It is impossible to tell the whole oil story, but perhaps I can offer a few insights regarding where we are today.
[1] We already seem to be back to the falling oil prices and refilling storage tanks scenario.
US crude oil stocks hit their low point on January 19, 2018 and have started to rise again. The amount of crude oil fill has averaged about 365,000 barrels per day since then. At the same time, prices of both Brent and WTI oil have fallen from their high points.
Figure 1. Average weekly spot Brent oil prices from EIA website, with circle pointing to recent downtick in prices.
Many people believe that the oil problem, when it hits, will be running out of oil. People with such a belief interpret a glut of oil to mean that we are still very far from any limit.
[2] An alternative story to running out of oil is that the economy is a self-organized system, operating under the laws of physics. With this story, too little demand for oil is as likely an outcome as a shortage of oil.
Oil and energy products are used to create everything, even jobs. If all humans have is energy from the sun, plus the energy that all animals have, then humans would be much more like chimpanzees. All humans would be able to do is gather plant food and catch a few easy-to-catch animals (earthworms and crickets, for example). They certainly could not extract oil or find uses for it.
It takes a self-organized economy to support the extraction and sale of energy products. We need a complex web that includes:
- Equipment to extract the oil
- Training for engineers and other workers
- Devices that use oil, such as vehicles, farm equipment, road paving equipment
- A financial system to enable transactions to purchase oil
- Buyers with jobs that pay well enough that they can afford to buy goods made with oil
The things that go wrong with this economy can be on the buyers’ end of the economy. Buyers can have jobs, but these jobs may not pay well enough for the buyers to afford the output of the economy. A falling share of the population may be able to afford cars, for example.
[3] It is possible that a recent rapid increase in oil supply is contributing to the current mismatch between supply and demand.
Data of the US Energy Information Administration indicates that US oil supply has recently begun to surge. It is not just crude oil production that is higher. Natural gas liquid production is higher as well. As a result, Total Liquids production is reported to have been more than 16 million barrels per day in November 2017.
Figure 2. US Liquids Production, based on International Energy Data provided by the US EIA.
Oil production of the rest of the world has been relatively flat, as planned.
Figure 3. World excluding the US oil production by type, based on EIA International Energy data through November 2017.
Total world production, combining the amounts on Figures 2 and 3, set a new record of 99.1 million barrels of oil per day for November 2017, based on EIA data. This level is above the November 2016 level, which was the previous record at 98.9 million barrels per day.
At this high level of production, it is not surprising that the economy cannot absorb the full amount of extra supply.
There are also a number of issues that affect buyers’ demand for oil.
[4] The percentage of US residents who can afford to buy a new automobile or light truck seems to be falling over time.
If we look at the number of autos and trucks sold in the US, per 1000 population, we see a pattern of falling humps, as a smaller and smaller share of the population can afford a new car or light truck, each year. The big drops occur during the gray recessionary periods marked on the chart.
Figure 4. Figure showing US Passenger Cars and Light Trucks Purchased per Year per 1000 Population. Original graph by FRED (Federal Reserve of St. Louis). Retitled by author, because units were confusing on original chart.
The first peak came in 1978, at 67.3 units. The second, slightly lower peak came in 1986, at 66.7. The third peak came in 2000 at 61.5 units. The fourth peak came in 2015, at 51.6 units. Early 2018 amounts suggest that the trend in units sold per 1000 population will continue its downward trend.
Part of what is happening is that vehicles are becoming longer-lasting, so that there is not as much need to buy new cars frequently. But having a short-lived, cheap car has an advantage, if it makes cars available to a larger percentage of the total population. With a vehicle, a person has a much better ability to participate in the US workforce. US Labor Force Participation Rates peaked in about the year 2000, which is about the time of the third peak in affordability.
Figure 5. US Labor Force Participation Rate. Chart by FRED (Federal Reserve of St. Louis).
[5] There was a steep rise in the cost of auto ownership in the 1995- 2008 period. This has since fallen back, but the cost is still high relative to the wages of many workers.
One estimate of the cost of auto ownership is the reimbursement rate that the US government allows businesses to pay workers who use their own cars for company business.
