I think we will see a small drop in gas prices in a few months, but it will inevitably rise again so I believe it is time for us to all practice conservation and look for methods to squeeze every Joule of energy from every drop of gas we consume.

you have gone a bit ahead of me (but only a bit). I want to know ;

Do we (taxpayers, the Gov’t) owe Shell, Exxon, SOL, Saudi Arabia, or Trinidad $80m?

OR

Did Gov’t make up a difference of $80m between what citizens paid at the pump and what the fuel actually cost?

OR

Was it that $80 m of taxes normally due to the treasury were not collected?

OR ??

So, therefore, it was NOT any surprise to us when – in her July 25 press briefing on the performance of the “Barbados economy” for the first half of the year 2008 – the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr. Marion Williams, reported that growth for the first half of the year 2008 was a meagre 1.4 per cent – which was significantly below the average rate of growth for the corresponding period for the last five years ( Barbados Business Authority, Monday, August 4, 2008). Talk about the so-called Barbados economy being in a tail spin!!

Also, it did NOT surprise us either when – in presenting his 2008 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals in the House Assembly on July 7, 2008 – the Prime Minister, Mr. David Thompson, announced that growth for the first half of the year 2008, was a miserly 1.8 per cent and that a so-called economic slow down was being projected for the first two quarters of 2009 ( The Daily Nation, Tuesday, July 8, 2008).

However, where there has, since Jan 15 2008, been gross and reckless mismanagement of the Barbados economy – and in the face of serious internal and external shocks to it – is where the said Mr. Thompson would have unwisely proceeded in the said Financial Statement and Budgetary Propasals to carry out further TAXATION ASSAULTS on primarily the backs of the masses and middle classes of people of Barbados , and which, on top of those murderous increases in domestic fuel costs in April by the Prime Minister, are surely bound to help bring about further deflationary depressing social material conditions to the country, and to the vulnerable, the poor, the needy, and the elderly within it.

Moreover, it would really be a sick joke for anyone in Barbados to say to others that – because world oil “prices” would have been falling to some degree for two months or so – this would automatically mean translation ultimately into economic stabilization and recovery for Barbados, when it is so clear that – whereas the relevant speculators and others would for a reasonably long time – but only up to about 8 weeks ago – have been conveniently using traded oil as a highly valued financial hedge against the falling US Dollar, et al, it is now however being seen that the lower and lower the “prices” of global oil go they are indications of deepening material recession in many parts of the global economy – NOT the bottoming and then sailing out of this economic financial crisis for many, many countries of this globe. Hence, it is these declines in global demand and supply structures across the relevant world commodities and services markets – and NOT falling world oil “prices” – that are bound to reach a point whereby they will have greater adverse effects on social, material and financial conditions in Barbados.

So, instead of the Prime Minister helping to create innovative bulwarks against these kinds of external shocks, he, by way of increasing domestic fuel costs and increasing TAXATION burdens on the backs of the masses and middle classes of people in Barbados, is NOT ONLY exposing Barbados and people in Barbados to greater internal and external shocks BUT ALSO he is grossly and recklesly failing in his duty to protect Barbados and people in Barbados from those said internal and external shocks. Shame on you, Mr. Thompson and the DLP!! And greater shame on former prime minister, Mr. Arthur, and the former BLP Government for helping to put Barbados in this kind of ignoble siuation!!

Finally, to end off where we started, these persons that we have come and are still coming in contact with do clearly exhibit a sense of feeling cheated and let down by BLP and DLP Governments over the years, with none of these old parties looking after their interests, even in cases whereby they would have been promises made to such persons by members of these two older wretched parties. To them and to the vast majority of voters in Barbados we in PDC say IT IS TIME TO STOP ELECTING DLP and BLP Governments in this country, and to START ELECTING A PDC Government for a brighter and better Barbados, and for a more wholistic personal and business development of your and our selves.

PDC

If we take your argument to the economic conclusion…lol, we know that the taxpayers are ultimately responsible for the debt but the question is should this be managed at the macro level of should individual Barbadians carry the brunt of increases as they occur. The BLP says no the DLP says yes a clash of philosophies. The DLP appear to be using this mechanism to reengineer behaviour i.e.demand for fossil based products.

Which argument are you using The Devil?

“Did BNOC not accumulate a bill said to be near $80M?”

Now here is my question:

To whom is this $80M owed?

OPEC has also decided it will cut oil output by ~500,000 barrels a day which could mean even higher prices in Barbados.

I wonder what the DLP government’s plan toward these problems & what is the progress of the oil exploration off Barbados’ coast ?

The oil industry overdid it, people parked their SUV’s, became very conscious of their energy use and demand for oil dipped, prices dropped.

The power of the people again.

We agree with you that it makes since to adjust now but the fact that Barbadians are asking about why the price is not coming down suggest we are dealing with expectations. Barbadians have been told by the Thompson government that a mechanism will be put in place to pass on oil increases as they occur and remove the previous subsidy.

