The dramatic increase in gasoline prices over the summer combined with the perception that oil revenues fund terrorism has created a new perception on the need for the U.S. to import oil. It is now becoming clear to a growing number of Americans that dependency on foreign oil compromises our security.

In a recent poll conducted by the Democracy Corps, a Democratic group, likely voters, were asked what they thought were the two most important national security priorities for the government over the next few years.  Coming in first, with 42% was reducing dependence on foreign oil. A distant second was combating terrorism at 26%.  Third was the war in Iraq at 25%.  Strengthening America’s military came in at 12%.  This is very interesting to say the least.  It means that the relatively clear connection between oil and terrorism, and the perception that America could at any time be brought to its knees by foreign oil producing states has become the greatest security fear of voters.

One thing that politicians pay attention to is voters.  Once again, the people are leading the politicians when it comes to a common sense view of oil and the world.  It has been clear that since 9/11, when the Bush administration told us that going shopping, instead of a patriotic conservation effort, was the correct reaction to the attack that this group of non-leaders had no stomach for an obvious, common sense energy policy.  Now that the voters say that energy independence is the number one security …

I sense a tipping point in the realm of energy and alternative energy. In an earlier post I strongly argued that we need to solve the energy problem to save ourselves. That was back in May. Since then I have followed the subject closely and think that we may well be approaching a tipping point in our perception about our almost total reliance on oil.

A tipping point is that point in time or occurrence that tips human behavior, perception or influence into a new area or perception. Almost over night things seem to change, perceptions change, points of view change, new actions are taken and people move to a new place of awareness. I sense this is happening now in the area of energy. Here are just a few occurances that, together, suggest that we might have turned the corner in our viewpoint of oil and alternative energy.

-By the end of summer, people had started to change their behavior due to the price of gasoline being over $3.00. People stopped buying SUVs, waiting lists for hybrid cars lengthened at dealers, people started to base job searches on how short the commute would be. Companies went to 4 day work weeks of 10 hours, allowing their employees to pay 20% less in commuting costs. There were a number of other changes in behavior brought about by high priced gasoline.

-Now that gas has declined significantly (just before the elections), people are still clamoring for …

The stock brokerage business was one of the first industries that was fundamentally disintermediated by the Internet.  In an earlier post I both wrote about the history of the stock brokerage business and about William Yeh, the Chairman of Sogo Invest.  Yeh was the man who, by launching SogoInvest where active traders could take advantage of $1.00 trades, completed the 30 year history of the deregulation and disintermediation of the stock brokerage business.

 In an interview Yeh gave to fellow blogger Grant Wittenborn, he made it clear that he felt the day trader and the average investor should be given the low cost opportunities available to institutional investors. He was clear in that interview that he hoped to have people with Sogo over the long term to take advantage of low cost investing, and that for the new or smaller trader he would provide easy purchase of fractional shares. In a conversation I was fortunate to have with Yeh he explained to me that, based upon stock exchange and clearing costs, any trading fee lower than $1.00 would be a money loser.

Well, look at what has happened since SogoInvest opened its doors for business on July 11th.  Bank of America, one of the financial giants that had taken it on the chin during the last ten years of disintermediation  has come out with’ free’ trades.  Given the amount of marketing dollars they are spending, it is clear that trading can’t be free.  Sure enough, the terms and rules necessitate …

Disintermediation is a favorite subject here. Regular readers know that I believe that we are in one of those historical eras when the world gets reorganized. As I have defined it in earlier posts, disintermediation always occurs during these significant periods and there is usually a dominant agent of disintermediation that forces the reorganization. In this period of course it is the Internet.

I have also written about the fact that while the effects the Internet has had on such businesses as the travel industry and stock brokerage are obvious, there are business sectors that are just at the early stages of disintermediation. One of them is real estate. There has been much resistance to change by a large percentage of the residential brokers in the U.S. Others, seeing what is happening and what lies ahead are starting to come up with new business models. I have encouraged this as there is always a way to add value. The ‘way we have always done it’ is not necessarily the only way, and it is increasingly a losing position to take in the residential real estate business. This post points to some recent signs that things are changing fundamentally in this marketplace.

Two weeks ago the Federal Trade Commission announced that five regional real estate listing services had agreed to treat listings from discount brokerages no differently that those from the traditional 6 percenters. The FTC is pursuing administrative cases against additional listing services under the general belief that …