America is becoming more and more like an octopus. More on that in a second. First, let’s scan today’s business headlines, what say you?

- First, it seems that oil prices have ballooned to over $50 a barrel.

- Also, Motorola says it has to cut 1,000 jobs.

- Then there’s good old Delta Airlines, who just announced that they’ll have to cut workers’ pay by 10%. Oh, and they’re going to have to eliminate some jobs, possibly 7,000.

- Coffee prices? They’re going up. Way up.

- Sadly, consumer confidence is down, we learned today. Experts had predicted it’d rise, but, well, it didn’t.

- Finally, the stock market is soaring!

What?

Yes, despite every single piece of business news spelling doom for Americans who are now going to have to pay more while earning less, the stock market is giddy with optimism. See, the incredibly high price of oil means that oil companies stand to make a pile of money, so their stock prices are also at record levels.

Wait, don’t oil companies buy most of their oil from the Middle East? So aren’t they paying more for their oil too? How could that translate into higher profits unless those companies were making somebody else pay for the price hike and then some? Somebody has to end up paying for this, some poor sap, like maybe…

…oh.

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It’s another great day for the oil industry, which has enjoyed four years of great days. And the former oil company CEO George W. Bush and former oil company CEO Dick Cheney are leading in the polls. Despite their longtime friends and colleagues getting ridiculously, obscenely rich while everyone else gets gouged. Despite that. They’re leading in the polls.

So America has become a lot like an octopus. Think of the arms, constantly grabbing for everything in sight.

And full of suckers.