Airline executives embarrass themselves

I received an email today from Northwest Airlines containing a letter, signed by executives of many major airlines, exhorting me to oppose rampant speculation in oil and suggesting that I visit the website of SOS - for Stop Oil Speculation. If you visit the website at the link here you will learn that speculation is like gravity in its force, though apparently it is unlike gravity in that it was much less powerful a year or two ago. I suppose some credit should be given to the PR departments of the oil companies. Instead of having discussions about collusion among the oil companies (who seem to gain and lose their ability to collude in tandem with events in the middle east as well as other supply and demand shocks) this time around oil prices have gone up and we are talking about speculators instead. No doubt a new K Street office is being set up as you read this to defend the speculators - perhaps the "American Speculation Society (ASS)" or some such. You will also learn from the SOS link that some futures markets are - hold on to your seats and imagine scary organ music - foreign! Think of it: non-Americans have the nerve to buy and sell products that we also use. Worse still, even some Americans buy things who have "no intention of using the product". God save us!

This site is pathetic and the email is an embarrassment to both the executives and the airlines that employ them.