Another fabulous article by Gail Tverberg.
I doubt that 1 person in a 10,000 understands this important topic.
Another fabulous article by Gail Tverberg.
I doubt that 1 person in a 10,000 understands this important topic.
What did we learn from 2008? Nothing.
What did we do in response to the 2008 crisis? Even more of the same thing that caused the problem.
What happens next? 2008 on steroids.
“Debt ratios have reached extreme levels across all major regions of the global economy, leaving the financial system acutely vulnerable to monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve, the world’s top financial watchdog has warned.
The Swiss-based BIS said total debt ratios are now significantly higher than they were at the peak of the last credit cycle in 2007, just before the onset of global financial crisis.”
Our leaders are stupid but not that stupid.
At some point they will finally understand that economic growth is no longer possible and permanent economic contraction is guaranteed due to falling net energy.
At that point they might implement aggressive measures to reduce CO2 emissions. This will allow them to blame climate change for a shrinking economy and thus avoid the panic, hoarding, and wars associated with wide-spread understanding of overshoot and limits to growth.
On the other hand…
History strongly suggests there is no limit to human stupidity and we will blunder into full on collapse and wars over the remaining scarce resources.
“Over the past two weeks, news of the plight of a swelling wave of refugees fleeing to Europe has filled the mainstream media. We looked on in horror at reports of innocent human beings fleeing destabilized countries in the Middle East, of people suffocating while stuffed into the backs of trucks, of drowned children washed up on the shores of nations their families had hoped would care for them.
It’s all a part of a growing global mass migration. A tragic dislocation and diaspora. But this time it’s not only birds, or polar bears, or fish, or walruses, or insects, or plants that are being forced to move by habitat and food loss, by toxified environments or by increasingly dangerous weather. It’s human beings too.”
How Climate Change is Spurring a Global Refugee Crisis to Rapidly Worsen
Nicole Foss has one of the best minds on the planet.
Find yourself a quiet couple hours and then read this article by Nicole Foss to get the clearest description available anywhere of what we can expect to experience in the not too distant future.
For many this may feel like a cold shower, but I think having realistic expectations is one of the better means of maximizing future happiness, and for appreciating what we have today.
The Boundaries and Future of Solution Space
And for those that prefer video, here is an in-depth interview with Nicole Foss.
We might bump along for another year or two but my guess is that Gail Tverberg is right and it’s time to tighten our seat belts.
I called my bank’s “expert” today to inquire about the new bail-in law. “Yes it was passed by the Canadian government. No I don’t know if there is a cap on how much of your savings can be confiscated in a banking collapse. But don’t worry, the Canadian system is very sound”.
Idiot.
Another excellent piece by Gail Zawacki on pollution and trees. Well worth your time.
“No, I do not think humans can help themselves from indulging in cheap energy. We fly and ride in cars despite the risk of accidents. Even people who claim to know better make excuses to continue to travel, to use electronic technology, and purchase items manufactured from plastic.”
I saw this essay by Fast Eddy buried in the comment section of a post by Gail Tverberg.
It shed some light on what I perceive to be the insane foreign policy of the US.
http://ourfiniteworld.com/2015/08/10/how-economic-growth-fails/
Mac10 in fine form.
“The death star of denial isn’t global climate change, it’s Globalization itself – the invisible outer-most layer that controls all of the other risk factors. It’s unquestioned.
We need not expect Billy Bob next door to give a flying fuck about mass extinction, droughts, wildfires, or double tornadoes, when Walmart is their biggest threat to survival. We are witnessing in real time, the end of Commie Capitalism. Socialism for Billunaires. The system by which the impoverished middle class bail out the ultra-wealthy who laid them off, all while being told how lazy they are for claiming food stamps. Were it not for the free aka. “Socialized” bailout in 2008 which encouraged even greater asinine speculation, this shit show would have ended a long time ago. We wouldn’t have had to listen to entitled boy-men lecturing us endlessly on foodstamp “Socialism”, if they had actually believed in true capitalism in the first place – the status quo would have already self-imploded under the weight of its own greed and “rational self-indulgence”.
Tonight the People’s Bank of China debased the Yuan by a record amount in their latest desperately ironic bid to save Commie Capitalism from itself. Unfortunately, they broke the cardinal rule of Globalization which is that the developed nations debase while the developing nations strengthen, the only way the carry trades work.
Now, the race for the bottom just went into a steep cliff dive. Because all Emerging Markets will have to now follow suit to maintain competitiveness. The global carry trades, lifeblood of Globalization, just went deeper in the hole.
Debt accumulation has been jeopardized.
Death star countdown sequence has commenced. History’s largest game of musical chairs is about to end with all of the remaining chairs taken away at the same time.
And then everyone will be on the same fucking page. Finally.”
Another brilliant article by Gail Tverberg who has one of the best understandings and ability to explain the economy and its imminent collapse.
If you only have time for one article a week, Gail’s should be at the top of your list.