Hey Wall Street - Enough is Enough! Or Did You Already Bet on Obama?

In yet another slap in the face to the American consumer the greed mongers on Wall Street have gotten everything they wanted from the President, the Congress, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the international central banks, even the two candidates for president Obama and McCain and still they refuse to release the trillions of US dollars they are hoarding while continuing to hold the economy hostage.

Over two trillion dollars in American pension savings have gone up in smoke this year as the forces behind the government have manipulated and raped every treasure trove they could find to protect their precious credit, line their pockets, and demonstrate to the government just who is in charge of the US economy. Such behavior almost borders on criminal if there were any laws that existed to prosecute the predators of lower Manhattan. But thanks to the millions of dollars in special interest contributions poured into the campaigns and pockets of our elected officials no such laws exist.

Is it just circumstance that only two investment houses survived the economic meltdown this year and gobbled up all their competitors, two firms now sitting on billions if not trillions of our funds? Is it circumstance these firms have the power to call accounts in other companies, in other words demand early payment, when there is no money to be had thus driving those competitors out of business?

Is it circumstance that the survivors, Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan owned and controlled the London energy futures market used to drive up the price of oil and devastate our economy and that of the world? Well is it circumstance that these companies have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of our elected officials and both were the primary beneficiaries of stunning government actions to rescue the economy?

As of August 31 according to the Center for Responsive Government Barack Obama had raised about $460 million compared to about $230 million for McCain. Obama is the first federal candidate in our history to refuse public financing even though he pledged to take the public financing which would have greatly reduced his spending in the campaign.

Goldman Sachs temple in Wall Street.

So what financial interest did Goldman Sachs have in Barack Obama? Since the beginning of his campaign the boys at Goldmans have been the biggest contributors to Obama and helped bring in millions from the Wall Street establishment. Goldman executives alone have given Obama $739,521 and have helped raise the following from Wall Street firms for Obama. CitiGroup - $492,548, J P Morgan - $475,112, UBS - $419,550, Lehman Brothers - $391,774, Morgan Stanley - $341,380 and various amounts from Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

What could be Obama's fascination with Goldman Sachs? Well it goes back as Bloomberg News reported Obama was the featured speaker at the Goldman's annual partners meeting in 2006 in Chicago. This was a junior member of the US Senate who had not even been in office two years yet he was speaking to the top executives of one of the most powerful investment houses in the world. There is something very strange about the circumstance.

The story only gets better. On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing. The exclusive private dinner was for Goldman Sachs traders and featured a discussion on issues moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw. Once again the circumstances are strange as a year later Brokaw would be moderating the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain and the economy and Wall Street were the main points of discussion. Of course the debate commission and McCain were unaware that Obama and Brokaw had already held a practice session the year earlier when Obama was facing a withering attack from Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the democratic primary.

Now that is three most unusual encounters between Obama and Goldman Sachs. Then comes the economic chaos and the president calls a meeting of Congressional leaders, Treasury and Federal Reserve staff and the presidential candidates. Obama, who was staying away from Washington during the crisis got the call and at the meeting was the only person to talk about a Republican alternative proposal for the crisis, a proposal that had not even been made public at the time.

Former Goldman CEO and now Treasury Secretary Paulsen.



It was later learned that a Treasury staff member reviewing the confidential proposal from Republicans was able to smuggle the information to Goldman Sachs employees who emailed it to Obama staff and it was given to him before the White House meeting, thus enabling him to pre-empt McCain from offering the new Republican proposal. Of course the Secretary of the Treasury was a former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Do we really know anything about the relationship between Obama and Goldman Sachs other than their massive fund raising for him? Since he has been secretly guided and financed by Goldman people from the very beginning of his presidential campaign were they influential in his economic platform. While he now admits things have changed and many of his proposals might be delayed or dropped, he still proposed a tax on the rich which would seem to be opposed to the Goldman executives.

Yet it was convenient that Goldman faced billions in losses from the sub-prime mortgage mess and they helped trigger the economic collapse with the manipulation of oil futures driving the world into a credit crisis, a crisis that helped them make billions of dollars through spiraling oil prices. Most convenient of all, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan was approved just before a new president was elected so the new president would not be blamed for anything that went wrong.

Obama never questioned the role of Goldman in the sub-prime fiasco nor in manipulating the oil futures prices. When Goldman specialists tried to drive the price of oil up to $200 a barrel Obama never said a word. His meetings with them over the years were in secret and his actions were a wall of silence as the boys from Wall Street destroyed the economic system forcing a historic bailout by Congress that gave Wall Street nearly unlimited access to the US Treasury. Now did all of these incidents slip his mind as well as if his secret meetings with Goldman had nothing to do with the economy. I hope he can explain to the public just what has been going on and what, if anything he promised them in return.

Is Wall Street Arrogance To Blame for Failures in Congress?

Today the Wall Street bailout failed in Congress. Immediately after the financial experts on television began threatening yet again that the public is too dumb to understand the problem and as a result there will be no money for mortgages, autos, credit card purchases and other needs of Main Street America.

The financial experts went so far on CNBC to say the people in Congress are limited to liberal arts and law degrees and have no understanding of the economy and that is why the bailout failed. One day the many people whose lives and pocketbooks are lined by their close relationship to Wall Street may wake up and discover their own arrogance is what is fueling the public opinion revolt against them in their efforts to raid the public Treasury.

Long ago the general public stopped paying attention to idle threats from those demanding access to the Treasury to solve all the problems of the world. The international banking cartel and financiers from around the world have made run after run on the U.S. Treasury since the days of the American revolution to the Civil War to the latest crisis resulting from the mismanagement and greed on Wall Street.

Clever public relations people hired by them told them to stop talking about Wall Street and keep talking about how their problems are really the problems of Main Street but the American public knows better in spite of the public relations efforts. Today's problems on Wall Street were caused by greed, incompetent government regulation, Congress looking the other way while the financial institutions lined their pockets and campaign treasuries, and the expectation that the taxpayer could be hoodwinked into covering their losses.

Now the American taxpayer is expected to pay $700 billion to buy all the "toxic" loans that were issued by banks and mortgage companies and have resulted in a tightened credit market. What in the world makes them think the public should buy all the toxic loans and bail them out of their mismanagement and greed? If Wall Street had not started meddling in the mortgage market by packaging sub-prime mortgages when they saw how much money could be made in real estate we would have no crisis.

So they get caught with a couple of trillion in worthless mortgages and decide the American taxpayer has a responsibility to bail them out or they will cut off credit to Main Street. Where I come from that is not a request for help but blackmail. Then they say the financial integrity of our 401k, IRAs and pensions are in jeopardy if the bail out is not approved. That is second degree blackmail. The only way our pension money could be threatened is if the thieves on Wall Street invested it in the crooked stocks to begin with. Of course they did.

A reasonable way to help Wall Street while protecting the federal Treasury is possible and maybe now that the stampede to action has been halted by the vote in Congress perhaps the arrogant experts on wall Street who are demanding the handout can simply ask the stupid public for help in a nice and honest way and maybe this time they will get it.



Perhaps most important, the financial elitists and their liberal apologists had better learn humility and take responsibility for the mess we are in that they caused. Their days of unlimited feeding at the public treasury are over. The public has no responsibility to pay them for the mess they made and if we do give help, then we have every right to prosecute them if they violated the law. As for the financial television channels, turn them off, there are far better ways to spend the day.

What the Hell is Happening on Wall Street?

What a week we just saw as the ship of state shipwrecked and in the process drug us all through the media frenzy and speculation only Wall Street and the media could generate. For a long time it seemed there was as much lying, distortion, misrepresentation and outright stupidity in the media reporting of the financial crisis as their coverage of the Obama versus Palin presidential campaign. No Freudian slip on that one.

Is it possible to summarize the complexity of what just happened to the American economy? Either we just saved the US and world economies with a pretty breathtaking rescue plan or, we just gave away more control of the US economy to the financial warlords of the world who have been controlling things for the past few centuries.

If the answer was the first then the villains of Wall Street have now been stopped, only a few hundred more insignificant banks should collapse, our government should make a profit of a few billion saving the banking system, and long term stability should return to our real estate and financial institutions. If we could figure out a way to throw out all the financial experts in the media who failed to be the watchdogs of the public interest for the past decades we would further strengthen our system. If we could throw out the Congress and the lobbyist corps sucking up to them it might even all work.

On the other hand, if the latter explanation is true, then we continued to have a government that is a puppet to much more powerful forces who can buy and sell all the nations of the world. The invisible power of this mysterious force that has operated in the shadows of the world the past few centuries is every bit as real as our media, our government and institutions.

However, even this force needs a source of life blood and that is the US so whether we are saving the financial systems of the world or saving the Masters of the Universe the result is probably about the same. Neither the forces of good or bad can afford to destroy our economic system. As we have witnessed first hand the past few days, as the US goes so goes the world.

The greed that forced us into this mess was prevalent throughout the world as the world was deeply involved in the US economy. They got too greedy, they forgot that if Americans aren't kept happy they will put an end to the gravy train. They compounded their problems further by using even more sinister techniques to try and save them from the mistakes they already made.

Thanks to a bewildered administration and comatose Congress, both seduced by lobbyists with endless piles of cash, the wizards of Wall Street spun a deeper and deeper web of deceit as the savings and loan groups, dot coms, home mortgages, oil and wheat futures and eventually the investment banks themselves fell prey and were milked of every last penny of profit from our financial system.

When it finally became clear that the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street were grounded on a foundation of quicksand the game ended and when the dust settles, and it will settle, and the economy has recovered and is back to serving as the cash cow again, no doubt the Masters will probably rise again and when they do we better be ready.

In the meantime the American public will be given stable banks and lower home prices. Lower gas and oil prices will return. Savings and pensions will be protected and jobs will be created. Inflation will remain stable and the stock market will again flourish. All of these things are the bones we are thrown for serving as the cash cow for the world. All of these things are the necessary progression of our historical cycles within our cultural evolution.

So how will this impact on the election? It doesn't matter. Whoever wins the presidency will be blocked from needed reform by an antiquated Congress who have been in office too many years to turn on the forces who keep getting them elected. No viable change will come until after the 2010 elections when the American public finally realizes that no president can be effective without a Congress willing to accept responsibility for past failures and embrace change. When the scoundrels are thrown out of office the change can finally be realized.

Who really Controls America? The US Government or Big Money?

This past week has seen an amazing display of courage by some and arrogance by others as the economy has tried to stabilize after the incredible series of events including fraud, mismanagement, manipulation and greed that has contaminated the US economic system.

Take for example the case of Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks on Wall Street and in the world. For months their financial analysts have been downgrading banks, investment houses and companies driving stock prices down while at the same time other Goldman analysts have been driving the price of oil futures through the roof as explained in a recent CPT article.

A little over a week ago an analyst from Deutsche Bank in Germany downgraded the rating and value of Goldman Sachs citing exposure of the banking giant to credit weakness. He was joined by another analyst from Oppenheimer & Company. The result was a 6% drop in the stock value of Goldman the same day from a previous high of $178.00 to $167.30.

In the next few days analysts from Ladenburg Thalmann and Thomson Financial joined the field downgrading Goldman who thought they had avoided public notice of their credit problems. By Wednesday, August 20 shares in Goldman went for $158.25, a loss of $20 a share in little over a week.



The next day Citi Investment Research projected additional asset problems for Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley due to credit problems yet to be reported by the giant firms and the stock dropped to $156 a share, a loss of $22 per share and a bit too much for the Goldman gang to stomach.

The next morning Goldman declared the price of oil, which had dropped to $114 per barrel from $149, would spike back up to $149 before the end of the year in what could be considered a last desperate attempt to stop the downward spiral of their stock and drive it back up. Of course Goldman is one of the largest traders of energy and oil stocks in the world and a temporary oil price spike might help refill the coffers.

Oil did indeed spike the next day by an astonishing $6.00 a barrel, a huge daily profit for a firm that might have a few trillion dollars at play on oil futures, while the stock market was being driven down nearly 400 points in two days because of the credit crisis. Fortunately, after one day of temporary insanity on Wall Street a calm Warren Buffett was on television Friday morning telling the world a whole different story and the stock market shot up 200 points while the oil price had the largest one day loss in years, over $6.00 to completely wipe out the Goldman hike of the day earlier.

Goldman has made the following oil price forecasts this year. December 2007 oil projected to reach $105 in 2008. May 2008 oil projected to reach $141. June 2008 oil projected to reach $200 by year end. August 2008 oil projected to reach $149 in 2008. Oil did indeed reach a record high in 2008 being pushed to $149 a barrel and driving gas, diesel and heating oil right through the roof.

The huge houses like Goldmans might have made billions in profits on oil using a variety of strategies like ownership of the futures market, commissions off stock sales, and a host of alternative financing schemes outside the regulatory control of the government including institutional funds and swaps. For the first time this year Goldman did not get its way and drive up the price of oil for longer than a day. One can only hope they were in and out of the market fast enough to make a killing overnight or their own strategy might have backfired and cost them in futures contracts.

Now who really controls America? Did I mention that as of August 22 Goldman Sachs people have given $456,702 to the Barack Obama campaign and $174,820 to the McCain campaign. Before you think Obama receives twice as much money from financial institutions as McCain consider this. During the entire campaign people from the financial sector including Wall Street have given a total of $22.4 million to Obama and $21.6 million to McCain. I wonder how they classify that investment?

Here is how Goldmans rewarded employees last year and what they will be missing this year. The following appeared in a New York Post story by Paul Thorp, December 19, 2007.

Toiling at profit powerhouse Goldman Sachs is so lucrative that even a secretary's bonus can exceed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's whole $179,000 paycheck.

As the Wall Street giant yesterday celebrated its fourth-straight year of record profits - despite a general wipeout at most banks - Goldman Sachs was also jubilant over the record bonuses it's handing out in early 2008.

Overall, Goldman will pay employees a total $20.19 billion in pay and bonuses, or an average $661,490, up nearly 23 percent from $16.46 billion a year ago.

While the average is only a statistical snapshot, the real bonus packages - to be distributed in the first quarter of next year - are equally impressive, ranging from around $3,000 for a mailroom clerk to $20 million for top bosses.

"It's not unusual for an administrative assistant or a secretary of a very senior person to get more than $200,000," said Alan Sklover, a compensation lawyer who represents Wall Street executives.

"There's a great value for someone who gets you on the plane in the middle of the night and plans your daily life," he said.

"The higher up the boss, the bigger the bonus for his support staff, which at Goldman Sachs is often paid by their bosses of out of their own bonuses."

With Goldman the envy of Wall Street as the only bank awarding any big bonuses, the formula of how the $12.1 billion pot of bonuses alone is distributed is based on two principles: favoritism, and how much profit your department generated, experts said.

A junior trader who helped Goldman keep ahead of the rest of Wall Street rivals could expect to get a bonus of between $500,000 and $2.2 million - on top of their regular pay. A more senior trader would get up to $3 million or more.

CEO Lloyd Blankfein is expected to reap up to $70 million in pay, stock and bonuses.

"Its hard not to be a Goldman executive and walk away a multi-millionaire," said Sklover.

Oil Price Speculation - Who do you believe?

For the past two years the Coltons Point Times has been investigating and raising the alarm about the federal rules changes that allowed oil futures to exist and then to be less regulated, that allowed electronic futures purchases from the futures exchanges, and that allowed electronic foreign purchasing of futures on American commodities markets.

We pointed out the failure of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to monitor and regulate the futures industry and the need to commit federal resources to investigating links between investment houses losing billions in sub prime mortgage markets and the same houses using alternative investment techniques to manipulate the multi-trillion dollar institutional funds and drive up the commodity prices.

In spite of denials from the financial analysts, government, Treasury and oil industry that such practices were being used, the CFTC finally launched an investigation in late May and on August 21 The Washington Post published an article saying evidence of widespread speculation possibly involving over 80% of the contracts sold on the New York Mercantile Exchange have been discovered in the preliminary investigation.

Of course the CFTC and Wall Street are saying The Washington Post is wrong but Wall Street has tried to cover up every scandal by the financial Dark Angels of Wall Street that stole blood money from American and world citizens including the schemes since 2000 resulting in about $35 billion in fines. As for the CTFC, if they were doing their job we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. But I love it, who do you want to believe, Wall Street and the CTFC or The Washington Post?

The same giant investment houses responsible for the sub prime disaster manage your money, the institutional funds of America. These are the mutual funds that target persion funds, endowments, and other high net worth entities and individuals. Institutional funds usually have lower operating costs and higher minimum investments than retail funds. Often their main objective is to reduce risk, so they invest in hundreds of different securities, which makes them among the most diversified funds available. They also do not tend to trade securities very often, so they are able to keep operating costs to a minimum. Although in the past investors typically needed at least $1 million in order to invest in an institutional fund, nowadays some discount brokers offer access to these funds for smaller amounts. (Definition from InvestorWords.com.)

A capital pool of up to $35 trillion to $70 trillion may be in these institutional funds. Now this includes your retirement, insurance, IRA, 401K, and even investments if you have deep pockets. Since you may be like me and have trouble grasping the size of a trillion dollars, let alone 70 trillion, just remember that the total size of the dreaded US National Debt is $9.6 trillion, meaning the institutional funds are a heck of a lot bigger than the total national debt.

This morning Becky Quick of CNBC, a young up and coming reporter and favorite of billionaire Warren Buffett did a three hour interview with Warren that should be required viewing for everyone in America and on Wall Street. This Midwestern born financial reporter was excellent while Buffett, in his typical low key Nebraska style offered wisdom so powerful that the stock market went up over 100 points and the oil prices dropped over $2 just during the time of his interview.

Stay tuned. As Warren Buffet, our favorite financial guru known as the Oracle of Omaha and the richest man in the world says, "You only find out whose been swimming naked when the tide goes out. Well we found out that Wall Street has been kind of a nudist beach. There has been one discovery after another of firms that either didn't know what they were doing or did things they shouldn't have knowingly."

Goldman Sachs Again Tries to Prop Up Oil Prices

Goldman Sachs massive NYC headquarters.

Today Goldman Sachs announced that oil prices would rise to $149.00 a barrel before the end of the year. The price is hovering around $112.00. Why is Goldman trying to push oil prices higher? Does it have anything to do with the fact Goldman is an equity owner in the oil futures market, is the stock broker for the ICE futures market, manages institutional funds with substantial oil investments, participates in energy swaps to help manipulate the oil prices, and has consistently used its position and analysts to influence the oil market?

Ever since the purchase of the London Oil Futures Market by ICE, the public offering of ICE stock managed by Goldman and the huge increase in institutional investor involvement in the oil futures market Goldman has been projecting major increases in oil prices. Goldman research activity seems to be driven more on profit potential than objective oil market analysis.

The following excerpts from several stories on Goldman over the past 9 months shows the incredible leadership position Goldman took in pushing the rapid rise in the crude oil price. Now that the price has dropped about $35 Goldman today made another push to drive prices back up. Do you think there is any connection between the fact a number of financial analysts downgraded Goldman this week to a sell status rather than a buy status, thus undercutting its financial value?

One might think the actions by Goldman are so reckless, such blatant conflicts of interest, and clearly concerted efforts to manipulate the market without disclosing the company ownership position in the market that it seems Goldman's might be in serious financial trouble. Do not be surprised if sub prime mortgage losses combined with reckless credit risks and mismanagement of the oil investments doesn't result in the collapse of Goldman Sachs in the imminent future. If oil prices continue to go down the Goldman organization may very well go down with it.

Goldman's famous philosophy of being "long term greedy" may have finally caught up with them. Goldman's was formed in 1869, the same year that Black Friday took place when speculators tried to corner the US gold market and destroy the US economy. It was also the year Rasputin, the Russian mystic, Nadezhda Krupskaya, wife of Soviet founder Lenin, and Mahatma Gandi were born. A very strange year indeed.

Coltons Point Times
June 2, 2008

The CFTC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was set up in 1974 to protect Americans from manipulations in the commodity markets. It was last updated in 2000 even though in 2006 a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said there was substantial evidence of price manipulation in the commodity oil futures markets and a gaping loophole in U.S. Regulations that would lead to further speculation and manipulation.

That was the same year the Administration allowed ICE, the new oil futures market owner in London to trade American oil futures in London. Oil prices were $59-60 per barrel then and since the gaping loophole in our regulation prices have more than doubled, meaning the price impact of speculation could be $60 per barrel today.

So Goldman Sachs represents ICE in securities offerings and was an original equity owner of ICE. The current Treasury Secretary was former head of Goldman Sachs. The current head of NYMEX, the New York Mercantile (Futures) Exchange whose contracts can be bought through ICE in London, is James Newsome who also sits on the Dubai Exchange, the third and last oil futures exchange in the world. Interestingly Newsome is a former chairman of the CTFC.

The current CTFC Global Markets Advisory Committee includes Newsome and Jeffrey Sprecher, Chairman and CEO of ICE, along with representatives of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, UBS and Barclays among others. The CTFC Energy Market Advisory Committee includes Newsome and Sprecher from the futures exchanges along with Goldman Sachs, Shell Oil, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan, and others.

So the two key advisory committees to the CTFC contain many of the very firms that are under investigation by the CTFC and the largest investment houses, banks and oil companies of the world are the target. The five CTFC lawyers could spend decades searching for truth.

Why did Congress and the Administration refuse to act to close the huge CTFC regulatory loophole two years ago when it was identified? Why were no changes made in CTFC regulations to enable it to effectively stop oil price manipulations since Bush took office? Why does the Treasury Secretary ignore what may be massive oil price manipulations by the financial sector speculators? How can the CTFC investigate the largest and richest corporations in the world with five lawyers?

If Congress or the Administration have any sense they will assign all the investigative resources of the federal government to the CTFC investigation including the FBI, SEC, FTC and any intelligence service monitoring the world oil situation. If ever there was a need for a national security investigation this is it as our economy and the world economy are at risk. This could be the last chance for Bush to actually do something for the good of the people before his Administration becomes a target of the investigation.

And don’t forget these same financial and oil companies have already given $1.6 billion to the campaigns of our U.S. Senate, House and presidential candidates in this election year and another $1.6 billion will be given before November. Let’s hope $3 billion cannot buy the influence of Congress. They have also paid over $20 billion in fines for fraud and stock manipulations in recent years so such behavior may not be anything new.

Reuters News Wire
December 12, 2007

According to Reuters the most active investment bank in the energy markets, Goldman Sachs, released a new forecast today that said U.S. oil prices will head higher in the coming year. The bank also expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) to restrict crude oil production levels, even though global demand may rise. Goldman is forecasting U.S. crude oil to cost an average of $95 a barrel in 2008, up $10 from a previous projection. Analysts at the bank suggested that the price could even reach $105 by this time next year. The new price forecast for 2008 is 7% higher than the most bullish projection among 37 analysts recently polled by Reuters.


Bloomberg News
Published: May 16, 2008

New York: Crude oil futures rose above $127 a barrel Friday for the first time, leading other commodities higher, after Goldman Sachs raised its forecast on speculation that Chinese diesel purchases would strain supplies.

Goldman raised its price outlook for the second half of this year to $141 a barrel, from $107, citing supply constraints. China may increase fuel imports to generate power after a May 12 earthquake. Oil and other commodities, like gold and platinum, also surged on the falling dollar.

"We can blame Goldman again," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president of global energy futures at Macquarie Futures USA in New York. "In March 2005 they predicted that prices would rise dramatically, and they did. Prices jumped to the $125 level after another Goldman report less than two weeks ago. At this point nobody wants to bet against Goldman."

