As someone who really, truly wants gas to be about $5.50 a gallon, I applaud your Gas Up Day idea, especially if it then leads to another faux "shortage" or two driving prices up to my cherished goal.

At the same time, I think we diverge a bit on my other idea that we nationalize all energy companies. I'd personally rather see my govt. revenues go up 75% via "shortages" than Exxon/Mobil, and given the health impacts of our energy choices, nationalizing the energy industry is the closest were going to get to Socialized Medicine.

Speaking more seriously, I wonder how things on the "willy nilly" price front would be if we just got rid of treating energy as a tradable commodity (i.e. futures) and instead price structured it ala Treasuries with the backing of the U.S. Government? I think we call agree that oil is the true gold standard of our economy at present (hell we even have a Fort Knox in the Strategic Reserve), yet we continue to treat it like pork bellies or orange juice.
scot | Homepage | 10.30.05 - 8:50 am | #