[arin-ppml] I guess the price of oil does have something to do with policy...

[Milton L Mueller]

Owen, 
Clearly you don't trust/like markets. But how much do you trust/like the
absence of markets? 

I hope you are old enough to remember what happened when the price of
oil was subject to strict price controls in 1973 and 1979. We had severe
shortages and rationing and lines at the gas pumps. Those shortages were
far more serious and damaging than the price increases we are faced with
now. Bad as current price rises are for some, they have produced massive
conservation efforts and shifts to new energy technologies. I do not
think there is anything wrong with the oil futures markets other than
(justified) uncertainty. As for subprime, I don't get it. IP addresses
are not credit lines. They are essential but fairly small intermediate
inputs into an industry. Wall St. will not be basing derivative
instruments on them. It is not a consumer market, the buyers are likely
to be informed. And it's a temporary thing (we hope).

> -----Original Message-----
 
> > I think that the subprime mortgage and oil futures markets are
examples
> > how professionally regulated markets fail to do the right thing, and
I
> > cannot imagine that we will somehow miraculously do better than the
> > regulators in those markets.
>