Figure 6. Auto reimbursement rates as compiled on this list. Amounts shown on “As Stated” basis, and also at the 2017 cost level, based on CPI Urban.
These costs peaked about 2008 and were reflected in high reimbursement rates for 2009 as well. More recently, buyers of cars have been helped by longer term loans and ultra-low interest rates. If interest rates rise at all, the share of people buying or leasing new vehicles can be expected to fall further from the level shown on Figure 4.
[6] Building homes also requires oil. There has been a sharp drop in US home building, both on an absolute basis, and on a per capita basis, since 2008.
Figure 7. US Housing Units Completed, related to US population. Population from Census Bureau; population from UN 2017 population summary.
Building homes is part of oil demand. It takes oil to transport all of the materials used (lumber, siding, wiring, pipes, appliances) to the place where the house will be built. Furthermore, many of the materials used in building a home are produced using petroleum products.
The number of homes built depends on the number of new households that can afford a separate place to live. The low level of building makes it look as if the economy is still seeing a pattern of young adults living with their parents much longer than in the past. If buildings are to be replaced every 75 years, my calculation suggests that about 6 housing units per 1000 residents need to be built each year. About 2.5 units per thousand are needed, just to keep up with rising population, if upgrading and remodeling can be done almost indefinitely.
The fact that there is little home building reduces the number of jobs available in the building industry. The lack of jobs in this industry helps hold down the demand for oil, because these workers would use their wages to buy goods for themselves, such as food and vehicles. Food is grown and transported using vehicles powered by oil.
The lack of home building also contributes to the nation’s homelessness problem. If there were plenty of inexpensive apartments, there would be fewer homeless people.
[7] There is no longer an oil price at which both oil exporters and oil importers are satisfied. Oil prices today are too low for oil exporters.
I started writing about oil producers complaining that oil prices were too low in early 2014. At that time, oil companies were looking back at prices of over $100 per barrel in 2013. They were saying that $100+ prices were too low to provide adequate funds for reinvestment in new fields. Now prices are in the $65 range, which is even farther below the desired level.
Oil exporters are especially unhappy about today’s low prices, because they need high prices in order to collect needed tax revenue. This is why OPEC members and Russia have been holding back production. The plan is to deplete the glut of oil in storage, and thus get prices up.
It is not at all clear, however, that consumers in oil importing countries can really withstand higher prices. The fact that Brent oil prices could only stay above $70 per barrel for one week on Figure 2 (in the red circle), suggests that consumers in major oil importing countries cannot really withstand oil prices at this high level. I have observed previously that a sustainable price, without adding a huge amount of debt each year, is only about $20 per barrel.
[8] If we analyze vehicle purchases by country, we can see that low oil prices since 2014 seem to be helping major oil importers but are hurting Tier 2 countries that are commodity-dependent.
Figure 8. New vehicles (private passenger and commercial combined) purchased per capita for selected groupings of countries. Amounts shown are from OICA estimates by country.
In this chart, the grouping of Advanced Economies includes:
- USA
- Europe
- Japan
- Canada
- Australia
For this grouping, growth in auto sales is again rising, but has not regained its prior level. This is somewhat similar to the indications in Figure 4, for the US only, looking at cars and light trucks. The main difference is in the last two years. Changes in currency relativities may be helping recent vehicle sales for the other countries in the grouping.
On this chart, the Tier 2 grouping includes:
- Brazil
- Russia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Malaysia
- Mexico
This group includes several oil and other resource dependent countries. South Korea is perhaps more like the industrial countries in the first grouping. This grouping shows a downturn in the purchasing of vehicles in the last three years, when commodity prices have been depressed. If oil prices were higher, this group would probably be buying more vehicles.
Figure 8 shows that China’s auto sales have been growing rapidly. In fact, China has surpassed the Tier 2 average in per capita sales. In the past year, China’s growth in auto sales has flattened. But with China’s huge population, the absolute number of vehicles sold is still very high: 29.1 million vehicles, compared to 17.6 million for the United States, and compared to 20.9 million for Europe.
India and the Rest of the World account for surprisingly few vehicles sold. On Figure 8, their lines overlap at the bottom of the chart.
