I get Brinker's newletter and tune in to his weekend program either on the pc or the local radio.

Oil is still the thorn in the side of investors. Brinker swears up and down that high gasoline prices -- if anything -- act as a tax on the economy and are NOT inflationary. I tried to call his show a few times to ask about big picture about the phenomena: those billions of dollars going overseas to the generally unsympathetic, unfriendly nations that we import our oil from.

What do they do with all those dollars? Buy treasuries or buy gold and other commodities? Or do they just spend them?

If the Fed would want to find a useful purpose I would say it should track the dollars we spend for OPEC oil and find out, really, where it is all going to. Then maybe we could have a clearer picture of inflation risk, if not worse things.