Author: Eliot

France Eliminates Sunday Work Restrictions

Bureau of EconomicsThe Wall Street Journal reported this week that the French government has relaxed restrictions on requiring retailers to close on Sundays.  Americans will find this strange but most European countries are rather quiet places on Sundays, where many retailers are closed.  This of course dates back to a time when one was expected to go to church and pray on Sundays, but now it is taken more simply as a day of rest.

Having lived in both the U.S. and Switzerland, I can say that there is something to both having to plan ahead one day so that you’ll have food for Sunday (and breakfast for Monday), as well, as something to be said for not running around one day per week.

Obviously this sounds rather paternalistic on the part of the governments, and it does originate from people who call themselves Fathers, but there is another side to who gets to play daddy.  Someone, I think it was George Stephanopoulos, joked early in the Clinton administration, “If you didn’t work 14 hours on Saturday, don’t even bother showing up on Sunday.”  The National Sleep Foundation conducted a survey that shows the average American works 46 hours per week, trying to compete with his or her neighbor, and our neighbors to the South, and China, and everyone else.  Employers are the new Fathers in this world of globalization.  Perhaps such laws pose a limit on employee productivity, and perhaps that’s just as well.

Oil

Gasoline PumpAnyone not under a rock can’t help but notice the price of oil having skyrocketed.  $4.00 per gallon prices may seem like a lot, and indeed they are compared to what they were, and so President Bush has decided to wage a war to attempt to get domestic production up.  That means drilling off the shores of Florida and California and in the ANWR National Reserve in Alaska.

It’s a smooth political move.  He figures now that prices are high he can play this card.  However, many economists would disagree that this would do a thing to bring down the cost of oil.  First of all, many believe that speculators are stepping in and buying up oil and storing it, thus driving up demand.  These guys have a lot of money and might well be able to absorb any increased supply.  The proof is what happened when Saudi Arabia announced that it would increase oil production by 200,000 barrels per day.  Prices went up.  The fact is that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been asleep at the wheel.  These people are responsible for keeping speculators in check, and where they fail, we could sink speculators hard by selling lots futures from the Strategic Petrolium Reserve.  That would really stick it to them.

But even if prices had gone down, the increased retrieval of oil doesn’t translate into the increased production of gasoline, as we are driving our refineries to capacity.  Building new refineries in the United States is as popular as drilling, because it is a messy business with serious environmental consequences.  You can trust me on this: I come from New Jersey, home of toxic waste.

Fortunately the President’s efforts (and by extension those of Senator McCain) to spoil our shores and Alaska are transparent.  Unfortunately, our energy dependence problem will not go away any time soon.

In case you’re wondering, yes I am insulated just a bit by the oil increases.  A small fraction of those increases have come from the weakened dollar.  However, the dollar has stablized but oil prices have not.  The way I am more insulated than I was in California is that I now have a commute from upstairs to downstairs instead of a 120 mile round trip commute.  This is better than a Prius, but sometimes lack of colleague contact is a problem.

But our house is heated with oil, and many of the products we use require energy to create.