The solution to oil prices is right under your nose

The only problem is that the Fed's cheerleaders are making you look in hiding places rather than down.
On Fox a few minutes ago the panel was talking about, surprise, how to make gas more affordable. Do we attack supply or demand? Do we drill offshore? Do we drill in the shale? So we open our reserves (which is going to be the death of everthing we love. I'll explain in a later post)?
Of course, they never bring up the real problems. The main one is inflation. No one wants to entertain the idea since it's Mad Ben Bernanke's fault and there's almost nothing anyone can do. No, instead of identifying the problem, they want to be gods and be able to do something. They could, but it won't amount to much as long as the Federal Reserve is still around.
The rebate checks we all loved are a big part of the problem. We want things now, but most people didn't see what they couldn't-it fixes things now, but makes it worse in the long run.
There is a secondary problem. Our import from Canada is very impure. It takes a lot to refine it into useable fuel, which costs even more money. So Conservatives and Liberals both want more domestic and "non-terrorist" (read non ay-rab) oil. Where do they get it? Well, here, and Canada. I'm betting the government is going to give oil companies money to drill here. So no matter what, money will be wasted because we can't give those muslims our precious, sacred money.
And yet the blame is falling on speculators and the very Arabs I think we should trade with more.
Neo-Mercantilism, here we come!

Edit: The point of this post was basically "Not much can be done about inflation, so enjoy the ride and hope the government trades with 'our enemies'".

A Message to Gold Standard Crusaders

As a gold standard crusader, I'm worried about the future. As long as we stay with the fiat dollar, our money will be nearly worthless if more hyper inflationists become the Federal Reserve chairman.
However, the Gold Standard may bring more frightening problems. Populists like Lou Dobbs and the Democratic Party (of the Irony) will end up fighting for Free Silver. This will be as dangerous, or even more dangerous, than the Fiat Dollar.
If we can ever return to the gold standard, I see free silver becoming an issue within a few decades. Unfortunately, I can see McBamaton fighting for it.
And this is the problem with populism. With a gold standard, it hurts the government (causes it to bankrupt) while the fiat dollar hurts businesses. This is mainly because without the issue of free silver, the populists will turn their sights to wages and some of the more socialistic ones will tax the rich to make one class which the parasite can devour.