Bob’s comments on the recent economic troubles in the States and elsewhere, and how these could be ameliorated in both the short as well as long term:

I don’t know what you paid for your last gas fill-up, but my 20 gallons this past Tuesday, 29 April cost me $61.27, probably a new, all time high for this non-wealthy individual.

I could (barely?) afford it, and God knows how this $61.27—at about national average,  $3.429/gallon regular—or anywhere near that amount, might have hit many others in our beloved country.

Truckers, in particular, are hurting.

And everyone is hurting at the grocery store. It takes GAS (or diesel) to ‘get that stuff to us….’

‘It’s the economy, stupid,’ the battle cry from Bill Clinton’s 1992 Campaign against George Herbert Walker Bush, is returning for duty again.

The underlying reasons for this recent increase in our cost of gasoline are numerous, but let me name a few:

1. Underlying tensions regarding the plentiful nature of crude oil in the world.

I was told by a leading ARAMCO geologist in Saudi Arabia in 1978 that the Saudis had been discovering more oil in the Rub al Khali (Saudi ‘Empty Quarter’) since they began exporting to the West in 1932 than what they had been exporting- every year since.

I was told by someone in the West Texas ‘oil patch’ in 2004 that we had, world-wide, reached the point of decline of reserves.

The Saudis say there is no shortage of oil, and OPEC claims they are ‘supplying more than enough crude oil….’

Whether there is a sufficient supply of crude oil in the world or a lack thereof, rumors affect the world market price of oil and gas.

2. Much of the oil that actually DOES exist around the world is located in countries that continue to have conflict. Some of these countries are Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sudan (Darfur), and China.

Any type of hostile action, or sometimes even rumor thereof, affects the world market price of oil and gas.

Some recent examples of these hostile actions and rumors are US bad relations with Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela, the ongoing war in Darfur, Sudan, the war in Iraq, our antagonistic relationship with Iran, and insurgency activities in Nigeria.

Just recently, an American defense contractor vessel fired on two approaching Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf.

Just recently, a pipeline (once again) was attacked by insurgents in Nigeria.

Sporadically, Iraq’s pipelines are attacked.

The American Joint Chiefs of Staff, head of the American military establishment, is known to be preparing their ‘Iran Option,’ or technical plans and preparations for an  invasion of Iran.

The Darfur War continues to rage, resultiing in ever increasing numbers of casualties and refugees, accompanied by China’s lack of strong influence on the Sudanese government, and no end in sight.

3. The Indian and Chinese economies continue their rapid growth, with more and more vehicles on the road, and resultant consumption of gas and other petro products continuing to rise.
4. The Bush Administration has worsened relations with Vladimir Putin and Russia, the probable 2^nd or 3^rd highest repository of crude reserves in the world.
5. Allowing for political reservations about drilling in wildlife locales such as ANWAR, else wise off of coastal areas, finding and developing crude oil such as the Athabascan Tar Sands in Canada, or drilling for oil 10,000' or deeper in the US Gulf, has become more expensive.
6. The combination wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put enormous strain on the US Budget, along with also increasing the US Deficit, which have combined to cause the US dollar to lose value against the Euro and other currencies. Thus, the cost of crude oil, gasoline and other products at the pump in dollars must be more.
7. The refusal of the Chinese government to revalue the Chinese RMB(Yuan) against other major world currencies has put strain on just about all of the Western consumers of Chinese made goods.

Some of Bob’s solutions to these ongoing and recently more aggravated problems are as follows:

1. A radical change in US Foreign Policy. Along with establishing new and better relations with many countries around the world in the wake of the last 7- 8 disastrous Bush II years, Bob sees no substantial reasons that better relations could not be established with Iran and Syria.
2. Better relations with Iran and Syria would be considerably expedient toward resolving our challenges in Iraq.

Resolving our entanglement in Iraq, along with tensions with Iran and Syria, would allow us to have a smaller defense budget, as well as to allow the flow of Iranian crude and gas into ‘our area of the world' again,

3. Resolving problems in Iraq, Iran and Syriawould probably allow more Iraqi crude to flow as well, since there would either be fewer or no further attacks on Iraqi pipelines. The healing of Iraqi society would be enormously helpful in allowing oil and other industries to come together better.
4. An off-shoot of better relations with Iraq, Iran and Syria would be the facilitation better relations with many other countries, ez, Russia, China, Venezuela, and others.
5. Better relations with these other countrieswould help facilitate even more crude into world markets.
6. More crude in the world marketswould even further lower worldwide  prices.
7. Better relations with these varying countries would also help facilitate further progress regarding both the Israeli-Palestinian problem, as well as regarding Al Quaeda and other radical Muslim issues.
8. Progress on some to all of the above issues would allow the US to have a smaller standing defense force, which would allow more money into the US Budget for other tasks, both domestic, inclusive of reducing the US deficits, helping provide healthcare, education, and the US infrastructure, as well as international, such as money available for US overseas aid.
9. Progress on these issues would also help strengthen the US dollar, and the US, European and other economies in general.
10. More crude oil in the market place accompanied by the above additional improvements would be beneficial to the US economy, and crude and other prices would become lower yet.
11. Better relations around the world in generalwould help facilitate cooperation regarding development of alternative energy approaches, giving us yet more leeway regarding crude oil economics, and even more importantly, help facilitate progress regarding Global Warming.

Bob also has what he believes would be some extremely useful suggestions regarding the Iranian nuclear challenge, which he is reluctant to state in this present essay. But suffice it to say that he strongly believes these suggestions could be successful in ensuring the nuclear ‘de-thorning' of Iran, thus helping put the world on a better path to peace and stability.

Bob welcomes your thoughts and suggestions. He felt the strong urge to communicate these thoughts promptly, however, allowing for our more recently deteriorating economy, much of it brought about by the significantly higher oil and gas prices. With no strong and more immediate remedies in sight, crude oil could end up topping $200 per barrel in the foreseeable future.