Progressives seem to think the laws of gravity, physics, supply & demand, and every other self-evident law of life won’t apply if you just squeeze your eyes shut and wish it really, really hard. Add a black democrat president immune to any criticism because he’s black & a democrat, and a regulatory czar with a whole bookshelf of publications about the problem of a free society, and learned men like Walter Williams aren’t just marvelous to have around but necessary to save the Republic as we know it. Here’s a fragment from his latest column at NewsBusters. NB & he are both part of my daily rounds and I heartily recommend them to you.

Oil Speculation Is Not the Problem, Government Overregulation of Supply Is

by Walter E. Williams

2011 May 04

(Excerpt) White House and congressional attacks on oil speculation do not alter the oil market’s fundamental demand-and-supply reality. What would lower the long-term price of oil is for Congress to permit exploration for the estimated billions upon billions of barrels of oil off our Atlantic and Pacific Ocean shores, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, not to mention the estimated billions, possibly trillions, of barrels of shale oil in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota.

Some politicians pooh-pooh calls for drilling, saying it would take five or 10 years to recover the oil and won’t solve today’s problems. Nonsense! I guarantee you that if permits were granted to all of our oil sources, we would see a reduction in today’s prices.

The entire column -> http://newsbusters.org/blogs/walter-e-williams/2011/05/04/oil-speculation-not-problem-government-overregulation-supply#ixzz1LjB6ufoD