[9] The push toward raising interest rates and selling QE securities will tend to reduce oil prices and add to the oil glut.
I wrote about some of the issues involved in Raising Interest Rates Is Like Starting a Fission Chain Reaction. When interest rates are higher, economies are pushed in the direction of recession. All kinds of discretionary spending are reduced. Use of oil will almost certainly be reduced. This could lower oil prices significantly, as it did in 2008 (Figure 1).
[10] To a significant extent, China has been helping hold up world oil consumption, with its rapidly growing economy. It is hitting headwinds now, however.
The International Monetary Fund recently showed an exhibit indicating how China’s debt is growing very rapidly, but its growth in output is slowing. The combination could very easily lead to a credit crisis.
Figure 9. Exhibit from IMF Working Paper called Credit Booms: Is China Different?
Now, the rest of the world depends on China for many imported goods. If China should have problems, it would indirectly affect oil demand elsewhere as well.
Even China’s recent ban on importing certain types of materials for recycling can be expected to have an adverse impact on oil demand. Very often, if a container is sent from China to the US or to Europe, there will be no exported goods to send back to China, except for material for recycling. If China refuses to take recycling, containers will need to be returned empty.
Recycling generally needs to be subsidized. Part of what this subsidy is used for is to pay the cost of shipping material to be recycled to China. If China does not take the recycling, this payment for shipping materials in the otherwise-empty containers will not be made. The shipping company will need to charge exporters more for the one-way trip, if the shipping company is to be profitable. This higher cost, by itself, is a deterrent to trade. In many ways, the higher shipping cost is like a tariff.
[11] Conclusion.
My expectation is that the general direction of oil prices is likely downward, especially if interest rates rise. A major financial disruption of any kind would have a similar effect. Gluts of oil can be expected with lower prices.
Many groups, including the IEA, have been warning about oil shortages because of inadequate investment in new production. Oil shortages, and energy shortages in general, have a multitude of adverse impacts on economies. One of them is loss of jobs, because jobs require the use of energy, for example, to deliver goods in a truck. If many more people are unemployed, there is less demand for oil.
Thus, it is not at all clear that a shortage of oil leads to high prices; it may very well lead to lower prices. Many people are confused about this issue, because the word demand gives a misleading impression of the mechanism involved. Lack of demand comes from part of the population not being able to afford cars and homes. It also comes from cutbacks in government spending and from failing businesses. In an interconnected system, even failing banks tend to reduce oil demand.
Another adverse impact of oil and energy shortages tends to be fighting and wars. The fact that the US seems to be raising its energy production, in apparent disregard for countries that have been trying to cut back, is likely to make some oil exporting countries quite angry. It could sow the seeds for another war.
Economists do not seem to understand that GDP growth rates don’t tell very much about the well-being of individual citizens in an economy. A major issue is wage disparity. If there are many very low wage people, there is likely to be downward pressure on the sale of automobiles, and on the purchase of petroleum products. Economists are likely to think everything is fine, up until a major crisis occurs.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-19/21-trillion-national-debt-growing-36-faster-us-economy
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/total%20debt%20under%20trump_0.jpg
Reminded me of this. An oldie, but still relevant,
it was krugman who said—
my spending pays my neighbours wages
his spending pays my wages
and he got a nobel prize instead of me
You didn’t miss anything worthwhile!. These Nobel prizes for economics are a con. For a start they are a prize “in honour of” Nobel and are funded by a Swedish bank. Only the “in crowd” in academia are eligible. They should be banned for sullying the real Nobel Prizes.
well thats a releif
Economics is not supposed to make sense. Once a person realizes that fiat dollars are literally created out of thin air (usually originating from a loan) then one understands all of economics. It is really that simple as this cartoon makes it out to be. This deliberate obfuscation gives people the illusion that economics and finance (Santa Claus) is a science. This whole system of fraud and deception breaks down when there isn’t sufficient energy to create stuff from all the dollars loaned into existence. . That happened in 2008. People still believe in Santa. He has to be real.
According to both Krugman and Trump, ‘deficits don”t matter
Since the deficit will never be repaid, one can think of it as getting real goods and services from others and offering empty promises in return. Pretty sweet deal for one side 🙂
The deficit cannot be repaid. It is already spent on debt so to be counted as a deficit. There is no liability as the central bank buys its debts with keystrokes into customer accounts in the bank, a net credit operation.
