EUGENE GRANER: ECONOMIC NUMBSKULLS OF THE UNITED NATIONS
A growing number of people think the UN is nothing more than a group of pointy headed numbskulls and a statement overnight does nothing to refute that claim. Bloomberg News is reporting that the Group of 20 nations should negotiate a benchmark “fair” cost of oil with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and limit price movements within a band, the United Nations said. The G-20 needs to “act decisively to moderate the volatility of oil and food prices,” the agency said in a statement as it released an annual report on Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok today. The G-20, a group made up of the European Union and 19 of the world’s richest nations, could also regulate commodity markets to reduce speculation and “discipline the conversion of food into bio-fuels,” the U.N. said. No where does the UN say that the U.S. government needs to reduce their debt load in order to firm the U.S. dollar, which in turn will lower oil prices as oil is still largely traded in dollars. Nor do they ask the G-20 nations to reduce consumption of fossil fuels or actively pursue alternative fuels. Instead, let’s just randomly lower prices so that consumption will rise further and production will fall. You simply cannot make this stuff up.