copper the new oil?

I know -- let's stop buying stuff from them!!

Hearty har-har.

Perhaps the time has come to Liberate Chile?

So what ya think... copper prices have quadrupled in last 5 years. Seems like it has out performed oil by far.

We gotta do something about those damn chinese!! ;/

things are changing, allegedly

martin

And tin. Gold. Concrete. Rice. Steel. Wheat. As a couple of billion more people want to be middle-class, things get strained.

John

I've known this would happen eventually. It'll all come home to roost soon enough.

If they'd just get the government out of the way, and let the Free Market operate naturally, everyone will get richer. The problem is way, way, way too much government regulation, taxes, etc, etc, etc...

Government _ALWAYS_ makes things worse.

Thanks, Rich

Rich, I rarely agree with you, but this time you're dead-on correct!

...Jim Thompson

Also look at silver, nickel, tin and even iron.

Rich, I agree with you. But, however much I'm against government programs I can't help but think we need a Manhattan project or Kennedy's "Man on the moon" program to find new sources of energy for the next decade. Or remove capital gains tax from energy research companies and let the free market do it. The solution will not be one source, it will be many. Solar, wind (Teddy, I don't care about your view from Martha's Vineyard) oil from algae (not corn, stupid, stupid, stupid, politicians got bought by the farmer lobby) and conservation (ooh!) our cars will be smaller in ten years. Mike

Oxymoron. Remove capital gain taxes on everything.

Not mine ;-)

...Jim Thompson

ems

You and the libertarians have all the answers, eh?

So do you think Standard Oil should have been broken up? Or do you think monopolies are good for the consumer?

Do you think gangs and mafia groups should be allowed to fester and grow unimpeded, because of insufficient law enforcement?

That's what privately funded warlords are for! Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Howcome no mention of nuclear? Somebody should check with Japan or France and see how they're making it work, especially the thing about the waste and the paranoia that somebody's going to make a bomb out of one, like the Feds are doing now. And what does the Fed do with their own waste from the bomb plants? And how about them nuke subs and A/C carriers?

I think we could solve the energy problem _and_ promote world peace by just bringing the subs and carriers home, back them into the harbor, and plug them into the power grid. ;-)

Then they'd be in position to actually _DEFEND_ the US, instead of empire-building for the power-trippers in Washington, D.C.

Cheers! Rich

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@example.net...

Oh don't you worry about it. Once gasoline gets expensive enough, producing petroleum from Canadian oil sands becomes economical.

Isn't there supposed to be a whole lot of methane under the sea? Methane hydrates?

Once gasoline hits about $10/gallon, it will be economical to install solar collectors in the desert, make hydrogen from brackish groundwater, and convert hydrogen plus CO2 to synthetic petroleum via the Fischer-Tropsch reaction.

In some countries you can easily just walk to the market. Here in most of the USA we have zoning ordinances: you have no choice but to drive to the commercially zoned businesses (think Save Mart, Costco, Wal Mart, etc.)

One thing I just don't get: once gasoline gets more expensive, the tax revenue to the government goes up. So the gov't has no real incentive to curb gas prices (barring unpleasant things like riots).

Just my one Philippine Peso ( = approx. two cents. Oh wait, now it's almost three cents.)

Michael

"gangs and mafia groups" = = government

VERY TRUE.

I'll add to that, since the price of corn has doubled, why do the taxpayers still subsidize it? Mike