LESTER THUROW does not have a particularly brilliant track record in the field of getting things right. He notably argued, on the eve of the Soviet Union's collapse, that a command economy might offer America a route to faster growth. He also famously authored a book entitled Head to Head, which urged America to get serious about competitiveness in order to survive the coming economic war against Europe and Japan. Despite his spectacular predictive failures, Mr Thurow has managed to secure respected positions in academia and business, as well as repeated invitations to contribute to prominent newspapers.

Including, unfortunately for the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Times. Mr Thurow has solutions for America's economic problems! For instance: dear oil. What should we do about it? Mr Thurow writes:

There is a solution to the rising cost of oil, but it is a painful one. Let's say there is a lot of $20-a-barrel oil in the world -- deep-sea oil, Canadian tar sands. But who would look for $20-a-barrel oil if someone else (Saudi Arabia) has lots of $5-a-barrel oil? The answer is: no one.



Basically, American taxpayers have to guarantee potential producers that the price in the future will not fall below $20 a barrel and that they will not lose their investments.



This is easy to do. The U.S. needs to guarantee that it will buy all of its oil at $20 a barrel before buying anything from OPEC. This forces the price of oil down to $20 a barrel, but it eliminates the possibility that it will ever go back to $5 a barrel.



Painful!

I'm not sure what would be painful about paying $20 for a barrel of oil, assuming that were possible. I'm also not sure why Mr Thurow thinks we need to offer guarantees to firms in order to get them to search for oil extractable at $20 per barrel. I have a feeling some efforts to get such oil might already be underway. I do know that if America promises to purchase all its oil at $20 per barrel, then I can offer to store what they buy here on my desk in between my coffee and my telephone. Because there will be none.

(Via Kevin Drum).