From http://crooksandliars.com:
Friedman: Fareed, I’m going to ask you something. Would you think I’m a bad guy if I were hoping that Vladimir Putin turned off the gas to Europe? Because that’s my secret hope, because I believe if Putin turns off the oil and gas to Europe right now, it would be the equivalent of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which is what launched the solar wind and efficiency industry.
We only got the first auto mileage standards after that. I think we are poised to take off. I hope you bought solar stocks last year, because if you did, they’re all exploding. And I don’t have to tell you about Tesla stock. We just need a little push. We just need Vladimir to do the right thing and turn the gas off. I’m happy to pay all the energy bills for the Ukraine because the impact it would have on the whole clean tech industry, which is poised to take off now, would be just like 1973. You go, Vlad. Give it to us.
Even though Thomas Friedman identifies as a liberal, he raises some valid points. If Putin cuts Europe off it will cause energy prices to surge and potentially push Europe into a recession. This will make Obama look more inept than he already is and give ammunition for the republicans in time for the mid-term elections. As we wrote a couple years ago, pain at the pump and rising oil prices isn’t bad for the economy even though the media will try to convince you that it is by blaming speculators. In the past month oil has rallied ten percent in agreement with our earlier prediction that the sanctions would backfire. It will teach Europe an important lesson to stop depending on foreign sources for energy. Although he says to buy solar stocks, oil and gas futures would have more upside with less risk than alternative energy stocks.
Not all liberals are bad, just welfare liberals like Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, Roubini, Robert Shiller, etc. We make a distinction between welfare liberals that want more entitlement spending and wealth redistribution versus pragmatic neo-liberals and classical liberals that are more open-minded to free market capitalism, the fed, and pro-growth policy.