September 16, 2013

Let’s be honest. What poses the more immediate threat to the U.S. struggling economy: Syria’s religious war or Wall Street’s war on ordinary consumers? I submit it is the latter.

The latest example of unbridled greed, coming on the heels of Aluminum ingot manipulation by Goldman Sachs and others, is the stockpiling of an obscure, but highly profitable trading moniker for Ethanol called Renewable Identification Number. It is, in reality, an ‘energy credit’ devised by our feckless Congress in the name of cleaning the environment – again. And, wherever there are credits to be traded, guess who keeps the books and handles the trades? Right you are! The too-big-to-fail banks who receive millions in fees for their ‘services’ are the Congressional go to guys – the same banks who fund their next campaign. Your gas prices have been increased by seven to ten cents per gallon thanks to Wall Street’s JP Morgan among others.

For those who don’t know what Ethanol is: It’s a product of corn or grain fermentation formulated to replace MTBE and its earlier cousin, lead, in gasoline. Originally intended to eliminate “knock” in your engine and cause it to burn cleaner, it actually reduces your mileage by 5-10% and is so destructive to rubber and plastic components in marine engines, lawn movers and other small engines, that mandates for those uses were eliminated.

Just one more, in a litany of unintended consequences triggered by the morons we elect to lead us and their much smarter, but gluttonist, big bank enablers.