpts:

"Many of these large donors come from industries with interests in Washington. A New York Times analysis of donors who wrote checks of $25,000 or more to the candidates’ main joint fund-raising committees found, for example, the biggest portion of money for both candidates came from the securities and investments industry, including executives at various firms embroiled in the recent financial crisis like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG.
More than 600 donors contributed $25,000 or more to him in September alone, roughly three times the number who did the same for Senator John McCain.
A dozen employees at Goldman Sachs wrote checks of $25,000 or more to Mr. Obama."
- Source

So I'm not sure I'd expect much if any salvation from Obama (if elected) in the area which is the main concern of the article.

> ...the recent wild volatility in the price
> of oil (a hallmark of deregulated markets)

I don't think volatility in market prices is so much the result of "deregulation" as it is a combination of a lack of liquidity and too much leverage. Both "thin" markets and highly leveraged markets tend to be the more volatile ones.

It's difficult to regulate liquidity amounts to ensure their sufficiency under all possible scenarios except by trying to force market makers to increase their capital commitments, something which they'll resist if they feel it leads to an inefficient use of their capital.

This leaves the leveraging aspect as the more viable way to go. But increasing margin requirements on futures contracts similarly causes what available capital there is to be spread more thinly, which may have unintended consequences in an environment such as the one we're in now where scarcity of liquidity seems to be at the root of the problem. It may be the way to go once things return to something resembling normal.

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Chevron expects profit to outdo second quarter's results
High crude prices and increased refining in the third quarter offset lower production.
By Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, October 10, 2008.

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Nature leads us in so many ways. Nature abhors a vacuum and so do we. we are a part of nature, a fact we are apt to forget as we attack it, rape it, and otherwise abuse it for our supposed needs.
Nature includes a very strong self-regulatory process. To any one species it doesn't appear self-regulatory: not to the excess rabbits turned into protein for the wolves, which allows the sprouts to grow in the forests, or the flood of algae blooming at the deltas of our many fertilizer run-offs, where they soon over-populate, die-off and become fodder for the oxygen consuming bacteria which feed upon their minute carcasses turning the ocean feeding grounds for fisheries into dead zones.
Off the coasts of Washington and Oregon the salmon fingerlings find it impossible to transverse this dead zone so soon after hatching up river--and so mankind, so self-involved in trying to increase production in the fields, kills off another source of dietary protein in the seas. These dead zones--as in the Gulf of Mexico south of NOLA, and the entire China Sea--are like what happens when we allow totally free (uninhibied by any sense of human empathy)avaricious marketeers to prevail over common sense in housing, energy, or our food supply.
natural law enters to correct abruptly what we do not. Luckily it doesn't have to be like this--we have been blessed with the ability to govern ourselves and to anticipate the probable fruits of our actions.
This is to say, we should have known.
Great thefts, however, are always marked by great collusions and illusions. To call them conspiracies, is to deminish the process--actually they hatched plots from within academia and government that appealed to two of the lowest common greedometers of business--the quarterly report and the golden parachutes--and their nasty little chickens have come home to roost. To continue the metaphor, we have mistakenly allowed them to put the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
Paulson and Bernanke are part of teh problem. And of course, we allowed the false elections of Bush, Cheney, and the whole scheming cabal. Theyt and their conniving economic theories must go...and they must be prosecuted to the letter of the law.
[One man already sued his bank for loaning him fake money on his real house.]
He won. See the movie Zeitgeist.
It will take some time and a lot of energy to put our financial house in order and regain control of the FED, but it's high time the people drove the foxes out of there and took over our own money supply.
WE need to regulate our own lives for a change.

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There have been many "intended consequences" of the deregulation movement which was underwritten by Big Oil and Big Finance. The economic reality of a prolonged contraction in the economy being predicted by numerous economists should cause any reasonable thinking person who has assets to protect to reconsider the alternatives to a deregulated economy and pressure their elected representatives to move quickly to reel in the downward spiraling movement of false liquidity.