Crude oil for June delivery rose $3.13, or 2.5 percent, to $127.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract surged to $127.82, the highest since trading began in 1983. Prices have doubled in the past year.


New York Times
By Louis Story
Published: May 21, 2008

Arjun N. Murti remembers the pain of the oil shocks of the 1970s. But he is bracing for something far worse now: He foresees a “super spike” — a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.

Arjun Murti at Goldman Sachs studied the 1970s’ oil spikes. One had drivers lined up at a gas station in San Jose, Calif., in 1974.

Mr. Murti, who has a bit of a green streak, is not bothered much by the prospect of even higher oil prices, figuring it might finally prompt America to become more energy efficient.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Murti has become the talk of the oil market by issuing one sensational forecast after another. A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas at $4 a gallon is arriving just in time for those long summer drives.


Reuters News Service
June 9, 2008

Kuala Lumpur: Oil prices are likely to hit $150 a barrel this summer season, the global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs said on 9 June, as tighter supplies outweigh weakening demand.

“I would suggest that the likelihood of that happening sooner has increased tremendously ... sometime in summer,” Jeffrey Currie told an oil and gas conference in the Malaysian capital, referring to oil at $150 a barrel.

Goldman Sachs, the most active investment bank in energy markets and one of the first to point to triple-digit oil more than two years ago — a once unthinkable level — said last month oil could shoot up to $200 within the next two years as part of a “super spike.”

Forecasts that oil could head towards $150 and above have multiplied over the past month as prices broke through several records, the latest being last Friday, when oil soared more than $11 a barrel on Friday, its biggest one-day gain ever.

Oil hit an all-time high of $139.12 on 6 June on the back of a weak US dollar and mounting tensions between Israel and Iran.

Goldman Sachs forecast almost a month ago that US crude would average $141 a barrel in the second half of 2008, up from a previous projection of $107, due to tight supplies.


Al Jazeera
UPDATED ON:Saturday, July 12, 2008
With oil prices having more than doubled over the last 12 months, various reasons are being cited for the price increases.

Adhip Chaudhuri, a visiting professor of economics at Georgetown University's campus in Doha, Qatar, explains the cause and effect of high oil prices.

Is the increase in oil prices plunging the global economy into stagflation?

The United States is, for all practical purposes, in a recession. The European Union's growth rates are being revised downwards below 2 per cent. The shine is coming off even China, India and Korea.
The recessions and the low growth rates represent stagnation and hence connote the 'stag' part of "stagflation", and high oil prices have a lot do with it.

Oil prices, together with simultaneous, huge increases in food prices, have increased worldwide inflation rates. Both China and India now have high inflation rates with China at almost 8 per cent and India at 11 per cent. The rising inflation is the "flation" part of "stagflation".

The worse thing about stagflation is that the central banks find themselves in a dilemma. If they lowered interest rates to spur growth, they would raise inflationary expectations. On the other hand, if they fought inflation by raising interest rates, the reduction in money supply will have contractionary effects on the GDPs of their countries.

For policymakers stagflation is a "lose - lose" situation.

Is the growth in world demand for oil the main reason?

Demand is one part of what the money market calls "fundamentals". The other is, of course, supply. In the opinion of the Bush administration, and the majority of the Wall Street establishment in the US, demand is the principal reason why oil prices are going up astronomically. However, this point of view does not correspond to facts.

Consider first the oft-mentioned demand from "China and India" which is frequently put forward as the principal reason why oil prices are going up.

According to official statistics published by the United States government, China consumed an additional 377,000 barrels of oil per day during 2007.

However, during the same time period Germany and Japan together decreased their consumption by 380,000, and hence, the net effect of China’s increased consumption is zero.

Even if China doubled its consumption in the first half of 2008, say to stockpile for the Olympics, the increment would be a drop in the bucket of total world consumption of 86 million barrels per day.
The same is true of India. It increased consumption by only 150,000 barrels per day during 2007, which is virtually indiscernible in the total world demand.

Notice also that the sum of additional consumption from "China and India" barely exceeds 500,000 barrels, an amount that Saudi Arabia has promised to increase production by.

Finally, the US has projected that the net increase in oil consumption during 2008 will increase by one million barrels per day, which is about 1.1 per cent. How can such a small increase in demand increase oil prices by 100 per cent between July 2007 and July 2008?

What is happening with the supply of oil?

The supply of crude oil has been remarkably stagnant over the last three years. According to official US statistics, the production of crude worldwide was 84.63 million barrels per day in 2005, and it was 84.55 million barrels per day in 2007. Thus, even small increases in demand over the last three years have put upward pressures on prices.

The near-term supply situation, according to the International Energy Agency, is not all that bad. Saudi Arabia will be adding to their capacity, deepwater Nigerian production will start in 2008, and Iraqi production will see an increase. If one added up the growth in all forms of energy, namely crude oil, natural gas, and biofuels, according to IEA there should be an increase in supply capacity of 1.5 million barrels during 2008.

Notice that amount of increase in supply is greater than the projected increase in demand for 2008 amounting to 1 million barrels per day. The supply projection for 2009 is even better. The supply capacity is expected to increase by 2.5 million barrels, which will outstrip the growth in demand comfortably.

It is the very short-term supply disruptions which seem to be more important for an increase in oil prices. Real disruptions may come from labour strikes in Venezuela, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and rebel attacks in Nigeria. Given that the demand and supply situation is so tight, even the slightest of bad news can increase the price of oil in the futures and spot markets noticeably.

Can the weak dollar be blamed for high oil prices?

Asserting that the "weak dollar" is a significant reason behind the rise in oil prices has become as ritualistic as asserting that "China and India" are the cause. And yet, the forces which determine the foreign exchange value of the dollar against the euro, the yen, or the pound are distinctively different from those that determine the price of oil.

There is, however, one logical argument which can sometimes provide a sufficient explanation as to why a depreciating dollar and increasing oil prices are inversely related - If the dollar weakens against the euro, the ability of the oil-exporting countries to buy European goods will decline because their oil exports are denominated in dollars.

The Europeans, at the same time, will be able to pay the higher dollar prices of oil because the euro has appreciated. Clearly, to keep their purchasing power over European goods constant, the oil-exporting countries need an increase in oil price approximately equal to the depreciation of the dollar.

However, for the first six months of 2008 the dollar has depreciated against the euro by only 7.5 per cent, while oil prices have gone up by about 50 per cent.

Surely, both Americans and Europeans are paying much higher prices for oil than can be explained by a "weak dollar".

Is speculation, then, a major factor?

The energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Qatar asserted for the first time in public at the recent Jeddah meeting of major oil producing and consuming nations, that speculation in the oil futures markets was the most important reason why current oil prices are going up.

The United States Senate has been holding hearings in front of several committees since 2006 on the lack of regulation and oversight by the official Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) one of the two locations for oil futures.

In a recent testimony to the Senate, a hedge fund trader presented data to show that outstanding speculative positions in all commodities futures has reached $250 billion by March 2008, as compared to only $13 billion at the end of 2003.

As far as speculation specifically in oil futures is concerned, representative Bart Stupak (Democrat-Michigan), the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced recently that 71 per cent of all oil futures were owned by institutional investors.

The institutional investors, which consist of but is not confined to state
pension funds and university endowments from the United States, have been pouring funds into indexed commodity funds as part of a strategy of portfolio diversification.

The traditional assets, in which they would have otherwise invested in, namely stocks and bonds, have been yielding negative returns after inflation.

These investors can buy futures contracts with only a 5 per cent margin down payment. In addition the regulatory environment is very slack, filled with loopholes which bypass whatever few regulations that are on the books.

While there are dollar limits to positions that the institutional investors might take in the NYMEX, they are allowed to conduct "swaps" with the investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and thereby manage to roll over their "buy" positions. This way they never have to take physical possession of the oil that they put in "buy" orders for.

