Be Careful What You Wish For

You know the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it." For the past two years Barack Obama has been running on a platform of "Hope" and "Change". Americans have been "hoping" for "change", and now we have it...

Americans wanted lower gasoline prices, and now we have them. The national average price of gasoline has fallen from an all-time high of $4.11 per gallon to $1.66 per gallon.

Americans wanted lower oil prices, and now we have them. Oil was selling at an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel in July, and on Friday, the NYMEX price was only $33.87 a barrel.


Oil Prices Plummet
Americans wanted OPEC to get less of our money, and now OPEC is scrambling to cut oil production to prop up sagging world prices -- all to no avail.

Americans wanted "big oil" to make less profits, and now they are.

Americans wanted the greedy Wall Street execs to make less money, and now they are.

Americans wanted a stronger dollar, and now we have it. It took $2.00 to buy a British Pound in July, but today it takes only $1.48. In July, it took $1.59 to buy a Euro, today it takes only $1.38 -- and was as low as $1.26 in early December (levels it hasn't seen since October 2006).

But along with all the good news, there are a few "minor" problems... The housing bubble burst. Home foreclosures skyrocketed. The credit markets froze up. Banks and financial firms failed. The stock market collapsed. Billions of dollars in assets were lost. Billions more of taxpayer dollars have been used to prop up the financial industry. The automakers are failing. The country is in a recession. People are being laid off.

So there you have it... "change". Americans wanted "change" and we got it. Frankly, I prefer the "good old days" of $4.00 gasoline. I don't think I can take much more "change".