RSSInvesting Soon To Be Illegal
Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | June 21, 2008 |
Investing Soon To Be Illegal
By: J.J. Jackson
The pea brains in Congress and many of their cronies around the country
have found the problem that, they feel, is causing us so much pain at
the pump. First they tried to demonize the oil companies. But that did
not work too well. After that witch hunt, those on Capitol Hill are
getting inundated with requests, if not demands, to get off the backs of
oil companies and open up areas placed arbitrarily off limits to
exploration and production.
So enter the “new” reason why gas prices are so high. The “new” problem
is now that people are investing and taking risks.
How dare people take risks! Don’t they know that they might fail? And
if they fail, why government will have to pick them up at tax payer
expense - or so the old canard goes.
However the trick here is that these people investing their own capital
are not being called “investors”. The new term of derision hurled at
these folks is “speculators”. Every time you hear this word now the
hope among those who are really the problem (Congress, radical
environment activists, loopy animal rights folks, etc.) is that you are
conditioned to react with a mighty gasp, a knot in your gut and nod your
head in blind agreement that the problem with the price of oil is the
“speculators”.
It just sounds so sinister.
Many of our elected officials are working their grubby little fingers to
the bone trying to find ways to rein in “speculation” in the oil
markets. Congressman Hinchey has even repeated a previous call by
Maxine Waters to “nationalize” the oil industry much like Hugo Chavez
has done in the Marxist “utopia” of Venezuela.
But many of our elected officials don’t seem to care too much about why
this speculation is taking place. They are not interested in the cause,
because it is they that are the cause, and are only interested in
masking the symptoms of the disease.
Investors are naturally attracted to a market where they believe they
can make money. It does not take a rocket surgeon to figure that one
out. It hardly makes a lick of sense to invest money somewhere where
you think your investment will decrease in value or stay at the same
level over time. That would defeat the entire purpose of investing!
The cause of inflated oil prices is not the investors who are putting
their money in petroleum hoping to increase their investment. The cause
is that right now supplies are not keeping up with perceived future
demand. There are various reasons for this but some of the main reasons
include the vast amounts of oil that are arbitrarily placed off limits
by government fiat and ungodly regulations that don’t necessarily
prevent the building of new wells and drilling sites and even
refineries, but certainly are not making the option to build them an
attractive one.
Enter the investors. As demand increases faster than supplies of oil
and refined petroleum products they can buy contracts for future
delivery now at a lower price than they will sell them at next month or
even next year. This is what investors do. They act on a resource
where there is profit to be made.
Then those “pea brains in Congress” I recently referred to start getting
nasty calls from their constituents demanding something be done as the
price of their gasoline goes up. And they do what politicians tend to
do - they blame the investors even though the investors are doing
absolutely nothing wrong and only reacting to a situation Congress
itself has created.
The investors are vilified as evil “speculators” and blamed for
everything that cannot be blamed on Big Oil themselves or George W.
Bush. Congressmen rush to the microphones and start talking about all
the things they are going to do to punish these “speculators” who are
now blamed for running up the price of gasoline at the pump.
Legislative proposals and regulatory rules begin to be floated by
politicians and bureaucrats alike looking for ways to either punish
those that have taken advantage of the problems caused by Congress or at
the very least seek to limit the activity of the “speculators” and cap
their daily profits to a level determined by someone sitting behind a
desk in Washington.
It is all a big dog and pony show with some smoke and mirrors thrown in
for additional effect. But what it boils down to is that you have
politicians in Congress seriously considering making investment abide by
even more rules, if not making taking risks in the oil market a straight
up crime all together.
As long as enough people are angry and not thinking straight they may
get away with it too. But if you stop and think about it for a second
you realize that if Congress can curtail investment in one market what
is to stop them from doing it in another? If Congress is allowed to cap
one person’s profits today what is to stop them from capping yours
tomorrow? Your good looks and charm?
Imagine a few years from now a politician with slightly more smarts than
your typical politician, who are generally half as smart as your average
American for reference, realizing that investments in the markets often
out perform the return on investment of Social Security and make the
government program look like the shoddy ponzi scheme it is. So perhaps
Congress will next decide that this is unfair and that profits from
private retirement investments (401ks, 403bs, pensions) will have to be
limited as well. Perhaps they will be limited to the same rate as
Social Security where you would be lucky to get two to three percent
return on investment. We cannot have those “windfall profits” you know!
And on top of this, these investments by “speculators” in the markets
also affect prices. The “speculation” that goes on with Google or
Microsoft stock, for example, drives up the prices so high that most
people cannot even afford a single share of either.
Or maybe Congress will next decide that people “speculating” on gold,
which has skyrocketed in price over the past couple years, are reaping
unwarranted profits. Gold is very sought after and as the price of gold
is increased by “speculators” many Americans can no longer afford to own
it. Congress should step in - or so someone might propose.
Who knows what could be next. But one thing is for sure, when it comes
to Congress you never can tell. Today it is the oil investors.
Tomorrow it is something you are invested in through retirement accounts
just hoping and praying to make enough money to retire on because God
knows those government retirement accounts are not doing too well.
If we let them take down the oil investors today, then ask yourself this
question. Who will come to defend you when the same nebby bureaucrats
come knocking on your door demanding that you give up your right to make
a living? Or a profit? Or a nice retirement? When the out of control
federal government sticks its grubby little hands into your wallet, what
leg will you have to stand on and claim that it is unfair if you let
them do it do someone else today?
No, not in America. It cannot happen here right?
Do not be silly. It already has.
=====================================
J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA
who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is
President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the lead editor of
Conservative News & Opinion - The Land of the Free and also the owner of
The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts
(http://www.cafepress.com/rightthings). His weekly commentary along with
exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at
http://www.libertyreborn.com
Contributor's website: http://thevoice.name
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