We watched the debate last night between Sens. Obama and McCain. Nothing new. All in all, I think the demeanor of the two candidates contrasts so significantly that this is what is swaying the voters. Obama and McCain are just so different. Obama is nice, and McCain is mean. That's about as simply as I can put it. We've had 8 years of the mean, scowling, bully president, and look where it's got us.

Obama is so much more fluent with the language. He speaks in good sentences - in general, not making too many grammatical errors, with a gentle tone for the most part, even when he's attacking. McCain, on the other hand, speaks in choppy phrases which he often doesn't finish before going into another sentence. His tone is harsh and disdainful, even when he's trying to be nice, which isn't often. These contrasts are what is swaying the debates toward Obama in my opinion.

With all the criticism of Castro, and now Chavez, over the years, for the "nationalizing" of some of their country's major businesses, the western world is now nationalizing businesses faster than at any time in history. Where are all these free market conservatives now? George Will must not be sleeping very well these days.

And today, just a short while ago, the Federal Reserve, which is throwing money around like it's printed on paper, cut interest rates again, this time in "coordination" with central banks around the world. Isn't that exactly the opposite move of what needs to be done? The problem with the economy is that too easy credit which wasn't backed properly by collateral created a "house of cards" which is now crumbling. So how does making credit easier still going to solve the problem? The problem is not enough collateral, or even close, to back up loans. You gain wealth by making the currencies more valuable and encouraging people to accumulate capital. This expands the collateral base. But you need proper incentives to do that. Making currencies less valuable and greasing the wheels for easier credit is just throwing fuel on the fire, as far as I can tell. We'll see what happens. Lots of desperation by arrogant people that have made a lot of money leading our country and the world to this cliff. Should we trust them? Heck no, they have bad judgment. We need to be prosecuting them!

Oil prices have fallen significantly. I think at their peak, they got up around $150/barrel. Now they are below $90. That's a 40% drop in price. Gasoline, on the other hand, at least around here, got up to, in Kentucky, around $4/gallon. It's now, at least as of yesterday, at about $3.40. That's less than a 20% decrease. Why is that? Whenever oil prices shot up because of a hurricane or some other world event, gasoline prices would go up with it immediately. But when they come down, the prices don't necessarily come down as fast as they went up, that's for sure! Where's our attorney generals when we need them?