We are talking about promises of future goods and services, created with energy products. These promises can easily be false problems. Perhaps you are acknowledging that these are false promises.
The flip-side of course is that money in the present represents entitlement to consume present goods and services. It symbolizes real things. Whether banks or governments create the process, ultimately creating entitlements/obligations debts/credits goes from REPRESENTING energy products and resources to MISREPRESENTING energy products and resources. I think MMT is words in the wind since everyone is already misrepresenting the future supply of goods and services – since the value of the marginal BTU of energy appears to have reached diminishing returns.
MMT could possibly increase labor participation – which would of course use up what we have left sooner.
Exactly! They are false promises. At some point reality will rear its head and the “wealthy” will realize their fortunes are worthless papers of promise.
As a rule, yes. What I am saying is that if there are no resources etc for sale the supply of money stops, [from the federal government]. Banks can possibly still make loans but there resources for sale matter as well. Resources won’t disappear overnight but their prices will rise as scarcity bites.
As the end game approaches the federal governments will be issuing welfare to almost everyone.
This will be a complex event unevenly affecting first world countries the most.
Resources are what provide jobs. Think of the situation as being like one in which the population of an ancient land grows, but it’s arable farmland remains unchanged. If the government divides up the farmland into ever smaller plots, everyone will starve. Their incomes, expressed as the food each can produce, will shrink.
When incomes are falling, there is no reason to believe prices of energy products will soar. This is the story told by those who don’t understand that lack of energy products brings down demand.
“Lack of energy products brings down demand” Energy products are not all the same. Food is one and demand will not decline without coercion. Money will be spent to buy food. Rationing, if there’s been a plan to have it, will stop hoarding and price gouging.
Dividing up farmland won’t happen as it takes years to get a farm working productively. Better the farmland is all seized and nationalised. To save the harvests, what’s left of FF’s will be used to provide food. And Police and the army set up to control it and a seed bank. etc etc.
Everybody will be on a pension, so they can buy food. But if the grid goes down so will banking as well as power sources. I wonder if any one is even considering a plan to manage a crash? I sure as hell haven’t heard of anything. Not good!
Once farming is done with fossil fuels, it is necessary to keep up the pattern. Either that, or wait several years before farmland becomes productive again, without fossil fuels. If erosion has been a problem, it may be a very long wait.
Farmland is the ultimate resource. I was giving an example, when there is not enough of it because population grows too much. Farmland ultimately gives the payback in food. If there is not enough, there is not enough food. It is hard to paper over this problem with more money or debt.
Farmland has been subdivided and subdivided for hundreds of years. It’s common to see the slots of land on cadastral maps. However when I lived in Italy I saw that although the ownership was in strips, the land was treated as a single family block to maximise production. We wouldn’t have time in a crash to do all that so the idea would be to nationalise the lot and try to make enough food to go around. Here in Aus we have paddocks well over a hectare in size wholly mechanised. Even the harvesters are automated and are guided by satellites. That system will be a goner. Even now one can only wonder how long it can continue being so FF dependent.
It’s not complex at all…. at some point the CBs policies fail… the lights go out…. and the extincting begins…
So this is what you believe ? And you call me clueless. Well, touché.
Once again the mainstream lies get reheated. Get into your head that government debt is a savings account for China and wealthy investors to earn a good interest. It’s the safest refuge for money as it is guaranteed by the Fed. Treasury sells bonds at auction because in their unlimited ignorance Congress has said Treasury must sell bonds to match the federal deficit. It’s the federal deficit that allows the economy to grow. If there is no deficit, if the taxes we pay outstrip spending then we get recessions. So the bigger the deficit the better off we become, [as long as we have the resources]
Governments fail. Remember the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The US government is no different from any other government. It has made many promises that indirectly require the use of real resources: food, road paving, creation of weapons, medical supplies, and growing supplies of fresh water.
The debt is effectively a promise of future goods and services created with energy supplies. If those energy supplies are not available, it is simply a false story.