The government will have to come to the people and tell them what the plan is to shape expectations. Your argument does not mesh with the policy of the government Bt.

I think that we are paying back for the splurging that we did when the BLP failed to adjust fuel prices upwards before elections- so as not to upset us.
…no matter who won elections we would have had to pay back sometime.

…there is no free lunch.

Did BNOC not accumulate a bill said to be near $80M?

Who do you all think is going to pay off that debt?

In any case, how will it be helpful to lower gas prices in an environment where we all know that our future is destined to be one oh high fuel prices and reducing supplies?

It is far better to begin to adjust at a stage where we have options (as appears to be the case now), than wait until we are boxed in with the reality of high prices and scarcity.

….take it easy scout. You have to pay back for your Christmas gift last year….

“The price of petroleum products and LPG will be adjusted monthly by the Ministry of Trade on the advice of the Division of Energy based on the prices paid for these products by the importers and in accordance with the formula that has been approved by the Cabinet. The only change that the Cabinet has made to the formula for the pricing of these products since the prices were last changed is that the component included for the recovery by Barbados National Oil Company Ltd has been increased to cover losses sustained by BNOCL when local prices did not increase, even though import prices had risen sharply. The prices of petroleum products, LPG and natural gas will now be set by the Ministry of Trade without intervention by Cabinet on the basis of a formula approved by Cabinet and applied to the current import market prices with effect from August 2008.”

“The price of petroleum products and LPG will be adjusted monthly by the Ministry of Trade on the advice of the Division of Energy based on the prices paid for these products by the importers and in accordance with the formula that has been approved by the Cabinet. The only change that the Cabinet has made to the formula for the pricing of these products since the prices were last changed is that the component included for the recovery by Barbados National Oil Company Ltd has been increased to cover losses sustained by BNOCL when local prices did not increase, even though import prices had risen sharply. The prices of petroleum products, LPG and natural gas will now be set by the Ministry of Trade without intervention by Cabinet on the basis of a formula approved by Cabinet and applied to the current import market prices with effect from August 2008.”

Hence the high taxes and fuel costs. Which is detrimental to this struggling economy and the people of Barbados.

Last Ditch

Why do the big deals always happen over the weekends? So the big boyz in government and finance can take off their neckties when they bargain with each other? So the markets will be closed and unable to register a response one way or another? So the shrinking fraction of the US public that pays attention to anything besides Nascar and pornography won’t catch the news Saturday evening?

This weekend’s big deal was the US government taking over the “government sponsored enterprises” (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that guarantee trillions of dollars in mortgages. The “guarantee” is supposedly accomplished by converting bundles of mortgages from the banks and loan companies that originate them (that make the contracts with the buyers of houses) into bonds that can be sold downstream. Risk was theoretically dispersed among the holders of these bonds. This all seemed to work during the long stable period when our cheap oil economy was chugging along, and house prices maintained a consistent relationship with incomes, and people paid their mortgages dependably. The whole system ran like a reliable machine — like a Chrysler slant-six engine!

Until the cheap oil age came to an end. Then, all parts of the system shook apart. It was the end of cheap oil that catalyzed the housing collapse and, by extension, the current huge financial crisis. But the run up to it was like a bounce off a high diving board into an empty pool. The bounce came around 2001 when it became apparent that the US standard-of-living could not be maintained on incomes in a post-cheap-oil economy. The trauma of 9/11 prompted a new and utterly insane consensus to form that the US standard of living could be switched over from income to massive debt. All the normal brakes against irresponsible lending and borrowing came off — embodied in Alan Greenspan’s absurd statement that it was a good time to assume an adjustable rate mortgage when interest rates were at a historic low — meaning they could only be adjusted upwards. Why hold Greenspan responsible? Because he was at the apex of the authority vested with establishing norms, and he shoved our behavior into the realm of the recklessly abnormal, and he should have known better.

The public went along with it because “free money” and high living are fun. Their behavior was reinforced by other authorities — for instance, President Bush, who told Americans to go shopping after the 9/11 attacks. (They went shopping with credit cards.) Things really wobbled in 2005 — which was, coincidentally, the year of all-time world-wide peak conventional oil production — with hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripping through the Gulf of Mexico oil rigs as a dramatic highlight. (It was also the year that The Long Emergency was published.)

Since then, the US economy and the financial part of it that became a nine hundred pound tail wagging a thirty-pound dog, has been held together with baling wire, duct tape, and band-aids. All the debt run up by all parties — home-owners, credit-card holders, business, banks, hedge funds, government — is not being paid back reliably, and all the leveraged arrangements that depend on it being paid back are coming apart. Thus, capital disappears. The wealth of a nation disappears. All that remains is the pretense that we are still a wealthy society.

Continued at:
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/09/last-ditch.html

Now go read this: