Ron, is there that much less oil in the world today! Quite a bit but no one is crying "Shortage!" just now. The so-called shortage of '71-'72 was a matter of collusion and price-fixing. What is it that you think OPEC does? And then, God bless the oil co.s,; they start a TV campaign telling the American consumer that the wordl is running out of oil. No more cars, no more plastics for medical equipment, Gosh, just no more life as we know it. The reality was they were setting the stage for a huge price gouge. It worked so well that many other "take-for-granted" commodities started having "shortages". I mean, after all , there was only so much to go around wasn't there? And it was about this time Bunky Hunt decided there should be a silver (Ag, that is) shortage. That was ripe because of the shift away from silver backing in '64 of US monies.   It was a phoney oil shortage, that's P-H-O-N-E-Y. Phoney and Uncle Sugar knew it and if they didn't collude directly, they certainly saw where they could benefit indirectly both as individuals and in the increase of control and power of the government itself.

No president stands alone in this country. FDR came close but that was a different situation altogether. Any leader is only as good as the men he puts into key position. He gives those men direction and goals and they provide the feedback and there needs to be a certain amount of flexibilty for that to work, otherwise all you have is a rubberstamp cabinet and advisers. To be honest, I'm a little rusty on Paul Volker (God I hope I spelled that right?). If I've nothing better to do in the nest few weeks I may read up on him a little. Just to let you know, I am no big fan of the Federal Reserve System either but that's grist for a different mill.

If you want me to be fair in this respect for Carter, i.e., that he was no better than his men and that he was the "focus" of the criticisms for his adminstration if not directly responsible for the misteps then give George Bush his due. Apply the same standard.

Beyond the give and take of the information and the limitations of the forum itself, Ron, you need to lighten up some. You don't make yourself look very civil. Its a BS section and each thread has a topic. Try to stay on topic and I'll do the same. I think this thread had something to do with Gerald Ford, didn't it?   Happy New Year to ya!