If speculation is what is driving oil prices up, then it stands to reason that such high prices should lead to an excess supply of crude in the world. There are signs that such an excess supply is indeed building up, albeit slowly, much like the way the excess supply of housing emerged in the United States.

Fuel consumption has declined in the US sharply. We have already noted that oil consumption in Japan and Germany are actually decreasing.

Consumers in China and India have been insulated from the high world prices of oil until very recently with domestic subsidies. However, China has raised the prices of various petroleum products amounting to an average increase of 18 per cent, and so has India, by 13 per cent. The decrease in the demand for oil will start strengthening soon.

The biggest argument for speculation to be the single-most important cause for oil price increases in 2008 is: What else could have doubled the price of oil in one year?

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera.


CNN Money
August 13, 2008

Financials sell off

"The financials [are] really what sold off," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. Merrill Lynch's (MER) downgrades of several investment banks put the sector under selling pressure, Hogan said.

Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski downgraded on Wednesday Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group (GS) and Lehman Brothers Holdings to underperform, according to media reports. Moszkowski also lowered Morgan Stanley's (MS) rating to neutral.


SAM NELSON
Reuters
August 20, 2008 at 11:51 AM EDT

Grains and soy also found support from firm crude oil markets following an optimistic forecast for crude oil prices from big index fund Goldman Sachs.

“The weather was supportive, plus Goldman reiterated their forecast for $149 dollar a barrel crude oil by the end of the year,” Mr. Sernatinger said.

The outlook from Goldman was well above Wednesday's price for New York crude oil futures prices of around $115 per barrel.


A Goldman Puff Piece

Goldman Sachs provides full service commodity risk management to commercial, sovereign and investor customers worldwide. Our commodities teams have extensive physical and financial experience in power, weather, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and refined products as well as coal, emissions and precious and base metals. Our capabilities include:

Delivering the experience of over 220 professionals around the world, with offices in New York, Calgary, Houston, London, Sydney (via Goldman Sachs JBWere venture), Singapore and Tokyo.

Offering innovative risk management to our corporate clients and financial investors, from hedge funds to institutions to private equity.

etc., etc.

Isn't it ironic that of all the articles mentioned the closest one to the truth is the Al Jeerza, the Arab news service interview which is the only media to zero in on the impact of financial manipulation in the price of oil?

Why Not Warning Labels for Financial Experts?

One thing the federal government can do is require warning labels for anything that is, may be or could be hazardous to the health or safety of the citizens. They are expert at it with the dozens of alphabet soup agencies forcing manufacturers to slap notices on the labels or to disclose warnings when doing television commercials.

Haven't you all heard the dozens of warnings for different drugs. When they finish their outrageous lists you wonder how anyone in their right mind could ever use the damn stuff. Some even say the product "may" help a few people even if most can't be helped. I think that it a little crazy.

Still, the FDA, CPSC, DOA, ICC, SEC and FTC among countless others have developed quite a reputation for warning us about everything under the sun. Some prescription bottles have longer warnings than product information.

So it occurred to me that there is nothing worse for your mental or physical health than getting wrong advice on what to do with your money. It seems every bank, brokerage house, investment banker, stock broker, 401 K advisor and anyone out there telling you what to do with your money should have a warning label because every one of them have been wrong in the past year or two.

The wild predictions of spiraling oil prices up to $200 a barrel, skyrocketing inflation, a total collapse of the housing and credit markets, massive foreign trade deficits, and horror story after horror story intended to drive the market up or down any particular day depending on whether the source of bad news is buying or selling are just too much.

These people have been instrumental in causing our home values to fall, our stock portfolios to dissipate, our retirement funds to evaporate and our economy to nearly collapse. Isn't it about time the feds label them for what they are, a danger to our health and well being?

Maybe it should read like the following and be required on their news articles or over their picture if they are on television?

DANGER: The following is from a proven mental minimalist whose motivation is toward their own funds, bonuses, buyouts, and bosses with no regard to the fool consumers listening to them. These people are idiots and so are you if you do what they say. Ignore them or burn in hell with them!

Who Will Fall Next? Banks and the Credit Crisis

So who are the largest investment banks in the world?

1. Bank of America
2. Citigroup
3. JP Morgan
4. HSBC
5. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
6. Royal Bank of Scotland Group
7. ING Group
8. Credit Agricole
9. Wachovia
10. BNP Paribus SA

How about the top brokers in the world?

1. JP Morgan Chase & Co.
2. Goldman, Sachs & Co.
3. Citigroup
4. UBS
5. Bank of America
6. Lehman Brothers
7. Merrill Lynch
8. Morgan Stanley
9. Bear Stearns
10. Credit Suisse


Finally who are the largest banks in the world?

1. UBS AG - Switzerland
2. Barclays - UK
3. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group - UK
4. Deutsche Bank AG - Germany
5. BNP Paribus SA - France
6. The Bank of Toyko Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. - Japan
7. ABN AMPRO Holding NV - Netherlands
8. Societe Generale - France
9. Credit Agricole SA - France
10. Bank of America NA - USA
11. JP Morgan Chase Bank National Association - USA
12. Banco Santander Central Hispano SA - Spain
13. Unicredito Italiano SpA - Italy
14. Credit Suisse Group - Switzerland
15. Citibank NA - USA
16. ING Bank NV - Netherlands
17. Bank of Scotland - UK
18. Fortis Bank NV/SA - Belgium
19. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation - Japan
20. HSBC Bank plc - UK

Notice the names appearing on all three lists? How about the fact that four of the top 20 banks in the world are UK, three from France, two from Switzerland, two from the Netherlands, and one each from Germany, Spain, Italy and Belgium. Hummm, 15 of the 20 largest banks in the world are from Europe.

So there is a concentration of wealth but also a concentration of credit exposure. So far these banks have lost billions of dollars from investing in the US sub-prime mortgage market and the credit crisis but do we really know the scope of the crisis?

Losses of nearly $400 billion have already been written off from sub-prime mortgages. A confidential study by Bridgewater Associates, the second largest hedge fund in the world expects total losses from the credit crisis to reach $1.6 trillion, yes trillion. That is four times the current staggering losses.

One of these major players has already gone under (Bear Stearns) and more can be expected if the credit losses approach that level. In fact one of the major players, Fortis Bank, expects a collapse of the US financial markets with 6,000 US banks filing bankruptcy and major corporations like General Motors and Citigroup becoming victims to the US financial meltdown.

Very quietly 7 US banks have already gone bankrupt this year but are we prepared for a massive meltdown? Today the Bush administration announced we face the largest budget deficit in history. Oil prices are out of sight and housing prices are collapsing. Perhaps the meltdown is already well underway.

Of course many of these institutions are on the earlier list I published of the financial institutions that have paid billions of dollars in fines for fraud, price fixing and other economic high jinks that used to land you in jail but now just get you a slap on the wrist and a tax deduction.

Many of these banks already recovered billions of dollars of losses with their manipulation of the oil futures market so maybe the projections of Fortis have to be updated by adjusting them for the billions of dollars already stolen from the citizens of the world at the gas pumps.

Will we ever reach the point where our financial institutions won't have to steal, manipulate and defraud the public in order to cover their losses from creative stock frauds which should never have happened in the first place if the government regulators were doing their job? Stay tuned for Armageddon.

Obama Conquers Europe - Is America Next?

Over 200,000 Germans watch as Obama walks along the podium on his way to address the world. It was the highlight of his whirlwind trip from Afganistan to Iraq, Israel to Germany to France and England.

Memo to John McCain: Stop whining and start giving us a reason to take you more seriously than Obama. Ever since Obama left for the war zones and Europe McCain has been complaining about the press coverage, complaining about the policies Obama has announced, complaining about being assigned the junior varsity of the news corps since all the media stars were with Obama in Europe and complaining about every word uttered by Obama on the trip.

