Why I Am Glad to Be a Structuralist
When you have a blog with literally dozens of readers (and you know who you are), it can be a humbling experience to see some of the drivel that sometimes comes out of your much more successful counterparts. And I try to remember that structure does matter, that politics and economics are more than just some abstract notions of how "rational actors" supposedly act.
Today, at Eschaton, aimai wrote the following bit of wisdom for the ages in reference to Senator Byron Dorgan's exasperation with continued deposits into the American Strategic Petroleum Reserve:
"Why on earth should we be putting oil underground at a time of record-high prices?" -- Senator Byron Dorgan
Because saving for a rainy day means enduring some not-perfectly-sunny-ones without ripping open the mattress and throwing all the money in the air, ok?
The big question should be, "Why are we accepting royalty payments in the form of $126/barrel oil instead of in cash, unless we somehow expect that $126/barrel is somehow a cheap price?" Whether there are 702 million barrels or 727 million (the capacity of the reserve), it will not last all that long if that were all the country relied on.
And the idea that it is somehow untouchable is a bit daft—there have been 3 sales and 10 loans from the reserve over the last 10 years. Halting deposits would hardly be failing to store nuts for the winter.
Labels: Byron Dorgan, Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stupid blogger tricks