A typical reason why governments have collapsed throughout the ages is because they became unable to collect enough taxes, as wage disparity became a bigger and bigger problem. The US has recently enacted a big tax cut, especially for the wealthy. Wage disparity is again a problem, as are growing government entitlements. Isn’t the tax cut simply a step toward collapse?
Otherwise, governments can issue more and more debt, but they will need QE to keep interest rates down. At some point the whole Ponzi Scheme collapses.
We don’t have all the resources. Other countries have most of what we need to support economic growth – resources which are “cheap” which means they take relatively little economic activity in order to extract . And they will only take U.S. sovereign currency for these resources so long as they believe dollars will continue to accurately represent the value of underlying collateral.
Read my other responses. Right now there is a lot of “fiscal space” into which money can be spent without creating excess inflation. At least a Trillion dollars, but maybe much more.
What I believe is that what cannot continue — will at some point stop.
And then humans will go extinct… but not before we suffer profoundly
It will be quite a show.
Just thinking about this FB thing… scanning through that ‘homeless’ person’s entire life…
e.g.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201796112495434&set=pb.1560558947.-2207520000.1521512898.&type=3&theater
And reading some of the inane commentary…
How is it possible that u look YOUNGER???
Beautiful pic Sis! You have always been Beautiful!
And I am feeling the vomit surge up through my throat and nasal passage… you know .. that acidic burning feeling like after drinking too much and forcing yourself to vomit….
And I am thinking …. how absolutely f789ed up humans are…. revolting … disgusting…. more onic…
And then I am thinking how the El ders must think of humans as less intelligent than donkeys… and far more easily trained….
The sooner we are exterminated… the better….
I’m sitting back watching the die-off with the elders. Hurry up.
FE, dude. Don’t despair. Here’s a little cartoon to cheer you up:
U.S. expected to impose up to $60 billion in China tariffs by Friday: sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-tariffs-china/u-s-expected-to-impose-up-to-60-billion-in-china-tariffs-by-friday-sources-idUSKBN1GV31E
Does this mean that Trump products will cost more?
It means that people/businesses will buy fewer of the products, because they cannot spend a whole lot more than what is provided in their paychecks. (Difference is the additional debt they can temporarily add.)
It may be that it is the US companies selling the products will take part of the higher-price “hit.” Or we will find an alternative supplier from say, India, in some cases.
The Telegraph is running an article entitled
Saudis ‘may run out of oil to export by 2030’
A report by Citigroup has warned that Saudi Arabia could run out of oil to export by 2030, raising fears that oil prices may rise significantly in coming years.
“If nothing changes, Saudi may have no available oil for export by 2030,” Citi analyst Heidy Rehman wrote.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9523903/Saudis-may-run-out-of-oil-to-export-by-2030.html
how does that grab ya!!!!
and get this after speaking with an executive about the Alberta oilsands a couple of weeks ago and their desire to frack in that area he said he got his degree by writing his thesis on fracking and concluded that the Alberta oilsands has about 20 years left of oil. What perked my interest however, was his view that it is a strategic reserve of the US! It is why all of the American oil companies are there. If something were to happen to the Middle East that is where America will turn? Wow, i thought too myself.
The collapse of Saudi Arabia is inevitable
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/collapse-saudi-arabia-inevitable-1895380679
Saudi Arabian oil reserves are overstated by 40% – Wikileaks
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Warns of World Oil Shortages Ahead
https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-minister-sees-end-of-oil-price-slump-1476870790
Saudi Aramco CEO sees oil supply shortage coming as investments, discoveries drop
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aramco-oil/aramco-ceo-sees-oil-supply-shortage-as-investments-discoveries-drop-idUSKBN19V0KR
Echo’s of the middle east; the shambles over there is a direct result of some of those countries mistakenly thinking it was their oil. How absurd. The history of Iran is of the struggle to own the oil revenues.
Canada may get a front-row seat in the future as yet another example of ‘The Curse of Oil’.