His "good old boy" approach to the campaign does nothing to tell us why he should be elected as the most powerful person in the world, how he will improve the image of America around the world, or how he will end the wars and stop all the special interests who are running and funding his campaign. We need solutions to problems. We need a leader who can motivate us to do good. We need a president who will go after the crooks in our financial, oil, medical, pharmaceutical, entertainment and media industries.

I thought it was pretty amazing to see an American speaking to over 200,000 Germans in Berlin and being applauded. When I see polls that say two-thirds of Europeans want Obama to be the next president I think the fact the rest of the world is taking such an interest in our election is an indication of the power of the United States and the role they hope to see for America in leading the world.

Think about it, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England have been around about a thousand years longer than the USA. Yet in all their amazing history they have never had a minority leader, whether president, prime minister, king or queen. Only the USA, the newest kid on the block, has taken such a quantum leap forward to be seriously considering electing the first minority president in world history in a Western democratic or capitalistic society.

The people of the world stand in awe of our political system that practices what it preaches, that all people are free and everyone has an equal opportunity to be president. I happen to think that is quite extraordinary and our founding fathers should be smiling down on the land of freedom and opportunity they helped create.

There are one hundred days until the election. Both candidates have plenty of time and money to make their case to be the next leader of our nation. Let us hope they use that time and money to give us positive reasons to elect them, not negative reasons to not elect their opponent.

The United States is the sole world super power because we can stand united behind a cause for good, be more creative and innovative than any other nation when we set our mind to it, and we are the most compassionate and caring people on Earth. As long as the world is watching with such interest, let us give them an election they will never forget.



Not to be outdone by Obama, McCain is shown here meeting with the Dali Lama while Obama was meeting with the Germans, French and English. He used the occasion with this man of peace to blast Obama for his trip and to challenge the images of the wonderful reception he received in Europe.

Letters to the Editor

I got a letter from Cathe the other day asking why no new articles have been published lately. Letters to the editor are rather rare here at the Coltons Point Times but are greatly appreciated as it is the only indication people are reading and finding the stories to be of value.

So I told her I broke my brain and had to take time for repairs but the break happened at a good time as everything in the news was predictable. Truth is I was taking a break while the world caught up with my previous articles.

We made a number of predictions and suggestions on a variety of issues and it seemed as if the government was never going to get around to doing their job but slowly, often grudgingly, they seem to be getting in gear.

I suspect some of the movement by the bureaucrats might be they realize in a few months they may have a new boss and they better do something to justify their existence. There is also the calls for change by the presidential candidates and the strange policy reversals of late by President Bush that have changed things.

The Race for President
In March we called the Democratic primary and even the general election naming Obama the winner of both. The first already happened and the second is well underway. Of course the news media says the race between Obama and McCain is only a 4 percent lead for Obama. We addressed that in an article on polling stating that polls will not be accurate until after September 1 at which time we expect Obama to surge to a 15% lead and never look back.

The Oil Price Rise
For nearly two years we urged investigation of price manipulation of the futures market and finally, this week, the federal government announced the first of what could be many indictments for illegal price fixing. An expansive investigation is already underway.

The Housing Crisis
Also long ago we pointed out the impending collapse of the housing market because of over priced real estate and the proliferation of Wall street, the banks and investment houses in scam sub-prime mortgages. Well the house of cards did collapse at a cost of well over $300 billion. We urged extensive prosecutions of the mortgage, banking and financial sectors and they have also begun.

The many articles covered a host of sins ranging from medical costs to environmental issues, prescription drugs to vaccines. We pointed out that new born children now receive 26 vaccinations by the time they are two years old. No wonder our immune systems have broken down. The average older American now takes six prescription drugs a day.

We are over regulated, over stimulated, over manipulated and over weight and still we listen to the maniacs every evening on the news singing the praises for the quality of life in America while their networks suck every last advertising dollar from the guilty parties.

Television programs on our 500 channels are the dumbest collective bunch of nonsense in history, video games are the most crass and destructive forces ever inflicted on mankind, violent crime is glorified on local news and corporate crime is covered up on network news.

The price of oil and food goes up every time anything in the world goes wrong even if it has no effect on oil and food prices. Still we send the same people back to congress and our state legislatures as if they have no responsibility for all the corruption and greed that dominates our world.

Well I don't know if President Obama can change things as he will still be stuck with the same congress but he certainly can't do any worse than the last few presidents. I presented a program to Take Back America which starts to address all the freedom, choices and morality we have given up but a positive approach to problem solving has no place in a world that dwells on the negative and glorifies greed.

Still the population of Coltons Point is a couple of hundred and there are over 7,000 readers of the Coltons Point Times, not to mention the many web sites that place my articles on them so at least several thousand people are starting to look for the truth.

In order to serve that purpose and make certain Cathe has something of value to read we are now rested and will not rest again until the crooks have been driven from the capitol, from Wall Street, from television and radio, and even from the pulpits.

We will not rest until you get medical help to heal you, not keep treating you until your insurance runs out. When owning a home means something. When education actually teaches. When speculation in oil and food is stopped because such greedy speculators are threatening our national security. When foreign aid goes to countries that help us lower the cost of oil. And all that other stuff.

U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY PAULSON FUELS OIL PRICE CONSPIRACY

The Bush Administration continues to ignore the realities of world oil prices as spokesperson Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on June 1 that oil price increases are due to “supply and demand” issues. Just a couple of days earlier the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulatory agency, announced a massive criminal investigation of price manipulation in the oil futures markets.

The CFTC indicated the investigation had been quietly launched six months earlier and the announcement sent shock waves through the financial sector. The Coltons Point Times has written 14 articles about the financial manipulation of the oil futures markets over the past 18 months so we are pleased a federal agency has actually started the process.

However, the CFTC may not have the ability nor the resources to undertake such a massive investigation as their targets would have to be the largest financial organizations in the world. We already disclosed that equity owners of the London oil futures market, ICE, which is a USA company but not subject to federal regulation, include two of the largest investment houses in the world, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, three of the largest oil companies in the world, Royal Dutch Shell, BP Amoco and Total Fina Elf, and two of Europe’s leading financial institutions, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale.

The price manipulations under investigation could be the result of actions by these and all the other top financial houses and oil companies in the world and the CFTC says it has just five lead counsels to handle the cases. There are already over forty investigations launched. To give you an idea of the limits of the CFTC a spokesperson testified just ten days ago before a Senate Committee and listed reasons for the record oil price as “the weak U.S. dollar, demand from emerging economies, world unrest, bad weather and supply disruptions.” No mention was made of financial manipulations.

Now Secretary Paulson should have known about the CFTC investigation before he spoke, everyone else in the world knew. Paulson used to head Goldman Sachs, one of the certain targets of the investigation, and he knew Goldman Sachs was one of the owners of the oil futures market. Are the Bush people really that disconnected from reality or is there another reason for the refusal to acknowledge the potential for price manipulation from speculators?

Bush recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and asked OPEC to increase oil production to lower prices and they told him it was speculators driving up the price, the financial institutions, not the producers. Both the president and treasury secretary continue to get the wrong information and that raises a lot of questions about the quality of the staff in the Administration.

The CFTC was set up in 1974 to protect Americans from manipulations in the commodity markets. It was last updated in 2000 even though in 2006 a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said there was substantial evidence of price manipulation in the commodity oil futures markets and a gaping loophole in U.S. Regulations that would lead to further speculation and manipulation.

That was the same year the Administration allowed ICE, the new oil futures market owner in London to trade American oil futures in London. Oil prices were $59-60 per barrel then and since the gaping loophole in our regulation prices have more than doubled, meaning the price impact of speculation could be $60 per barrel today.

So Goldman Sachs represents ICE in securities offerings and was an original equity owner of ICE. The current Treasury Secretary was former head of Goldman Sachs. The current head of NYMEX, the New York Mercantile (Futures) Exchange whose contracts can be bought through ICE in London, is James Newsome who also sits on the Dubai Exchange, the third and last oil futures exchange in the world. Interestingly Newsome is a former chairman of the CTFC.

