Monday, July 14, 2008

SAR # 8196

Newspapers are starting to look remarkably Biblical.

Yacht Sales: Tom Petrie of Merrill Lynch says "we need to use price as a way to ration consumption." JP Morgan said that if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

First: The Brits owe 173% of what they make; more debt than any G7 nation's citizens ever have struggled under. If somehow they could live within their incomes and pay off even 10% of their debt it would take them, with interest, well over two decades to break even. Given the coming world recession, three decades, if ever. Ireland is not a G7 (ie: important) nation, but things are much worse there.

Buffet: The mountain pine beetle is happily eating its way across western Canada, headed eastward and northward as the climate warms. It leaves behind a matchstick desert, waiting for wildfire. It has killed half of British Columbia's lodgepole pines in a decade and will kill another 25% in the next few years. Worse, it threatens the boreal forest that spreads across Canada to Newfoundland, south into the US.

Oil For War: The US military in Iraq will now be paying $170.94 a barrel for refined fuel, a 34% increase in six months. I don't know who is losing in Iraq, but I'm pretty sure who's winning.

Once More, With Stealing: The greatest hurdle Peak Oil presents us is the breakdown in our social and political systems. There will arise charlatans and demagogues who will pander to the publics fears. These people are incredibly dangerous.

Planning Ahead: As crisis piles on top of disaster, and economies creak under the weight, those who have read Naomi Klein wonder if it isn't all part of The Plan. Or a result of The Plan going awry on a global scale.

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