After campaigning with the motto of “change”, Barack Obama’s “stimulus” package, dubbed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is expected to cost anywhere from $675 -$775 billion dollars, leaving “change” for what’s left in our pockets after he’s done spending.

When comparing apples to apples, his plan will end up costing roughly 13.5 times more – on the low end, and over 15 times more on the high end – than Bernard Madoff lost in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever reported in America.

Exact details of Obama’s proposed stimulus package haven’t been officially disclosed, but Timothy Geithner, Obama’s newly appointed treasury secretary, said that the plan includes a combination of tax cuts and spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Barack Obama believes this can help save or create 3 million jobs.

The plan has already came under fire by economists and Republicans for the massive amount of spending it calls for.

In response, Obama has added an approximate $300 billion dollars in tax cuts to businesses and employees. Under his proposed plan, most workers will qualify for credits of up to $500.00 and businesses will be offered incentives to hire new employees and invest in equipment for factories.

Other proposed measures include extended unemployment benefits to the unemployed, unemployment benefits for part-time workers, tax breaks for individuals and couples and medical benefits.

Just like the $700 billion dollar bailout that aided the banking and auto industries, expect the new Democratic lead Congress to push this plan through quickly.

In his January 3rd weekly radio address Barack said, “If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.”

Although Obama’s plan will certainly put a band-aid on the problems facing America, it still doesn’t address the deeper issues.

On a micro-scale, personal deficit spending creates more personal debt, higher interest rates and lowered future earnings as the consumer pays back their lenders. Here in the real world, creditors stop issuing credit if you prove yourself unworthy. On a macro-scale, Government spending is much of the same, only on a much larger scale with the ability to keep printing cash on as “as-needed” basis.

What if businesses aligned themselves, appointed better leadership
and learned how to be profitable without stock options or other tom foolery? What if corporate leaders (past and present) that stole or mislead investors, employees and the good faith of America were forced to be held accountable for their actions and were forced to repay for their slights? What if businesses that could no longer compete were forced to go out of business?

Capitalism has taken a back seat and now the whole country gets to go along for the ride.

Here’s the video.

The solution, according to T. Boone Pickens.

There is a Solution

America is blessed with the world’s greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.

The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation’s electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years.

Pickens has been a big proponent of wind power in recent years, and has invested heavily in building a grid that allows consumers to sell electric power back to his company.

Steve Forbes talks about how the weak dollar affects the economy and keeps oil prices high in this video

As Steve Forbes says in this video, a lot of the problems going on right now appear to be related to the “weak dollar” policy of Ben Bernanke’s Fed. The weak dollar means investors are much more likely to invest money in gas, which essentially costs more for people paying in dollars. Add to this the chilling affect it has on economic growth, and you have a persistent problem that just doesn’t seem to be going away.

Another bad sign for consumers is the 62,000 jobs lost by the economy in June. This makes for a trend of worse losses each month for the first six months of the year, with nearly one half million jobs lost since the start of the year.

High oil prices, a weak dollar, a credit crisis, mortgage woes, and job losses are all helping to push consumers to the weakest consumer confidence in decades. All this gloom and doom has Obama and Clinton talking economy.

“Far too many Americans will spend this holiday out of work and struggling to provide for their families because of the failed policies of the last eight years,” Obama said Thursday.

“Americans across this country are hurting and today’s jobs numbers are just the latest indication,” McCain said. “Washington can no longer abdicate its responsibility to act. Our focus must be clear: enact policies to create jobs today.”

Against this backdrop, energy experts have gathered at the 19th annual World Petroleum Conference. One of the key issues being discussed is the high cost of gas, and how consumers and businesses will deal with it.

Andris Piebalgs addresses the crowd at the World Petroleum Conference

“We are clearly in the third oil price shock,” suggested IEA chief Nobuko Tanaka. He said the oil shock was similar to what happened in the 1970s and 1980s. This time, though, he didn’t think there was a quick fix for the problem.

“Those price peaks forced consumers into saving oil and oil companies to look for new wells,” continued Tanaka “But now the biggest energy savings have been made and … the easy oil outside of a few countries has been found.”


Video of a discussion on just what’s causing the high price of oil

Oil industry and public officials also gave dire warnings about where they thought prices were heading. Some called for global initiatives to tackle the issue.

“We need a global effort to improve our resilience,” EU Energy Commissioner Adris Piebalgs.

“If the EU with 27 countries … could agree on common energy policies, I believe we can do it in the global forum,” he said.

Gas prices in the U.S. were $2.96 per gallon one year ago today and are $4.09 today. That’s hitting people and companies right where they can least afford it. Consumer confidence is down and prices are up. This is never a good combination for the economy.

It certainly seems as if alternative energy will continue to attract more investment capital in the coming months. With enough capital invested, a major breakthrough that would introduce alternative transport energy cars to the masses could happen. That is one investment opportunity that’s definitely worth exploring these days.

Right now, oil shock has gripped the world.

Check out the video. Steven Colbert certainly has some interesting ideas to cure the oil crisis, including shooting the Earth. Enjoy.

“In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure,” said McCain. “From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success.”

The idea is certainly interesting. The prize could help stimulate interest in alternative fuels research, and the $5,000 per car tax rebate for zero emission vehicles would certainly appeal to auto makers, who have appeared reluctant to abandon the combustion engine.

Privatization is always a complex issue, and the drawbacks are enormous. Check out this debate on the issue, and pay special attention to the comments by Steve Forbes.

There are few benefits of government privatization, because government bureaucracies are notoriously inefficient.

The main issue of why oil prices are so high is barely touched on. Increasing the value of the dollar would have an immediate effect on Oil prices, as well as other beneficial effects on the economy.

Where do you stand on this issue?

Saudi Arabian officials warn that there will likely be no quick fix to the current oil price situation. They stressed that the summit is a meeting of the minds to determine what, if anything, can be done about oil production and costs. Saudi Arabia has already agreed to a slight increase in oil production.

Saudi Arabia said it will pump at least 9.7 million barrels daily in July. This is their fastest rate of oil production in decades.

Now the big question is, will this supply side effort actually result in lower gas prices? The debate will continue this week.