Hey, I'm not gloating. I'm just aggregating the news for y'all. Let discussion ensue.

Its important to remember that people like Ben Bernanke (all is calm, the economy will push on) are vying for Alan Greenspan's job.

I wonder if any of these potential candidates have private moments these days where they wonder if they want to be the steward of the economy. Unfortunately, reading through the many tea leaves of Greenspan and other Fed governors, I don't think any of them believe we can possibly be facing an energy crunch - now - next year - next decade - ever.

But Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House, said opening the reserves would help companies "produce more gasoline and help alleviate some of the shortages". [mw: clearly Bernanke knows nothing about energy, just like Greenspan]

Philadelphia Federal Reserve president Anthony Santomero said the effects of Katrina were likely to impede but not halt the economy.

"The US economy has proven to be surprisingly capable of absorbing such shocks, and after a short period, the effects of Katrina are likely to slow but not stall the forward progress of the national economy," he said.

Several economists, however, fretted that Katrina could hurt growth in the third quarter to September.

That's the problem - much of the financial establishment thinks about issues on a quarter by quarter basis only... not out 1, 2, 5, 10 years.

Dave - I think I know what you are saying but I don't agree with your interpretation. If you think people are going to draw a Peak Oil lesson from this I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment. This is going to be seen as a refinery problem, not a shortage of oil. The message I am getting from the media is that there is enough oil (especially with the release from the SPR) but that refineries are damaged leading to gasoline shortages. Today for the first time in a long time, gasoline futures moved way up while oil took a pretty solid drop. Those two almost always move in tandem. It is further evidence that this is not an oil shortage, it is a gasoline shortage. I think that's how people are going to see it.