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MOST OF THE HEDGE FUNDS ARE IN THE SO CALLED TAX HEAVEN PIRATE ISLANDS OF CAYMAN INSLAND CONTROLLED BY THE BRITISH PARASITES.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/10/23/parasites-sheer-

Parasites In "Sheer Panic" At London Hedge Fund Conference
Increase Decrease

Parasites In "Sheer Panic" At London Hedge Fund Conference

October 23, 2008 (LPAC)--"We've reached a situation of sheer panic," Nouriel Roubini told the parasites assembled at the Hedge 2008 conference in London. "Hundreds of hedge funds are going to go bust." "Don't be surprised if policy makers need to close down markets for a week or two in coming days," Roubini said.

"This will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fiascos of banking in 100 years," said Emmanuel Roman, of hedge fund giant GLG Partners. "In a fairly Darwinian manner, many hedge funds will simply disappear," he added.

The hedgies have good reason to be afraid, as the multi-quadrillion-dollar global derivatives market is collapsing and the so-called assets of the hedge funds and other speculators are vaporizing at an accelerating rate. As their assets disappear, the hedge funds and other derivatives players are being hit with margin calls on the money they borrowed to fund their leveraged bets, and facing redemption demands from the investors in their funds, who are being hit by the same crisis. This results in both waves of selling as they are forced to liquidate their holdings to meet their obligations, and a heavy demand for dollars to settle their accounts. The rise of the dollar in the recent period is one effect of this mad scramble, and serves a good marker for the turmoil in the largely hidden world of derivatives. Unfortunately for them, there are not nearly enough dollars in the system, despite the Fed's endless stream of bailout money, to allow most of them to cash out, leaving the fund managers and other speculators holding piles of funny money worth no more than the money in a game of Monopoly, or a pile of Confederate dollars.

GLG's Roman predicted that some 25-30 percent of the hedge funds would disappear, but his supposedly gloomy forecast is actually rosy optimism, given what is coming. As the system continues to collapse, the speculators, be they funds, financial institutions or individuals, will be increasingly forced to sell assets to meet margin calls and other obligations, and those sales will further depress the markets. The relentless sell-off in global stock markets is perhaps the most visible aspect of this process, but relatively minor in scale compared to the derivatives problems. There is no bottom to this collapse--the financial system is in a death spiral, as each loss triggers even more losses, in an accelerating manner.

This is what is causing the panic at the London hedge fund conference, as well it should. Bigger bailouts won't help, but will in fact only make the problem worse. The only solution is to shut the derivatives markets down completely, declaring all derivatives transactions null and void, and thereby eliminating all claims. The speculators reject this approach--when the solution is a flea dip, the fleas will never accept the solution--but we must clean up the mess these parasites have made, and that begins with shutting them down. They have failed, their system has failed, and it is past time to admit that, and let the adults take over. It is the only sane path.

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A FRESH LOOK AT SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

I have been voting for Senator Patrick Leahy for several years. I constantly email him important articles and call his office to express my concerns. I get the occasional letter back supporting these concerns and it ends there. In the mean time I decided to look up his voting record and found that although he did vote for pro abortion legislation and humanitarian aid, a very large portion of his votes supported vast military spending. The senator voted for Bush’s missile system that breaks the ABM treaty where missiles will be placed on the Russian border. This is in and of itself a very dangerous effort that could very well start a new cold war with Russia. Imagine if Russia put missiles on the Mexican border! He also voted for a 355.4 billion dollar defense budget and much, much more. All the trillions being spent, in a climate of no accountability, is bankrupting our nation and is a threat to our economy and our national security. National also refers to the state of the nation and we the people who live here. Accountability should be at the top of the list of what our representatives fight for. This has not happened with Leahy. Senator Leahy has been there for a long time and I feel we need new representatives. Welch, who is new, has not done much either. If progressive means those who are on the side of the people, and our jobs, wages, healthcare, rights, protections, environment, and over site of how our tax dollars are being spent, then I want to vote for these kinds of representatives. Voters need to get rid of representatives who do not live up to our expectations and protect us. We need to look at track records and vote for the Al Gore’s and those like Robert Kennedy Jr., who are fighting as hard as they can, to protect our vote as Republicans are vigorously trying to sabotage it. If our own representatives cannot even protect our vote, which they are not, what good are they?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fqkrQDVCs

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