Actually what Phil Gramm is saying is the rich corporate pigs have never been fatter or richer, and everybody else, who doesn't matter should shut up and eat cake.

I am shocked by the precipitous decling of the macro and micro economy. Fannie and Freddy on the ropes, IndyMac in receivership; the dollar, the stock market, inflation, wages ... all in the gutter at the same time. These are events that mere recrafting of statisics at BLS are not going to hide.

This is the greatest financial disaster in my lifetime, probably since the Great Depression. It been a train wreck for everyone workers and financiers alike. MUCH of it precipitated by Phil Graham himself in the 1999 deregulation legistlation.

The dream of a 'permanent majority' seems now like something too far to even see in the rear view mirror... but even I, an economic pessimist, could not have envisioned the unraveling would have occured so fast, and still under the Bush administration.

I hope Obama and the Dems are keeping gems like this to be unleashed in the fall campaign. Make no mistake about it, America ultimately votes its pocketbook. There is little likelihood that energy prices will abate significantly, nor that the economy will turn around before Nov. It's more likely that more grim news for the average Joe is still ahead. Gramm and the rest of the elitist GOP are so-o-o-o-o out of touch with the issues middle class Americans are facing. What's more galling is that Gramm was one of the major backers of the Enron loophole that allows so much of oil futures trading to be opaque to the CFTC and to the public. But speculators would have us beleive that we should "pay no attention to the man behind the curtains". The great and powerful OZ of supply and demand is the real force behind the sky-high oil prices. The speculators behind the curtain have no effect - that's why they need to continue to have the curtain hide their activities.

Which brings me to another interesting observation. I've been watching the EIA oil inventory numbers for several months. It used to be that the EIA numbers were fairly close to what market predictions were, and as a result, crude futures prices did not vary too much. Over the last several months the market anticipated numbers not only often missed, but missed by a mile, resulting in wildy gyrating oil futures prices. Interestingly, over the same time span, the amount of oil futures traded through ICE (read concealed transactions) and the percentage traded for speculation's sake (with no intent to take delivery) has sky rocketed. It would be interesting to see who has major positions in oil futures in ICE. Could it be that the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who proclaimed that oil could go to $150/barrel, and who "amazingly" have been able to avoid the financial malaise of other large investment banks are milking this little speculative bubble to pad their bottom lines?