GOD BLESS THE MARKET, or

WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT DO WE NEED?
Charles de Gaulle once remarked, "I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians".
Both candidates for the US Presidency are having quite a bit to say about the cost of motor fuel and what should be done about it. Almost everyone in the US is of the view that gasoline costs too much. Naturally, we all like to buy a commodity as cheaply as possible. When I purchased gas back in 1987, while traveling in Ohio, I was amazed that I pumped gas into my friend's Honda for around 70 cents a gallon; that was about what it was costing per liter in Australia! Of course, in the UK, it was costing around twice that per liter. In 1999, I thought it pretty good when I managed to buy gas for as little as 99 cents per gallon and got a little upset when it went up to $1.15.
Public Radio in the US runs a sage and thoroughly humorous Saturday morning show, Car Talk, hosted by Tom and Ray Magliozzi ("Click and Clack"). I recommend that you listen to it from time to time. When I first began to listen to this show, back in 1987, one of them remarked that gasoline was so cheap it might as well be given away!
According to many economists, when demand for a product goes up, price will increase and lead to increased supply, resulting in a lower price. As we are beginning to notice, when supply cannot ramped up, all that happens is that price goes up. At a certain point, this affects demand. In the US, demand for gasoline has fallen almost 3% compared with a year ago. In terms of making an invaluable and essential commodity last longer, in the face of limited capacity, this is a desirable outcome.
When it comes to world supply of oil over a long enough period for alternate sources of energy to be developed, this is just what we need. For good measure, let's throw in the dangers of global warming.
As I remarked in the last posting, the present cost of fuel is producing some progress toward a saner construction of society. It is even having some effect on globalization (itself a freak result of overly cheap transportation costs) for which see the article in New York Times last Sunday, Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization. When you consider that bunker fuel (for shipping) is the cheapest fraction of oil before bitumen, this is really news. Another bit of news is that even bitumen is becoming costly and sufficiently scarce to affect the maintenance of roads.
Actually, I am all for drilling to discover more oil and am glad that the ethanol-from-corn myth as the answer to foreign oil dependence has been debunked. I certainly hope that biofuels that do not compete with food supplies will become available as quickly as possible. None of this will lead to fuels that are cheaper than ought to be, in terms of preserving the supply of oil for the really amazing uses we have found for it.
Human society depends on energy and, luckily for us, there are abundant supplies of energy all about us that are being developed. These will not threaten our home, the planet Earth. Cheap oil can only get in the way of a truly energy rich society. We need and should demand for politicians who refuse to pander to the cry for cheap gasoline. However, according to an old saw, we get the politicians we deserve. So let's give some thought to the world we want for our grandchildren and their children, the kind of world we are bequeathing to them. Let's look for and listen for a politician who takes politics seriously.