Here’s some fun news for a Monday.

I happened to be browsing the news and, yet again, oil prices are about to hit a record high. It appears that a weekend workers’ strike at a refinery in the UK and military unrest in Nigeria could see prices reach $120 per barrel. So, if you’re like me and already paying over $3.50 per gallon, you can expect to pay a few more cents at the pump this week.

But, wait, it gets better.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil is saying that he sees oil prices reaching as has as $200 per barrel. Now, get this — he is saying that it is not due to a lack of supply. Instead, Khelil says, it is due to the weakening of the dollar.

As you know, the value of currency is not static. Because it is a commodity, it is subject to rise or fall in value based on the same rules of supply and demand as any other commodity. But, to go a little deeper, it’s value is also determined by what’s backing it. Up until the early 70’s, we had the gold standard, which meant that we had some collateral backing up all the paper money we were printing. Now, we have the standard called the “full faith and credit” standard. In other words, it’s like America saying, “trust me…I’m good for it!”

Usually, this would work but, George W. Bush was never our president before. Now, to avoid having rich people pay a fair share of taxes but, still be able to “afford” a costly war, we borrow money.

Just to relate this to an average person, say you keep getting more and more credit cards, then maxing them out. You might even pay them all them minimum on time but, your credit rating will eventually take a hit because of the potential liability you become to those who hold your debt.

So, very soon, we could be fondly reminiscing of the time when gas “only” cost $3/gallon.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I remember complaining because I had student loans. But, I kept telling myself that it went towards a good cause. However, had I not gotten loans, I might not have been able to finish college.

Today, I read something that showed me how close to home this credit crunch is going to hit Americans.

It appears that some banks are now no longer offering student loans.

In the past fortnight, some banks, including HSBC, have pulled out of the $85 billion (£42 billion) a year US student loans market, fuelling anxiety that the turmoil that hit debt markets on Wall Street last summer is spilling over into the wider economy and making credit more difficult to secure for ordinary American households.

In the US, many undergraduates take out a federal guaranteed loan and top up their financial needs with a private loan from lenders such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citi-group. In the academic year 2005-06, $17 billion in private student loans was used to finance higher education.

Banks have become reluctant to offer private student loans because worsening credit conditions have meant that they cannot package up the loans and sell them on.

Although the brightest students who win places at America’s rich Ivy League universities will be affected less because of generous bursaries - which do not have to be repaid – less able students applying to other institutions are expected to face difficulty in securing private loans to fund their study. At one end of the field is Harvard University, with $34 billion of endowments, and at the other are many community colleges and low-tier universities with limited resources.

So, unless you kid’s in an Ivy League school, chance are that securing a loan is going to be a problem. Mark my words: this will be the next cause for a major credit crisis. When scarcity becomes an issue, you’ll see the vultures swoop in, offering student loans at bad rates. When things subside in the housing market, these bad loans will be sold to them and default rates will skyrocket.

Why do I think this? It is because the current presidential administration’s answer is to bail out big business and leave the little guys to fend for themselves, which leaves them vulnerable to unscrupulous practices. So, I will not be surprised when the issue arises again, in a different form.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Well, sort of.

Chester Davenport is believed to be one of the wealthiest black entrepreneurs in America. Via his Georgetown Partners firm, he has made quite a name for himself.

Now, he is trying to influence one of the largest business mergers of the upcoming year. As you may be aware, the two satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius are talking about joining forces. This could mean that there would be more than 300 nationwide radio channels under one company’s control.

Davenport believes that there should be opportunities for minority broadcasters to lease channels on the new XM/Sirius network. What Davenport is speaking of is a share of the pie that could mean between 50-100 satellite channels. Right now, the odds are not stacked in his favor. The current FCC chair, Kevin Martin, has shown that he is willing to side with the big corporations over the rights of minority ownership.

