$2.50 Gasoline?

An economist, questioned on her view
Of the tools in the President's purview
To cheapen our gas,
Responded: "Alas,
Cheaper gas isn't what would best serve you."

"If to prices in Europe we liken it,
We should surely impose a tax hike in it,
For unless it is dear,
We're too cavalier
For pooling or busing or bikin' it."

"The high price of gasoline" has loomed as a political theme this year, as sharply rising fuel prices have coincided with the US Presidential primaries. And yet, most economists agree that the problem with American gasoline prices is that they are too low, and encourage an excessive level of consumption. Noted behavioral economist Richard Thaler, in a New York Times op-ed piece entitled "Why Gas Prices Are Out of Any President’s Control," argues for higher gasoline taxes and points out that Greg Mankiw, advisor to Mitt Romney (and former advisor to George W. Bush), is among the prominent advocates of this policy. A gradual hike in gas taxes would give drivers the right incentives and help to reduce the federal budget deficit. However, in a political season in which one Presidential candidate - with a straight face - claims that his policies could bring about $2.50-a-gallon gas, no other candidate, whether incumbent or challenger, can safely endorse a sensible gasoline tax policy.

The Real Super Bowl XLVI

Said a Patriot, flanked by his lady:
"Though my Giant opponent is shady,
And I may lack for planning
Or adequate Manning,
I've a trophy wife, just like Tom Brady."

Days before the kickoff of Super Bowl XLVI, US Presidential contender Newt Gingrich tried to rally his supporters for the next 46 primaries in the race for the Republican nomination. Though out-organized and outspent by the frontrunner Mitt Romney, Mr. Gingrich hopes that his persuasive powers will win the day. On the evidence of another commanding Romney win in this weekend's Nevada primary, however, money and organization appear likely to carry the election in the next XLV contests.
As for today's Super Bowl XLVI: Go Giants!

Newt's Non-Concession

Said Gingrich: "It's not contradictory,
In defeat, to forego valedictory;
One may not give up now,
Having taken a vow
To have and to hold out for victory."

Mitt Romney won commandingly in the Florida Presidential primary Tuesday night, capturing 46% of the vote and all of the state's 50 delegates.  However, you wouldn't know it from second-place finisher Newt Gingrich, who, with 32% of the votes and no delegates, gave what sounded a lot like a strident victory speech.  In the glow of his primary night defeat, Gingrich pledged to supporters that, upon his inauguration, he would repeal health care reform, Dodd-Frank financial reform and the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance reform, as well as sign a host of executive orders including a pledge to end "antireligious bias." Thankfully, he saved lunar colonization for another day.

Overheard in the Gingrich Campaign

"When desp'rate for polling improvement,
Out the window the positive groove went,
And Republican hacks
Were armed with the facts
From attacks by the Occupy Movement."

Observers from across the US political spectrum have marveled at the rhetorical turn taken in the Republican Presidential primaries. Opponents of front-runner Mitt Romney, notably former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry, are decrying Mr. Romney's erstwhile management of the private equity firm Bain Capital as "more ruthless than Wall Street" (in Mr. Gingrich's words) and "vulture capitalism" (in Mr. Perry's). Prominent Republicans, even those not affiliated with Mr. Romney's campaign, have voiced alarm at the seeming attack on free-market capitalism coming from within the GOP. The conservative Club for Growth think tank took Mr. Gingrich to task for his "downright Obamaesque... economically ignorant class warfare rhetoric."

President Obama's campaign of course enjoyed having its arguments advanced by the opposition before the general campaign even begins. "I guess the only downside is that Mitt Romney might not be the nominee," said Obama strategist David Axelrod. For its part, the PE industry's "Private Equity Growth Capital Council" is set to push back with a big PR and lobbying campaign. Finally, the Occupy Movement is left to ask: does this Republican "99%" rhetoric reflect the strength of our ideas, or only the political weakness of certain desperate Presidential candidates?