“Saudi Arabia consumes 25pc of its oil output…”
sell more oil, get richer, consume more oil…
this is the Export Land Model…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_Land_Model
“It models the decline in oil exports that result when an exporting nation experiences both a peak in oil production and an increase in domestic oil consumption. In such cases, exports decline at a far faster rate than the decline in oil production alone.”
after a country “peaks”, the average is ONLY 9 YEARS until it hits ZERO EXPORTS…
so, the amount of oil exported in the world will fall faster than the decline in oil production…
welcome to the 2030s…
after a country “peaks”, the average is ONLY 9 YEARS until it hits ZERO EXPORTS…
so, the amount of oil exported in the world will fall faster than the decline in oil production…
That is an excellent point David…
This is the story when the economy is far from world limits, when other energy production is allowing world energy consumption per capita to continue to rise. The decline is likely faster than this model suggests.
How long until SA is down 50% on exports? Which Saudi despots get their take cut?
the saudis use a third of their oil to keep themselves alive
that will be an interesting crossover point as the equation drops towards 50/50
Norway government on the brink of collapse
Norway’s centre-right government was teetering on the brink of collapse on Monday after opposition parties said they would support a no-confidence motion in a contentious anti-immigration minister.
Norway has been roiled for days by the fallout from comments by justice minister Sylvi Listhaug that the centre-left Labour opposition party believed “terrorists’ rights are more important than the nation’s security”. That touched a nerve as Labour and its youth organisation were the main targets of Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011.
Over the weekend, Norwegian media quoted people close to Erna Solberg, the conservative prime minister, saying she and her three-party minority government would resign if the no-confidence vote succeeded against Ms Listhaug, a member of the junior coalition partner Progress.
Ms Listhaug is a polarising figure in Norway because of her strident anti-immigration views. One of the parties Ms Listhaug offended in the past, the small Christian Democrats, threatened her future on Monday by backing the main leftwing parties, including Labour, in the vote against the justice minister.
Christian Democrats “do not have confidence in the sitting justice minister and therefore ask Erna Solberg to take action to avoid a no-confidence vote in parliament [on Tuesday]”, Knut Hareide, their leader, said.
Snap elections are not allowed in Norway with the next vote due in 2021. But there are several ways out of the crisis, including Ms Listhaug resigning or Ms Solberg reshuffling her cabinet. If Ms Solberg does resign, it could open the door to Jonas Gahr Store, the Labour leader, to try and form a coalition.
The presence of the populist Progress party in government is being closely watched across Europe as it was one of the first in a series of anti-immigration groups to gain power in recent years. Ms Listhaug, a former immigration minister, has shocked many on the left with her frank comments on immigrants.
“Listhaug likes flying close to the sun. One day she will get burned. I just hope it isn’t too costly for the rest of us,” said a Norwegian chief executive recently.
But to her supporters, she is seen as one of the few politicians willing to speak out on the dangers and fears of immigration. Some political analysts believe that Norway has avoided an extreme far-right party gaining power by letting the more moderate Progress into government and allowing Ms Listhaug to act as an outlet for anti-immigration frustrations.
Ms Listhaug finally apologised last week over her Facebook comments after many days of refusing to do so. Some Labour politicians believe that if Ms Listhaug were to apologise again and Ms Solberg asked parliament to vote on the future of the entire government, the Christian Democrats would be more likely to back the prime minister.
https://www.ft.com/content/1fc5ed2e-2b94-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381
but Norwegians are the happiest people on Earth…
That is because their government shares their oil wealth with their people. Unlike Putin and Russia….
Russia has a whole lot more population. Oil plays a smaller role. It is also somewhat more expensive to extract than in Saudi Arabia. The government of Russia does the same thing as every other government–collects the maximum possible taxes from the companies selling oil, based on the selling price of oil exports.
I would have a hard time believing that this revenue does not benefit the Russian people. Wage disparity is a problem, wherever there is not enough to go around.
no that Finland
Finland, Norway and Denmark takes turns being happiest. In the center sits swedes being miserable because we can’t get enough of different bathrooms.
What’s Going on in the Treasury Market?
Will we see a “monetary shock?”
Back in October 2015, the three-month Treasury yield was 0%. Many on Wall Street said that the Fed could never raise interest rates, that the zero-interest-rate policy had become a permanent fixture, like in Japan, and that the Fed could never unload the securities it had acquired during QE. How things have changed!