The current CTFC Global Markets Advisory Committee includes Newsome and Jeffrey Sprecher, Chairman and CEO of ICE, along with representatives of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, UBS and Barclays among others. The CTFC Energy Market Advisory Committee includes Newsome and Sprecher from the futures exchanges along with Goldman Sachs, Shell Oil, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan, and others.

So the two key advisory committees to the CTFC contain many of the very firms that are under investigation by the CTFC and the largest investment houses, banks and oil companies of the world are the target. The five CTFC lawyers could spend decades searching for truth.

Why did Congress and the Administration refuse to act to close the huge CTFC regulatory loophole two years ago when it was identified? Why were no changes made in CTFC regulations to enable it to effectively stop oil price manipulations since Bush took office? Why does the Treasury Secretary ignore what may be massive oil price manipulations by the financial sector speculators? How can the CTFC investigate the largest and richest corporations in the world with five lawyers?

If Congress or the Administration have any sense they will assign all the investigative resources of the federal government to the CTFC investigation including the FBI, SEC, FTC and any intelligence service monitoring the world oil situation. If ever there was a need for a national security investigation this is it as our economy and the world economy are at risk. This could be the last chance for Bush to actually do something for the good of the people before his Administration becomes a target of the investigation.

And don’t forget these same financial and oil companies have already given $1.6 billion to the campaigns of our U.S. Senate, House and presidential candidates in this election year and another $1.6 billion will be given before November. Let’s hope $3 billion cannot buy the influence of Congress. They have also paid over $20 billion in fines for fraud and stock manipulations in recent years so such behavior may not be anything new.

THE HIJACKING OF AMERICA – THROW THEM OUT, THROW THEM ALL OUT!

Not since Al Capone stole Chicago has there been a theft of the grand portions we are now experiencing with the oil price crisis and this time there are no g-men or J Edgar Hoover to stop the insanity. Once upon a time the federal government could be counted on to protect the American public but that day has long since vanished in the corruption tolerant world we live in today.

It is said that mighty empires don’t collapse because of lost wars but suffocate on their own from the break down of morality and ethics as the seeds of evil grow and bring down the empire. Well America stands at the precipice of self-destruction because big business doesn’t care and big government turns a deaf ear to the cries for help from the people.

Once upon a time the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department Anti-Trust group, the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies would never tolerate the corruption and deceit running rampant today.

Today we give tax deductions to corporations guilty of multi-billion dollar crimes against humanity. We give tax breaks to oil companies that refuse to build refineries and develop new oil fields. We bail out banks and investment houses that violated the law and created the sub-prime mortgage scam. We make money available at cheaper interest rates to institutions that then refuse to lower mortgage rates. And worst of all we allow 535 Senators and Congressmen to employ 18,000 staff and receive $1.6 billion so far in campaign contributions from the very same companies bankrupting our economy and destroying lives.

The federal campaign finance laws are an invitation to corruption and the House and Senate refuse to change them. No wonder when they get $1.6 billion just for the primary elections. The media blindly ignores the truth about the extent of corruption because they get billions of dollars in advertising revenue from the same companies.

Investment houses, banks and pharmaceutical companies have paid well over twenty billion dollars in fines for illegal activities since 2000 and we reward them with tax deductions for the fines they pay. Then we watch as the Federal Reserve guarantees lines of credit to keep them in business and to bail each other out while reducing the cost of our tax dollars to them so they can continue with their market manipulations.

Many of the same companies that lost $400 billion on the sub-prime mortgages they created out of greed are now benefiting from the incredible oil price surge with record profits every month while the average American is watching their lives, standard of living and retirement funds disappear.

Congress calls hearings to question the oil executives on their salaries and bonuses while doing nothing to stop the oil price spiral. What in the world is the point unless the point is to distract the American public from the truth? Keep the eye of the public off the financial institutions that are pouring billions of dollars into the congressional and presidential campaigns while raiding the US treasury in every way humanly possible.

Through it all the people have patiently waited for their elected representatives to protect them and their federal agencies to stop the bad guys. Neither has happened nor are they likely to happen. Congress is still looking in the wrong places and the administration is still asking the oil producers to increase production and neither strategy has worked.

Why do we have to ask those that directly benefit from our defense spending in Iraq (over $500 billion) to help us with the oil supplies when they could care less? Perhaps all those Sheiks in training that came to our Ivy League Schools to learn the ways of the world learned a little more about price gouging and a little less about protecting their own market.

Of course the oil companies have not developed known reserves nor increased refinery capacity so they are contributing as well to the mess. The President blames Congress for not passing his energy bill during the last eight years. How long does a president have to wait to figure out his bill is no good? If the president wanted the bill so bad then during those eight years he might have acted like a leader and found a way to get it passed. I mean he does head the “executive” branch doesn’t he?

Then there are the car companies who have become so dependent on oil and the internal combustion engine and the massive after market repair revenue it generates they sat back and waited until the consumer was getting squeezed to death before addressing the need for an alternative fuel engine.

In the end there is us, the American consumer, who bought the cars, burned the oil, let the financial institutions invest our money, elected the president and the congress, and now are screaming about what went wrong. We could have elected responsible officials who warned us of the dire future but we didn’t. We could have thrown out the politicians who lied to us but we didn’t. We could demand our elected officials prosecute the financial institutions that own the futures market, manipulate the media to drive up the price of gas, and get the federal government to bail them out whenever their greed gets them in trouble. But we don’t.

We did reduce our driving and that is good. What we really need to do is clean house, both houses of congress that is along with the administration. What policies the president did implement over the part eight years required the approval of congress to budget so they are both guilty of complicity in the oil fiasco. Besides, when it comes to being bought off by campaign contributions from these powerful forces both were willing to do whatever it took for the money.

So we need look no further than the mirror for the real culprit in the oil debacle as we let all the players make the grand scam happen and if there is to be a solution it will be found when we wake up and use the ballot to fight back. Throw them all out of office and there is a chance the world might become a better place. After what the politicians have done to us how can we do anything less?

STOP THE OIL PRICE CRISIS – IMPEACH CONGRESS!

Okay folks, down here in little old Coltons Point, Maryland where we work very hard to keep the march of civilization from contaminating our village even we can see the most serious roadblock to getting a grip on the devastating oil price spiral is the very institution we elect to protect us, the United States Congress.

Our village newspaper, the Coltons Point Times has presented twelve articles over the past eighteen months identifying the culprits, the problems, and the myths of the oil price mess and offering ways a responsible president or congress could address these problems.



Now we expected nothing from the Bush administration in terms of attacking the problem because we knew the administration was clueless, ignorant, or conveniently looking the other way while planning their retirement homes in Dubai. One should never expect anything from the lamest of lame ducks.

But the Congress, under new Democratic leadership the past two years and with all those wonderful promises of dynamic action to fix the wrongs of the world, they could do something about it but won’t. Oh they hold periodic idiotic hearings to show the world they are on top of things and accomplish nothing with the utmost of noise.

What the congress and administration have allowed to happen with the sub-prime mortgage catastrophe and the oil price disaster will forever be known as the darkest hours in the history of our system of Democracy. The very people we have elected to protect us have sold their souls to the devil and their hearts to big money in the biggest takeover in US history, the takeover of the US government.

There are about 450 House and Senate incumbents up for re-election this year along with the three major presidential candidates. The securities, investment, real estate, and oil and gas industries alone have pumped over $1.6 billion into their campaigns and the election is not even half over in terms of potential contributions. Our administration and congress are as green as green can get but not in terms of environmental consciousness, they are awash in the green of billions of dollars being invested in their futures.

Unfortunately if our leaders looked at the facts they might question those green billions but they don’t. Instead they keep blocking campaign reform, allowing mortgage and securities bailouts and do nothing on oil prices while they keep banking the big bucks. Of course when you spend your time kissing babies and glad-handing constituents you may not have time to be responsible but the 535 Senate and House members have over 18,000 staff and you would think they could do something to help their bosses and our protectors.

