Here We Go Again!

We're heading for summer and the price of gas is on the way up. Where I live it has gone up 5-10 cents per gallon EVERY DAY for the past week or so. Who to blame? The oil companies? Well, Exxon seems to make record profits every year no matter how high or low the price of gas is so I think they are less to blame than some others. Who are those others? The rich, greedy commodity traders. They are the ones who push up the prices of necessities so they can get a bigger return on their investment dollar while breaking the budgets of the common people who cannot afford to pay more for basic things like food and energy. Have we learned nothing over the past two years? Despite what some "experts" might say, I think that $4-plus/gallon gasoline had a big hand in causing the current economic crisis. The experts might say that it was the mortgage situation but I say that a lot fewer people would have defaulted on their mortgages if they didn't have to pay over $4/gallon for gas just to get to work. And I firmly believe that another steep rise in the price of gas will quell any attempt at an economic recovery anytime soon.

Greed, mixed with a little stupidity, played a big part in the current recession. I am talking mostly about the people who are investing in and manipulating the prices of basic things such as food and energy in order to pad their wallets. In fact I think that such trading should be banned. Necessities such as food and energy should not be traded for profit. The common people simply cannot afford higher prices on food and energy just so the rich people can get richer.

So Sayeth The Shack

Feeling Unstimulated

So they government has given billions of dollars to the banks to "stimulate the economy" and rescue the banks from "failure". And what are the banks doing with this money? They're turning around and screwing their customers!!

I recently received a notice from a bank with which I have a card account. I have never missed a payment or been late, but the notice said they were raising my interest rate about 8 percent! I had the option of "accepting"the change or cancelling my card and paying off the balance at the old rate and terms. So I called and asked them why the increase since I had done nothing to merit this increase. They said it was because of "economic conditions". In other words I was being punished for the actions of other people, since I had nothing to do with the current recession. So I cancelled my card. If that's what they're going to do, screw them! I hope they do fail! I encourage everyone else in this situation to do the same thing so the banks will get the message!

So Sayeth The Shack

Keep Government Out of Sports

The government has been known to overstep its bounds now and than and right here we have a classic case. They want to step in and legislate a college football bowl and playoff system. Now admittedly, the current system is imperfect, but it is no business of the government. Things have really gone too far in this country when the government gets involved with things like this. They need to stick to the business of running the country and sports has nothing to do with that.

So Sayeth The Shack