General Motors seeks US$30b to avoid failure.
Have the Governments of the world forgotten how economics works?
If you can't sell enough product to survive then you have no right to be here. What the Governments of the world are doing is allowing business to believe they have rights outside of operating in a market. OK, there is an economic downturn. But ask yourself why? I'm not going to answer that but what I will say is this.
The post-war project of endless economic growth and the resultant suburban dream is over. We won't be resuming revolving credit anytime soon. The growth cycle is over. And I'm not talking about the supposed 7 year residential property cycle. I'm talking the industrial/information age in its current disguise, is over.
Ok, lets assume the US Govt prop up General Motors with a $30b bail out. Then what? Who's buying cars?
Remember how much oil was per barrel before this fiasco all started? I'll ask again, what do you think caused this "economic collapse" in the first place.
Showing posts with label Peak Oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peak Oil. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
IEA admits Peak Oil
Traditionally the (International Energy Agency) IEA, has shyed away from the question of peak oil, the idea that we have, or are about to hit the maximum level of global oil production, after which we will begin an irrecoverable decline. However George Monbiot, award winning journalist from the Guardian discusses the question with Fatih Birol, the IEAs chief economist. The results are interesting.
On Peak Oil and the Current Economic "Situation"
Interestingly, or perhaps amazingly almost no one has been willing to admit (or perhaps even understands) the reasons for the current global economic financial crisis. I have always been of the view that the rapid surge in energy (oil) prices created the financial conditions whereby continued "economic growth" would grind to a halt. Incidently I've been saying this for years, take a stroll through this blog site to see that. Once oil hit a certain price I predicted that global growth would slow and eventually halt. In my opinion $150 a barrel oil is what triggered the credit crisis, basically the downturn hit the most vulnerable part of the financial sector - what is now called "toxic assets".
Finally I have a reference - Reggie Abaca of Market Rap is saying the same thing.
And in case you are shocked that I'm writing about peak oil again, well, just so you know, I spent the day editing a publication on Information Ethics for inclusion in a selection of papers from the 2008 ITPNZ Research Forum. The PhD is still in the forefront of my mind. Finally, Mike Moreu's cartoon today sums a lot up. Kiwi's still seem to be in denial regarding this economic situation.
Traditionally the (International Energy Agency) IEA, has shyed away from the question of peak oil, the idea that we have, or are about to hit the maximum level of global oil production, after which we will begin an irrecoverable decline. However George Monbiot, award winning journalist from the Guardian discusses the question with Fatih Birol, the IEAs chief economist. The results are interesting.
On Peak Oil and the Current Economic "Situation"
Interestingly, or perhaps amazingly almost no one has been willing to admit (or perhaps even understands) the reasons for the current global economic financial crisis. I have always been of the view that the rapid surge in energy (oil) prices created the financial conditions whereby continued "economic growth" would grind to a halt. Incidently I've been saying this for years, take a stroll through this blog site to see that. Once oil hit a certain price I predicted that global growth would slow and eventually halt. In my opinion $150 a barrel oil is what triggered the credit crisis, basically the downturn hit the most vulnerable part of the financial sector - what is now called "toxic assets".
Finally I have a reference - Reggie Abaca of Market Rap is saying the same thing.
And in case you are shocked that I'm writing about peak oil again, well, just so you know, I spent the day editing a publication on Information Ethics for inclusion in a selection of papers from the 2008 ITPNZ Research Forum. The PhD is still in the forefront of my mind. Finally, Mike Moreu's cartoon today sums a lot up. Kiwi's still seem to be in denial regarding this economic situation.
Monday, October 29, 2007
A couple of post-scripts
Seems like nobody needs or wants Tamiflu anymore - " Thousands of doses of bird-flu medication languish on pharmacy shelves after the public ordered them in a state of pandemic hysteria – but never bothered picking them up."
Doh, wasn't this supposed to be the pandemic that wiped the fucking earth clean? Rush out guys, tamiflu on special at your local pharmacy.
Oil is almost $100 a barrel. Um... I think I mentioned a couple of years ago that by 2007 we'd be looking at $100 a barrel oil. Interestingly mainstream media are still oblivious to the issue, fascinated with pop-gun terrorists in the far north and Heathrow hotel All Black shennanigans. Before long NZ's answer to exburban redneck bogans and their soccer mom wives, "Straight Outa Riverstone Terraces" will be whinging and moaning about the cost of filling up the VW toe rag. The cost of transporting the kids to school 2 blocks away suddenly went postal. How the hell will mum with her 2 hour daily commute to her $35,000 pa job on the Terrace afford the weekly petrol bill?
And to think everyone thought Robert Atack (http://www.oilcrash.com/) was a fruitloop. He told us years ago to expect this... and there is more to come soon - stay tuned folks.
Seems like nobody needs or wants Tamiflu anymore - " Thousands of doses of bird-flu medication languish on pharmacy shelves after the public ordered them in a state of pandemic hysteria – but never bothered picking them up."
