Mark Warner is economically illiterate, and dangerous

I was looking forward to firing up the Warnerese-English translator for Mark's recent statement on energy, until I realized he may actually mean what he says. It just goes to show you, just because a guy can make millions via insider trading on cell-phone licenses (Riley) doesn't mean he actually knows how an economy works (Washington Times):

Make no mistake about it: what has happened over the past few months has not been the result of the market. Actually, driving demand in the United States and consumption have fallen and we've seen record increases in the price of gas.

Why yes, Mark, the price has risen and demand has fallen here in the United States, but that did not mean demand has fallen worldwide. We can't simply control the price of oil by fiat here.

So why would I simply analyze something so ridiculous without breaking out the translator? The answer is his audience - "a group of technology investors" - in other words, folks that Warner likes to think are "his people," as opposed to the mountain folks he's managed to hoodwink into voting for him all these years. He's not likely to go into Warnerese with that crowd.

In other words, Warner really doesn't understand how international markets work. He thinks the United States can just close itself off from the rest of the world.

Even worse, he sees millions of ordinary investors and mutual fund managers looking for long-term gains in the commodities markets as "predatory speculators." The last time I heard that kind of talk was when the market destroyed Great Britain's attempt to join the pre-euro Exchange Rate Mechanism at a badly overvalued currency rate. The Tory government (led by John Major) had the same hysterical reaction to "speculators." Voters knew better, and the Conservative Party hasn't been elected to power since.

So what would Warner do? Take a look at this nonsense:

Quicker relief, he said, would result from federal action against speculators who have made billions by inflating crude oil prices on overseas markets, from aggressively using U.S. trade leverage to pressure oil cartel nations to increase production, and from "enforcement action" against nations and corporations that collude to drive up oil prices.

In other words: locking up every individual investor who decides to put their money in oil or oil companies, repeatedly begging Saudi Arabia to increase production, and retaliatory trade tariffs that could spread the fuel inflation to every sector of the economy and bring back the Smoot-Hawley Great Depression days of old.

Again - and I can't emphasize this enough - Warner really believes this stuff. That's why he cannot be elected Senator. Nonsense like this is merely a hop, skip, and a jump away from Maurice Hinchey's demand to "nationalize" oil production.

I only wish I had paid more attention to this when it first came out three days ago. Mark Warner is no longer just a shifty politician who plays fast and loose with the truth. The man is actually dangerous.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal