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Don’t blame gas prices for bad job numbers

    • Yes, I agree, its not the gas prices but the underlying reason for the high gas prices based in government overextension and in some cases lack of action. Who is going to hire if the cost of doing business is too high based on outrageous gas prices? How can businesses gauge future costs when there is no rhyme or reason regarding fuel prices? Currently the oil futures markets are being gamed by too much investor riffraff and its got to the point that the speculators have no fundamentals to work with and are trading based on the volatility index.

      Government policies that harm business development do harm business growth, such as a govt takeover of health care and the general mismanagement of that potentially, along with the mismanagement of the Reinvestment Act funds going to prop up unions and bloated state governments. These things may portend higher taxes to consumers, workers, and business owners/investors in the future that is true.

      People may say a weak dollar and the government policies that spurred it are to blame for high commodity prices, however if the riffraff was not allowed to game the commodities markets by the CFTC, then the cost of doing business would be lessened and not affected by the multitudinous cash awash in the bank vaults.

      I say its overextension of government in the wrong areas and a lack of intervention in other key areas.

    • Anyone who's been around the block knows that the Fed's trickle down theory of easy money doesn't work. The big boys take the tax cuts and easy money, violate the spirit of the agreement with which they were given, and spend them on wine, women, song, swiss bank accounts, and pet projects in emerging markets. If you want to give a person a job, give them a job. If you don't want them to be foreclosed on, rewrite their mortgage agreement.

    • The oil comments in this story show that Peter Morici has no clue what he is talking about in relation to oil. I would expect a professor to know more about the subject he is discussing that just what has been in the headlines. Just because the administration has slowed down drilling in the deep water gulf of Mexico and that has made headlines doesn't mean nothing is being done to address the oil deficit.
      The EIA data shows that the US has increased oil production in 2009 ,2010 and is set to do so again in 2011. Three consecutive years of increased oil production in the US is something that hasn't happened in decades.
      Within the last few weeks there was a record number of active rigs drilling for oil in the US.
      Gasoline demand continues to decline in the US for the fifth consecutive years. Between the production gains and consumption demands the US "oil gap" has decreased significantly the last few years and is likely to continue decreasing. That is probably a key reason the inland US (WTI crude) oil price is 15% lower than the coastline world (Brent crude) oil price
      What does he want the president to do when there are a record number of rigs drilling for oil? Make the record drilling activity increase at an even faster rate? That would only lead to a shortage of qualified drilling resources and escalating production costs. Not the best thing for the economy IMHO.

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