News Surfing

Just a couple of quick notes based on news surfing the past few days:

1. Deepwater Horizon - the leak will be used to impose and/or pass environmental legislation to "prevent" similar disasters and make the oil companies pay for the safety and there will be much talk about dependency on foreign oil. Remember that corporations do NOT pay taxes. Business are tax collectors...their customers pay the taxes through price increases. Can you say $5.00 gas?

2. Climate Change - look for the cooling trend of the past decade to be accepted as fact and the discussion slowly start to turn toward global cooling (as evidence of man affecting the environment). Never mind the increasing activity of the sun and the solar flares headed here (or the reversal of the temperature trend therefrom). We all know man affects climate, not the sun.

3. Election - nothing yet has changed my hunch that the Republican landslide will fizzle. Politics are local and, even now, most will keep their guy. Still watching for trends.