So, let’s see what happens. I will say that I hope that we will not see minority radio owners shut out of the new frontier of satellite radio.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Honestly, I wish big money weren’t such a requirement to be President. I think a lot of good people with good ideas get left out because they can’t raise the big bucks. But, at least for now, we are stuck with this system so, how much money one raises is a big deal.

In January, the news was that Barack Obama outraised Hillary Clinton by more than 2-to-1. Her campaign brought in about $14 million while his brought in $36 million, which was record for a primary candidate.

The February numbers are rolling in and Hillary Clinton’s camp released their total — $35 million for the month, which is nothing to sneeze at. However, it appears that Obama’s campaign may be releasing a number that will shatter this amount. Insiders are hinting that they may be talking about a number in the range of $50 million for the month.

This means that the Obama campaign could set yet another new bar for fundraising. Even more interesting is who’s donating to his campaign. A huge number of his donors are donating $100 or less. This means that he can consistently come back to these donors for donations for the remaining primary races as well as the general election, should he be the nominee.

So, if money is an indicator, Obama seems to be the people’s choice.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Okay, if this wasn’t such a big deal, I would laugh. It’s amazing to me how some people’s egos force them to deny reality. We have oil topping $100 per barrel, with no sign of going down, at least significantly (the price of oil has more than tripled in the past 5 years). You have two wars that continue to drain resources from the economy (by some estimates, it’s costing us about $275 million per day). On top of that, you have a housing market where the bottom has fallen out, causing major devastation to many American families.

But, according to George Bush, the economy’s only experiencing a “slowdown”.

So, Bush is out there pushing the whole “economic stimulus package”. You know, the Congress-approved band-aid-on-a-bullet-wound measure to help get the economy on track. We are expected to believe that if some single Americans are given $600 and some married couples are given $1200 (plus, a little extra if you have kids), the economy will be jump-started. This goes to show you just how naive some people are.

The belief that people will go out, spend this money and boost the economy makes a lot of assumptions. First of all, you assume that everyone will be able to treat this as disposable income. You have a lot of people who are behind on their bills and will use this money to catch up on mortgages, utility bills, car payments, etc. I’m sure that it would be welcomed for these families but, this will not help kick start the economy again. Secondly, you have people who have dipped into savings just to keep things afloat so, I suspect that, for a lot of folks, this money will be put into savings. Again, it’s needed but, not going to boost the economy. Finally, you have to realize that, for a economy to flourish, that money needs to circulate among various individuals or businesses in a population. Think about it this way — say you go out an buy a TV with your rebate. Who gets paid? Maybe the corporation that runs the store and a few employees. But, with so little manufacturing going on in the U.S., the money goes offshore to pay suppliers in foreign countries, leaving American workers out of the picture. This means that you end up with fewer middle-class folks who buy the houses, cars, etc. that keep the economy afloat.

I am saying two things:

1) We are dealing with more than a slowdown and
2) We need better ideas than this to get us out of this mess.

Right now, George Bush is much like the kid who cleans up a mess by stuffing everything into a closet, hoping that no one opens it, at least until he’s in the clear. Therefore, I think it’s time to be serious and say that, as a country, we should chalk up the last seven years and the year to come as a loss and gird ourselves to be ready to see just how big this mess is, once the truth is allowed to come out. I have a feeling that, once the next administration starts turning over the rocks, we’ll see just how much truth was hidden from us.

Popularity: 14% [?]

To put it bluntly, there has to be a special place in hell for people who do things to the least among us.

What am I talking about?

While you have people living in trailers some 2 1/2 years after they lost their homes to a hurricane and flooding, $600 million from a housing program that was supposed to go to housing is being used to hook up Bush cronies (surprise!).

Housing and Urban Development secretary, Alphonso Jackon, recently sent a letter to Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, approving the diversion of funds to a ports project that would include a casino and resort facilities.

So, once again, it’s screw the poor and one more big cash cow for Bush’s buddies. Come on January 2009!

Popularity: 21% [?]