So we pointed out in a series of articles that the largest investment houses in the world have lost almost $400 billion in the sub-prime mortgage fiasco that never should have happened if the administration and congress were doing their job. We also pointed out some of the same powerful investment houses were the silent owners of the oil futures exchange while the Arab nations who were bailing our the sub-prime losers also owned a lot of those oil reserves soon to be sold on the futures market.

That information was provided in November of 2006 when the oil price was $50.98 per barrel. Today, thanks to inertia by our government the crude oil price is now over $130.00 per barrel, an increase since our first article of nearly $80 per barrel.

In January of 2007 we listed the secret partners in the purchase of the oil futures exchange in London including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank (Germany), and Société Générale (France) all among the biggest financial giants in the world, three major oil firms BP Amoco, Royal Dutch Shell and TotalfinaElf, all three among the top eight most profitable corporations in the world in 2005, and six of the largest energy companies in America.

We warned that the same financial institutions were among those losing billions of dollars in the US sub-prime mortgage market and that they were in a position to offset their sub-prime losses by keeping oil prices at record levels. Every day the price stays up these firms benefit through their ownership of the futures market not to mention the billions of dollars they manage that can be leveraged to keep the futures market at record levels.

So-called oil industry analysts who worked for these firms and were darlings of the news media were identified by us as in potential conflicts of interest by not identifying they and their employers benefited from the runaway oil prices fueled by their expert analysis that projected $150-200 per barrel. Our headlines could not have been clearer.

“Slicker than an Oil Spill”, “The JP Morgan Chase Takeover of Bear Stearns - A Trillionaires Delight”, “Oil Price Conspiracy – Kings and Pawns”, “Oil Profiteering”, “Oil Bailing Out Sub-prime Mortgage Mess”, “Politicians and Oil – the Silence is Deafening”, “Oil Analysts Drive Oil Price Records”, and Demons and the Black Gold.”

So eighteen months, twelve articles, an $80 per barrel increase in oil and over $1.6 billion poured into your campaign coffers and still nothing has happened of substance in congress. You now leave us with no alternative but a Constitutional crisis because all of Congress, the House and Senate, are co-conspirators in the sub-prime and oil price shenanigans that have resulted in destabilizing the world economy and hurting very badly a lot of innocent people here and around the world. You should be ashamed and shamed for what you allowed to happen.

It might be too late to impeach the administration for their complicity in this series of tragic events because they will be long gone soon enough and it would be yet another waste of federal money but the truth is you, the congress, should be impeached and that is the cause of our constitutional crisis.

Impeachment proceedings require that the House of Representatives bring articles of impeachment and the impeachment trial be conducted by the Senate. There is no provision in the Constitution on what to do when the entire House and Senate is going to be impeached so the American Civil Liberties Union or maybe those lawyers who have also poured $72 million into your campaigns could figure out some way to bring a class action impeachment against our entire congress. It sure sounds like a lot in legal fees could result.

In the meantime you or your 18,000 staff members should take the time to read our twelve articles and see if it can inspire you to come up with a strategy that might work to bring down the oil price. You can find them at http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/ where truth is free and we make no campaign contributions.

WHY MEDIA POLLS FAIL – THE CREDIBILITY COLLAPSE!

We are halfway through the silly season of the never-ending campaign for president and it is time to take a look around at all the damage that has been done. How do we do that? Well the media and politicians use a clever technique called polling to keep us informed of what we think and the big question is does it really do that? No!

Wake up media and stop trying to sway the American public opinion. It has been 40 years since I started developing campaign polling and demographic databases and the one constant through eight presidents is nothing has changed. The American people will always make up their own mind and if you try to influence them your polls will be the same disaster as always.

So why should the news media care? Because the credibility of the media is just as poor as the credibility of the president, congress and corporate America and those reporting the news should not be considered a joke. If I didn’t care about the reputation of the media I would not care, although the extreme efforts of some media to distort the public will does provide some form of entertainment.

News reporting is a protected privilege in America, it is even protect by the Constitution in the Bill of Rights. But along with such privileged status comes responsibility, the responsibility to not abuse your rights and many of the media seem to forget.

What is the purpose of polls? Polls are a snap shot at that moment of time in reaction to a specific question. No more no less. The more objective the question the more objective and honest will be the answer. The more scientific the pool of people polled the more accurate the results.

Every day political news reporters try to apply the results of daily polls to what will happen in the future. For example, they tell us McCain is equal to Clinton or Obama in the fall election. Such extrapolation is nonsense and the media knows better. When you hear such things just know there is a hidden agenda by those making such silly reports.

This is May, not November, and many people have not even started thinking about the general election. We don’t even have the final candidates for the general election. My years of polling experience have shown people wait until September to start thinking seriously about the general election.

Any poll done at this time when the final candidates are not selected and they are not running against each other could be 20-25% inaccurate. So why does the media continue reporting these results? They know better.

The only polls accurate right now are those concerning the public sentiment and they foreshadow serious change this fall. More than two-thirds of the public think the country is headed in the wrong direction, more than two-thirds think Bush is doing the wrong things, and more than two-thirds think congress is just as misguided. Barring some unforeseen catastrophe no Republican can win the presidency this year.

If McCain is running even at this time it is only because the public does not know Obama well enough and know Clinton too well. When two-thirds of the public is opposed to the direction of the country and to President Bush, and McCain is the Bush standard-bearer, Hillary should be light years ahead of McCain, not just even in the polls. Obviously the public knows her too well.

Also, there is no way the results in one state mean the same thing will happen in another state as the people of West Virginia are far different than those in Mississippi or Iowa, just as New York is different than California. Polls can also be very distorted if the people surveyed are not registered to vote, or even if they are registered does that mean they will actually vote.

If a poll is of “eligible voters” it will be wrong for 50% of eligible voters are not even registered to vote. If a poll is of “registered voters” it could also be 50% wrong for half of the registered voters are not going to vote. If a poll is of actual voters based on their actual voter record then it is getting close to right but very few polls ever attempt to identify those most likely to vote, thus polls are consistently off though the media would have you believe otherwise.

There is a final distortion of poll results if the caller identifies who employs them for if they say it is a Washington Post poll for example some people are going to be inclined to answer the way they think the “media” wants them to answer. People do not want to feel stupid so they might just make up answers, especially on issues they do not know.

As a result the economy will always be the number one issue and specifically jobs within the economy. Gas prices will follow closely. Many people will list the environment as a key issue having no clue why that is so. Global warming and related issues are too complex for most people to understand. Foreign policy will always be way down the list unless there is a war with a lot of deaths and still it will remain far behind the economy and crime.

Immigration is a quite disruptive issue as the media loves to play up the controversy but in truth it is not much of a real issue because 85% of all American citizens identify themselves as a person of foreign ancestry for example French-American, Irish-American, German-American, Hispanic-American, and African-American. That means only 15% of our citizens consider themselves genuine Americans and that is really how it should be and is. How could a nation of immigrants hate immigrants? Only the media can make that happen.

The bottom line is this. If you believe the polls published by the media you are as crazy as the media. On the other hand, if you really want to see a meaningful poll the following are the latest results from a Harris Poll on the Confidence of the American Public in our institutions.

The Harris Poll® #22, February 28, 2008

(Percent of the public having a great deal of confidence in the major institutions.)

The Military 51%, Small Business 47%, Major Educational colleges & universities 32%, Medicine 28%, The US Supreme Court 25%, Organized Religion 25%, Public Schools 20%, The Courts & Justice system 16%, Television News 16%, The White House 15%, Major Companies 14%, Organized Labor 11%, Wall Street 11%, The Press 10%, Law Firms 10% and Congress 8%.

It would appear the general public already know what they think of the media and their polls when 84% of our citizens do not have a great deal of confidence in Television news, and they have even less confidence in The White House, Major companies, Organized Labor, Wall Street, The Press, Law Firms, with Congress bringing up the rear in terms of the American institution with the least confidence of the American citizens.