flinger, since the oil companies buy their oil on the open market, wouldn’t their profits fall as the price of their input goes up? If the price of apples would double, the Farmers Market wouldn’t have record profits; the profits would be unchanged. So why are oil company profits higher? The answer must be that they own a lot of reserves, and they do NOT pay mineral rights in the US. So the oil companies can charge market rates for all oil they drill in the US. Plus, they get millions of dollars of government subsidies.

The book you recommend is better than Peak Oil or Twilight in the Desert? Did you read Stephen Leeb’s book: The Coming Economic Crisis?

All those who believe oil prices will hit $100 or $200: do you own any oil company stock?

hs, about your question: why does Bush allow China to buy our debt? Actually, Japan owns twice as much Treasury debt as China. We need someone to fund our budget deficit. The government needs $2 billion daily from foreigners, to keep running. Without China and Japan and other countries buying our debt, how would we pay the salary of Bush, the paving of our roads, and all the other government bills? And if we were to stop selling them our assets, they wouldn’t be so keen on dollars anymore. The cheap imported goods has kept our inflation much lower. The US is a debtor nation. This is a sad statement. We were once mighty and powerful, but now are a debtor nation. Will we ever regain our glory days?