Oil Demagoguery Delayed

It’s a sad week for the usual demagogues in the US congress (sorry for the redundancy), as global oil companies are reporting lousy earnings. I’m sure oil execs were on the docket for demonizing—all sorts of anti-capitalist screeds planned—as our stalwart leaders mugged for the camera and showed compassion and outrage for the “little guy.”

Here’s an example of what we likely will miss on our telly next week: Cut to close up of typical lawyer congress person who has never held a real job in the private sector or met a payroll: “How dare you nasty global oil companies employ hundreds of thousands of people and risk billions of dollars in private capital in the most inhospitable places across the globe, then turn around and power our economies with your product and then profit from it—it is an outrage. It is downright obscene.” And I’m sure all types of diatribes utilizing the new PC-word of the year “green,” would have ensued.