I've said before, everyone in the US should have to take a macroeconomics class. But lately I think that's not enough. People always seem to want a simple answer to every problem. Even if they understand that stuff is complex, they don't seem to want to think about it. They want to blame it on the first scapegoat they can so they can focus their anger and get their government to DO something.
Oil is the latest example of this; Everyone is on the "speculators are to blame" bandwagon. McCain, Obama, the media, everyone. Except for... oh...the government themselves!
NYT: Speculators Aren’t Driving Up Oil Prices, Report Says
And then there is the ever present drive to drill along the US coast. Now don't get me wrong, I'm actually in favor of it. But politicians would have you believe that if just started drilling today everything would go back to the way it was by the end of the week. But wait! Once again a government report would beg to differ:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ae/otheranalysis/ongr.html
“The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030....Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."
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1 comment:
It's the same problem with anything in the stock market. People try to rationalize that a caused b, Yes A might have helped cause a rise in B, but is in no way the only reason it happened. The only time that anything was a direct cause for Stock price crashing was probably Sept. 11. The post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this therefore because of this) fallacy at work.
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