I'm regularly amazed by the economic ignorance of today's television commentators.
Consider MSNBC's Chris Matthews who on Monday's "Hardball" actually said, "Nobody thinks this country can drill its way out of high gas prices" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Back to HARDBALL. Now to the "Sideshow." First, drill baby drill, it’s back. Didn’t take long. Here’s Tim Paw, Tim Pawlenty, this morning.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TIM PAWLENTY (R), FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: This is a president who has sat on his hands as it relates to drilling. You know, we have got a country that’s got some enormous energy assets that are not being exploited or leveraged to the benefit of our country and to our people.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
Nobody? You mean nobody in this country understands the law of supply and demand and that if we were actually to increase the production of oil by drilling for more of our own that would necessarily bring down oil and gas prices?
Show of hands: who thinks America drilling for more oil would bring down oil and gas prices?
And this guy has not one but two nationally broadcast television programs.
Could you possibly take seriously anything said by a man so obviously ignorant about something we all learned in grammar school?
Simple lapses in reason like this make it even more preposterous when Matthews criticizes the intellectual capacity of folks like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann who I guarantee understand that increased American drilling would immediately cause energy speculators to sell their long positions on the various commodities exchanges around the world and likely go short.
But the high and mighty Mr. Matthews clearly doesn't understand such things.
Did I mention he's got two nationally broadcast television programs?