While candidates bicker back and forth over who’s more presidential, there a big white elephant in the room that’s screaming for attention — the economy.

Last week, President Bush, with the support of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, announced an economic stimulus plan.  The idea is to give up to $800  to single people and up to $1600 to married couples in hopes to kick start the economy again and avoid a recession.

Let me publicly go on the record and say I think this is a horrible idea.  First of all, this, like the money for the Iraq war, will be borrowed money.  So, at some point in time, this will need to be paid back, with interest.  Secondly, what a we going to buy that will really help the U.S.?  Most of our manufacturing is done outside of the U.S. so, for example,  if a family buys a new T.V. or clothes, that money will likely go out outside of the country.

Well, to say the least, this economic stimulus plan was not well-received.  Foreign markets plummeted as investors sold off their shares in U.S. holdings.  In an emergency measure, the Federal Reserve cut the key interest rate by .75%.  This was sparked by fears of a huge drop in the U.S. stock market when it opened this morning.  At one point in time, there was an expectation of a 500-point drop in the Dow when markets opened today.  This news did little assuage investors and the Dow posted a 300-point loss in the opening minutes of trading.

One thing should be glaringly obvious in all this.  Who you pick for president is important.  As you can tell, their policies have a huge impact on your daily lives.  So, for whomever you consider voting, remind them of one thing — it’s still all about the economy.

Popularity: 18% [?]

All right, let’s get back to the real issues. As you might now, there continues to be a big fight in New Orleans as residents.

Last month, activists from the Coalition to Protect Public Housing clashed with police to fight for the rights of public housing residents who have continued to be displaced by plans of the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to tear down three housing projects. So, what we continue to see is a big land-grab, causing the ranks of the homeless to swell.

For example:

Since Katrina, the homeless population of New Orleans has doubled to more than 12,000 people. Despite what the New York Times on Dec. 2 called an “acute rental shortage,” HUD plans to spend $762 million to demolish public housing and replace it with only 744 new units of affordable housing. HUD will spend an average of $400,000 for each new mixed-income unit, while statements by HANO’S own insurance company have shown that many of the multiple-unit buildings to be demolished could be repaired for less than $10,000 per building.

So, with all the talk about “change” and “hope” going on right now, I “hope” that one of these candidates can tell me how they are going to “change” things for the better for the people of New Orleans.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Just in time for Christmas, George Bush again proves that, while wasting hundreds of billions in Iraq, he thinks that spending money helping kids at home is too expensive:

The Bush administration yesterday eliminated about $700 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to schools, sidestepping an attempt by Congress to block such a move.

The new rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is expected to save the federal government $3.6 billion over five years, transferring those costs to school districts.

Lawmakers this week passed legislation to place a six-month moratorium on Medicaid implementing the rule change, but President Bush had not signed the bill.

A wide range of medical services, such as speech and physical therapy, are furnished to students in schools. Medicaid, the government’s health insurance program for the poor, will continue to pay for those services for low-income children.
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But the new rule will restrict when schools can bill the federal government for clerical work associated with providing health care. For example, schools can no longer expect Medicaid reimbursement for planning student immunizations. Schools also will not get paid for transporting students getting speech or physical therapy to school or back home.

So, while Republicans bemoan the fake “war on Christmas” and claim that people are forgetting the meaning of the holiday, here’s a prime example of what the holiday is not about and smacks of the very antithesis of what Jesus was about.

So much for good will toward men or, in this case, children.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Once again, home foreclosures are up. The California-based company Realtytrac monitors trends in the mortgage industry and have concluded that, nationwide, home foreclosures in November increased by 68% over the previous November’s filings.

In November 2006, 120,334 foreclosures were filed. In November 2007, there were 201,950 foreclosure filings.

This meant that, for November, this was a rate of 1 foreclosure for every 617 households, which is a pretty substantial number.

This trend is not likely to reverse soon so, we will continue to see news about families across America, a disproportionate number of them black and brown, losing their homes.

Popularity: 17% [?]