I'm Glad He Said It, Not Us.

India's finance minister Chidambaram yesterday castigated oil producing countries for the high price of oil that's been experienced this year, particularly in his neck of the woods.

Interestingly enough, the minister criticized developed countries for raising environmental concerns over energy usage. The minister also complains that India could have reached a 9-9.5 per cent growth rate, save for the high price of oil.

All of which is very nice, of your growth strategy is predicated on continued cheap oil. Maybe he doesn't realize it, but that's a sucker's game. Bitching about the ability of speculators in the oil market or any other market, for that matter, to swing prices is a play for the grandstand that midwestern farmers know pretty well.

Here we're experiencing just as much pain from high oil prices as India is, and we're also having to deal with the consequences of high corn prices in the farm belt. It's not easy, but you get busy and think ahead when times are good, and you invest in alternatives.

Here, we don't call what India's got going on growth-we call that cancer.