Former Alaska Senator Stevens on Downed Plane?

Reports are filtering out of Alaska right now about a private plane going down with eight people reportedly on board, and one of them may have been former GOP Senator Ted Stevens.

Severe weather has hampered the rescue operation for eight people believed to be on board a GCI-owned aircraft that crashed near Dillingham on Monday night with possible fatalities, according to state and federal officials.

The Alaska Air National Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. after a passing aircraft saw the wreckage, spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said. Eight people were reported to be on board the aircraft, though their status wasn't immediately known, he said. There were possible fatalities, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board reported that it will send a "Go Team" from Washington, D.C., to Dillingham to investigate the crash. The teams can consist of up to a dozen or more specialists from the board's headquarters staff and are responsible for investigating major cases -- they are the arm that responds to "catastrophic airline crash sites" -- for the board, according to the NTSB.

The National Guard said an HC-130 and HH-60 helicopter were encountering inclement weather on the way and had difficultly navigating through Lake Clark Pass. They were still en route to the scene at about 11:30 p.m. and expected to arrive after midnight.

About five good Samaritans were already on scene helping the victims of the plane crash, Hayes said.

"They're not out there alone right now. There's people that are providing support," Hayes said. "From what I'm told, there are survivors on this aircraft. I don't know how many could be fatalities at this point."

The aircraft, which was reported overdue, bears the tail number N455A, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That aircraft is a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter registered to GCI, according to FAA records. The FAA did not immediately provide other information about how it knows that this is the aircraft.

Friends of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said he was traveling Monday to the GCI-owned Agulowak Lodge near Lake Aleknagik, and they were concerned for him.

A woman who answered the phone at the Anchorage home of retired Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston, a good friend of Stevens, said Ralston was with Stevens' wife, Catherine, comforting her and trying to find out what was going on.

No one answered the phone at the homes of Stevens' daughter, Susan Covich, in Kenai, or his son, Ben, in Anchorage.

More here.

Speculative Oil Trading

Much is still being made of futures trading in oil as being a major culprit in the rising cost of oil. Now Congress seems to be trying to respond to these concerns with legislation.

Facing complaints from price-pinched consumers, U.S. lawmakers are targeting lax futures trading rules that some critics say have given rise to a speculative bubble in oil and other commodities.

So what is it the lawmakers want to do? Well, pander to the conspiracy theorists, apparently.

Several bills have been introduced recently aimed at tightening the rules and expanding the regulations governing futures trading.

One of the flaws in the thinking (other than the fact that there are as much or more "short contracts out there than "long" contracts, thus the market is betting that prices will probably go down) is that the U.S. Congress does not control the global investment system.

Yet proposals that make it too difficult to buy and sell commodities, particularly in the largely unregulated over-the-counter market, could backfire, some economists and analysts warn.

"These are global commodities markets. If we put on too much red tape, trading will go overseas," said James Angel, a corporate finance professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, who testified on energy prices before the late June hearing.

Investors will just go buy their futures contracts elsewhere. So this is just silly. Then there is the paradox of unintended consequences:

Regulators and lawmakers have already tightened the first two loopholes, though some say not enough. The swaps exemption, however, is wide open for bills, such as those proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, that would extend limits on trading positions to pension funds and their broker-dealers.

So here we have a legislators limiting the ability of pension funds to make a profit on their investments, just as baby boomers are starting to retire in droves and putting strong pressure on the pension funds themselves to make a high return.

Brillant.

I guarantee that more regulation will not lower oil prices. An increase in supply and/or a drop in demand will cause prices to drop, nothing more and nothing less.