Doh, wasn't this supposed to be the pandemic that wiped the fucking earth clean? Rush out guys, tamiflu on special at your local pharmacy.
Oil is almost $100 a barrel. Um... I think I mentioned a couple of years ago that by 2007 we'd be looking at $100 a barrel oil. Interestingly mainstream media are still oblivious to the issue, fascinated with pop-gun terrorists in the far north and Heathrow hotel All Black shennanigans. Before long NZ's answer to exburban redneck bogans and their soccer mom wives, "Straight Outa Riverstone Terraces" will be whinging and moaning about the cost of filling up the VW toe rag. The cost of transporting the kids to school 2 blocks away suddenly went postal. How the hell will mum with her 2 hour daily commute to her $35,000 pa job on the Terrace afford the weekly petrol bill?
And to think everyone thought Robert Atack (http://www.oilcrash.com/) was a fruitloop. He told us years ago to expect this... and there is more to come soon - stay tuned folks.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Saudi Oil Production Down 8%
Matt Simmons, peak oil guru is on record as saying "once Saudi peaks the world has peaked" (End of Suburbia). If he is right the the Reserve Bank won't have to worry too much about quelling the volatile housing market with interest rate hikes - hyperinflation will be the wolf at the door.
Yet breaking news that Saudi oil production figures are down 8% for 2006 has barely registered in the mainstream (braindead) media.
The other day I responded to an "associate professor" (Jason D Scorse) who with all the critical analysis skills of my first year computing students, claimed peak oil was debunked because he spotted this article in the New York Times. "Sure looks that way from the available evidence. it's comforting that, yet again, the doom and gloom crowd gets it wrong." Scorse declares. To be honest as is typical in this debate, it appears Scorse is expressing an emotional response, usually associated with those that wish (upon a star) that life will continue "business as usual" @ 3.5% growth per annum. Anything that doesn't fit within the happy go motoring/shopping future as imagined by people like Scorse is just ridiculed and dismissed with lashings of fuckwittery that all 1st year philosophy students would see through immediately.
It's lucky Associate Professor Scorse isn't one of those first year students - he'd fail his assignment.
Here is the guts.
To make the claim that peak oil is debunked you have to claim that oil production will continue to grow annually forever. In debunking peak oil one must necessarily assume that oil is an infinite resource. If Scorse believes that then not only is he a bloody idiot, but he probably shouldn't be an associate professor.
The debate isn’t about whether the peak oil observation is true or not. It is! As is evidenced time and time again with every oil feild, every country, every region on the planet that has already passed peak. Please check out the BP Annual figures for the empirical evidence supporting this claim. It isn’t up for debate. It is merely a fact.
The issue, as many of us have said time and again, is not if there will be a peak but when will the world peak?
And, it looks possible, if Matt Simmons is correct that that date has arrived. (Unless of course Saudi intentionally cut production)
If it is indeed so then the last pint in the pub has been consumed, and we are faced with scrounging around the cupboards for half empty bottles of sherry. And the drunks are brawling on the pavement outside.
Matt Simmons, peak oil guru is on record as saying "once Saudi peaks the world has peaked" (End of Suburbia). If he is right the the Reserve Bank won't have to worry too much about quelling the volatile housing market with interest rate hikes - hyperinflation will be the wolf at the door.
Yet breaking news that Saudi oil production figures are down 8% for 2006 has barely registered in the mainstream (braindead) media.
The other day I responded to an "associate professor" (Jason D Scorse) who with all the critical analysis skills of my first year computing students, claimed peak oil was debunked because he spotted this article in the New York Times. "Sure looks that way from the available evidence. it's comforting that, yet again, the doom and gloom crowd gets it wrong." Scorse declares. To be honest as is typical in this debate, it appears Scorse is expressing an emotional response, usually associated with those that wish (upon a star) that life will continue "business as usual" @ 3.5% growth per annum. Anything that doesn't fit within the happy go motoring/shopping future as imagined by people like Scorse is just ridiculed and dismissed with lashings of fuckwittery that all 1st year philosophy students would see through immediately.
It's lucky Associate Professor Scorse isn't one of those first year students - he'd fail his assignment.
Here is the guts.
To make the claim that peak oil is debunked you have to claim that oil production will continue to grow annually forever. In debunking peak oil one must necessarily assume that oil is an infinite resource. If Scorse believes that then not only is he a bloody idiot, but he probably shouldn't be an associate professor.
The debate isn’t about whether the peak oil observation is true or not. It is! As is evidenced time and time again with every oil feild, every country, every region on the planet that has already passed peak. Please check out the BP Annual figures for the empirical evidence supporting this claim. It isn’t up for debate. It is merely a fact.
The issue, as many of us have said time and again, is not if there will be a peak but when will the world peak?
And, it looks possible, if Matt Simmons is correct that that date has arrived. (Unless of course Saudi intentionally cut production)
If it is indeed so then the last pint in the pub has been consumed, and we are faced with scrounging around the cupboards for half empty bottles of sherry. And the drunks are brawling on the pavement outside.
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