On a happy note McDonald's profits went up 17% in February

As Jay in (not off) Los Angeles referenced in the comments section of the post below: I,too, am feeling a bit tired of the Clinton/Obama wars. It started Saturday when a few alleged intellectuals and University of Wyoming Dance students out voted a fewer still group of diaspora Democrats in a flyover state. This was trumpeted across newscasts as something that mattered.

It doesn't.

I am sick of this contest at the moment. It has settled into trench warfare with Clinton, for the most part, winning the states in which the state Democratic party actually looks like the national Democratic party and BHO winning, for the most part, those in which the Democrat has no chance in November anyway. The exceptions: Clinton won in places like Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, and Tennessee, which would hardly constitute her base in the general - while Obama beat up on Clinton in Wisconsin and Vermont - states he should not have to fight for in November. Mississippi should be a no brainer for Obama. North Carolina might be interesting if Clinton keeps closing the gap in polls there. I admit to some interest in Indiana but only because I know almost nothing about the state. Since it will certainly be a McCain state in the fall, Obama will probably win the Democratic primary there.

So we wander until Pennsylvania.

Will either make a mistake? That's the real question.

What we all should be thinking about is oil. It shot past $108 today before drifting back to $107.90. (phew!)Why is this? That's the question. There is no overt reason. No storm, or attack, or new war breaking out. Oil just keeps going up. I think it is simply called "supply and demand".
The fundamental problem we face is that there are too many of us. The immediate problem is "peak oil" -yes, even more so than climate change - though climate change is sexier. Energy depletion and global warming have a few solutions we could attempt - or will be forced into attempting soon. Peak Oil does not. 70% of the energy in this world that humans use comes from oil. Not one major oil field has been discovered since 1962. Sure I'll repeat that: No major oil field has been discovered since 1962.

Oops.

Unless the Chinese decide to beat their Toyotas into plowshares over the weekend we are in a mighty fix. Those who follow Peak Oil news lapsed into morbidity a while ago. It is hard to watch the "news" and not see all their predictions coming to pass. A falling dollar and real estate bust have had the peak oilers chattering for years now. Wildly overpriced housing could only occur when oil production was at its peak.

Now it is past its peak - barely - and the housing wobble has already become a route. The dollar pegged to nothing, which means its pegged to oil by default, is declining at about 1 percent every 2 weeks. One can get more oil with Euros - so countries are dumping the dollar. Who can blame them? Good for tourists. Bad for us. Unless you happen to manage the gift shop at Epcot.

WalMart Nation has a steep learning curve ahead. I sense that this year they are going to be schooled. Every aspect of American life is centered on oil. It is not just gasoline prices that are going to shock. Everything from arugula to zoloft has an oil tie in. I have no confidence that the social disruption will be anything but unpleasant - to say the least. W and his crew have worked over time for 7 years to protect the hyper rich, all the while putting in place everything they might need to protect themselves from us. I would say its hard to know what they are thinking. But it isn't. It's quite easy. One rarely claims extensive power over a population unless one intends to use it.

On a happy note McDonald's profits went up 17% in February. Happy for McDonald's anyway. The number of Big Mac Value meals sold in a zip code is, no doubt, pegged to the number of foreclosure notices.