Price Of Oil; Outsourcing Less Of A Threat?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here's what's happening now in the news. West Virginia's governor calls it a rescue mission and releases the names of the two men trapped inside a coal mine in Melville, West Virginia. They are 33-year-old Don Israel Bragg and 47 year old Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield. Officials also said they think they have contained the fire deep inside the mine that trapped the men when it broke out on Thursday. It is now a race against time to save a stranded whale in London. Marine rescuers say the bottlenose whales condition is deteriorating because it has been out of water too long. The rescuers are taking the whale to the English Channel aboard a barge. It could be another two or three hours away. There's been no word out of Iraq about kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll. The 28-year-old American was abducted two weeks ago in Baghdad. Her captors are threatening to kill her unless U.S. forces release all Iraqi women in their custody. I'll have the day's news at the top of the hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Now back to more of</s>IN THE MONEY. SERWER: It is very easy to moan and grown about the price of gasoline especially when it has been on such a wild ride over the past year or so. Did you ever step back and think about the cost of gas and oil compared to, say, a bottle of wine? An old friend of ours did and he says it's not so bad. Economist Ben Stein, welcome back. Ben good to see you.</s>BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST: Honor to be here sir.</s>SERWER: Now you can't possibly be defending oil companies. They are taking money out of our pockets every single day and every single day they are taking more money.</s>STEIN: They're not taking more money every single day. The price of oil has collapsed since they cut post-Katrina days and they take money out of our pockets but they are putting gasoline and heating oil in our cars and in our houses so they are doing a useful service. It is a difficult service. They bring gasoline from under the ocean as oil in the Nigeria or Indonesia or the deserts of Libya or Saudia Arabia a great risk, a great danger. They pipe it across to some refinery. They ship it to America. They put it in my car's gas tank and it cost less per fluid ounce than milk, or bottled water of a premium variety. Of most varieties that I can see at the grocery store. That's pretty much a miracle. I don't know why we're mad at them. They don't set the price of oil. The price of oil is set by traders and suspenders several miles south of here on Wall Street and not by the oil companies. It is not a conspiracy set by a group of Oliver Stone like conspirators in Texas. It is set by traders in suspenders.</s>WESTHOVEN: Then why the oil executives? You are talking about how they have such a difficult life. They make a lot of money.</s>STEIN: They make a lot of money compared to me and I suspect compared with you as well though, I don't know maybe not compared with everyone on this show. I suspect they don't make as much money as Dave Barry but they make less than Hollywood stars and they make much less than Wall Street traders and they do a much greater service. I mean what is the service that is done by Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie compared with the service of putting oil in our houses and gas in our cars? There is no shortage of people who get paid a great deal more than oil company executives for doing a lot less work and less useful work. They are paid well compared to me but they are not paid well compared to many, many, many executives in this country.</s>CAFFERTY: Based on recent news reports there was some sort of a service provided by Angelina Jolie --</s>STEIN: That was a service he provided to her. It wasn't a service provided to you and me.</s>WESTHOVEN: They are creating a master race.</s>CAFFERTY: I happen to agree with you on this whole premise that the market controls the prices of things. We live in a capitalistic society, and people are in business to make a profit. Why is there this animosity toward the oil companies?</s>STEIN: That's a very good question. I think it has to do with animosity that my teenage son feels towards me and I think it has to do with the fact that he's dependent on me that makes him feel angry. People tend to be very angry at those upon who they are dependent and if you are dependent on the oil companies to get you the gas you need to go to work and oil you need to heat your house, you tend to be mad at them especially when they raise their prices. But look they are the victims of the price system in oil too when the price collapses and they have had $10 a barrel oil just recently and they also had $70 a barrel oil and they made money. They are just out there plugging along like everyone else. The idea that they are somehow able to control the world is just nonsense. It is a vestige of the John D Rockefeller days; he has been dead for a long time.</s>SERWER: Hey Ben, earlier this week I was talking to another great economic mind, Willie Nelson. He has this bio diesel business going on where he is making diesel fuel out of diesel fuel and part vegetable oil. Like soy beans and he has a product called Bio Wille. Now, why aren't we doing more things like that? Things to wean ourselves from foreign oil? Shouldn't we be doing that?</s>STEIN: I agree we should. You know I used to be a speechwriter for Mr. Nixon and I wrote a speech out lining a proposal for a project that would make us less dependent on foreign oil out side of the western hemisphere within ten years and that was in 1974 that I wrote that speech. We haven't done much about it. I would like to see us do more about it. It is an enormous undertaking; I think it is very worthwhile. I would like to see us do more about it.</s>WESTOVER: If you are somebody who says you are trying to support a whole family. You have a job, you have to drive a long way, and there are no buses where you are. You can understand why somebody would get pretty mad.</s>STEIN: I totally understand. Look at my gas station near my house; gasoline was close to $4 a gallon right after Katrina. I was hysterical when I filled up my car. It is not the fault of the oil companies. It is the fault of the hurricane; it is the fault of forces of nature and acts of god and the fault of the traders that bid up the price. Oil companies don't set the price. Being angry with them is just being angry at a phantom. They don't set the price. They are middlemen; they are not setting the price.</s>WESTHOVEN: Then thank you so much for riding to their rescue. They needed a knight in shining armor. I have to confess, I always wanted to win your money.</s>STEIN: You may still.</s>WESTHOVEN: All right. Thank you so much for joining us. There are lots more to come on IN THE MONEY. Up next, the book that puts the play back into playing the market. Humorous Dave Barry wrote it and will join us to talk about it. Plus, one place where the pension isn't an endangered species. Congress has it good and Allen Wastler of Money.com will let you know just how good.