Dave Ramsey, not a man unfamiliar with the realities of finances and real estate, was talking about his opposition to government bail-outs, particularly the Bear Stearns debacle. His argument is that the market should just correct itself, and that really, the people who suffered, no matter how much he sympathizes with him, are people who should have known better. He himself had faced property foreclosure years ago do to bad investment and financing plans, but he said he was able to correct the problem himself without government insistence, and looks down upon people looking for a government rebate based on their own poor financial decisions, whether they're the homeowners who couldn't afford their house payments once the subprime crisis started, or the corporate executives who allowed such a faulty business plan to go on as long as it did. So Ramsey goes on about it being equally foolish of Congress to oppose oil production, since again the government is interfering in the market in a way it shouldn't. In this case, by tying up production, the government is allowing oil prices to continue to get out of control. The only way to combat this, he said, was to flood the market with oil and drive down the price. Which is something I agree with, for the most part. However, the question remains just how much oil can be produced to meet the needs of everyone who wants it? I was fine during the Cold War when China was living the communist dream and not needing energy for its average citizen. But now they want it, as do many other developing nations. Is there enough oil in the world to supply everyone's needs? I don't know. But whatever the scenario is, it can't be resolved by shutting off the oil pump. –Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com
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