Where's Bandar Bush When You Need Him?
Reported by Marie Therese - August 4, 2004 -
In the Market Movers segment of Big Story with John Gibson yesterday (August 3, 2004, 5:39 PM to 5:41 PM EDT) subsitute host, Judge Andrew Napolitano, discussed the dip in the markets with Fox News Business Contributor, Stuart Varney.
VARNEY claimed "the price of oil went to a record high today after making a series of record highs previously, but it went up today because OPEC stuck it to America...OPEC turned round, said: 'We cannot pump anymore oil. We have no extra capacity. We can't do this. Therefore, no extra supply coming onto the market.' There's a question as to whether that is an accurate statement or not."
Commentary: What? It's not John Kerry's fault this time? Oh, wait? We haven't gotten far enough into the interview...
The Judge, who, in a departure from his usual stolid persona, was quite animated and excited when he commented: "I was just going to say, you can tell from the look on my face, who's gonna believe that? I mean, they make a fortune with pumping oil, why don't they pump more?"
VARNEY: "It is true that most OPEC countries are pumping to the maximum right now, but it is not true that Saudi Arabia is. Saudi Arabia does have extra surplus capacity. It could open the spigots and, if the Saudis were to turn round tomorrow morning and say 'Hey we'll pump an extra million barrels a day, the price of oil would come back down again. But they have not done it, so far."
NAPOLITANO: "Wouldn't they do that for political reasons? I think the Saudis would RATHER SEE THE INCUMBENT ADMINISTRATION RE-ELECTED THAN SENATOR KERRY IN THERE." (My emphasis.)
VARNEY: "They are terrified of their own population, where America is unpopular. They are terrified of fundamentalists elsewhere in the Gulf, who would immediately go after them as being the lackeys of America."
When the Judge asks for a prediction on prices closer to election day, Varney ends by saying "I honestly don't think it will be significantly below where it is now. I'm not gonna make a precise prediction. But it's not gonna come back down that much, because the terror threat is there and it's not going away."
Comment: Where's Bandar Bush when you need him? Guess he has other things on his mind these days and can't honor his agreement to control oil prices before the election!
Could it be that - because we don't manufacture anything anymore - we've dropped to the back of the line when it comes to dispensing the precious black gold? China's got to be first in line with a 9% growth rate and a hot, hot, hot manufacturing base.
If we were attacked tomorrow the way we were in 1941, we literally could not produce tanks or planes without importing the parts from a multitude of other countries (one of them being CHINA!!!).
Am I the only one that thinks this is disturbing picture?
Obviously, it doesn't bother FOX. They just keep blaming economic downturns on market fears about a Kerry presidency.