On Friday, the three-month Treasury yield closed at 1.78%, the highest since August 19, 2008. When yields rise, by definition bond prices fall:
https://wolfstreet.com/2018/03/18/how-seriously-is-the-treasury-market-taking-the-fed/
https://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/US-Treasury-yields-3-months-2018-03-18.png
It takes a little while to get feedback from higher interest rates. It seems like the Federal Reserve would have the good sense to go slow, but maybe not. US interest rates affect a lot of debt around the world, directly or indirectly, because of where the dollar floats with the changing interest rates. We now have a huge amount of derivatives outstanding as well.
US 3-mo is now up to 1.795%…
but, the US 10-yr was heading for 3+%, and They played whack-a-mole and now it’s down to 2.86%…
that almost unbroken trend since 2015 can’t continue…
I doubt that They will let this get out of control…
we all know, They are not stu pid…
Nope… they are definitely not st u pid…. a re tar ded 7yr old could be made to understand that a significantly higher interest rate … would collapse the global economy
When do we get the manslaughter charges?
Uber Halts All Autonomous Car Tests; Police Say Vehicle Showed “No Sign Of Slowing” In Deadly Crash
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-19/uber-halts-all-autonomous-car-tests-after-deadly-crash-overnight
This looks like a claim to settle, rather than going to trial. Of course, if the woman who was hit was homeless, and has no identifiable kin (we don’t know that yet), there may be no suit at all.
Doesn’t appear that she was homeless. Her name was Elaine Herzberg. This appears to be her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/elaine.herzberg.58
The Zerohedge article seemed to suggest that she might be homeless, but that was probably someone’s speculation.
That came from UBER’s PR Dept …. who were thinking – how can we get the masses to ignore this … oh I know … suggest she was homeless…. homeless people don’t matter…. they are irritants… dangerous… drug addicts….. so the perception will be that this event is a good thing …
Ok … let’s go with that.
She says this about herself on the site, if I am reading it correctly:
“became a mother at 15yrs. old ~ had daughter at 18yrs. old ~ married 3 xs ~ stays active in community ~ is currently active in freinds circle ~ very appreciated by her freinds”
With respect to current marital status, she describes herself as “separated.”
Every time (and it is not often) I look at someone’s FB page… I am amazed at the information people put on there… it’s like here’s my entire life on a web page … no privacy whatsoever…
As if anyone really gives a f789.
Well… I guess everyone wants to be famous… like Paris and Kim….and Justin….(and Fast Eddy snicker….) and FB (and other social media) pander to that overwhelming desire in so many people…
Shocker – FB exploits the psychological weaknesses in people to make money.
She looks a lot like my long lost sister…. I must get down to the morgue to identify — and claim her… poor thing… she ran off at 15 and joined the circus… and we never heard from her again…. oh boo hoo… I am in mourning…. this is so tragic… my lovely darling little sister …. boo hoo hoo….
how will you pass the DNA test?
I will scrape some skin cells off her in the morgue and submit those for the test.
I thought driverless autos were designed to scan in 360 degrees. If it didn’t slow down when it hit someone, then it wasn’t getting that data or at least not responding to it. The computer handling that car is fired!
The car will only do what it is programmed to do. The programmers didn’t think of every possibility in their code. Way too many variables involved in driving a car to turn that over to a computer (that was programmed by humans). I bet a lot of the code is basically a big guessing game.
How is it that people cannot grasp this? Robots do not think — they do what they are told.
Let me have a go at this…
Here’s a high tech car factory with plenty of automated tools .. ah… robots…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpwkT2zV9H0
The robots are working as per the instructions from the computer program that drives them. Nothing more. They preform the same repetitive movements over and over and over….
Now if for some reason a wrench were to come lose and clattered to the floor …. does anyone think the robot would be able to think ‘the wrench has come lose — I must stop work and bend my are over and look for the wrench — then pick it up — re-attach it to my arm — and continue assembling these cars’
Of course it would not — a technician would shut down the line…. walk over to the robot … look for the fallen wrench…. re-attach it to the robot…. then return to his console… and push the re-start button.
Now a fallen wrench is a relatively minor task — yet the robot arm cannot independently perform the simple thought task of finding it and picking it up …. whereas a f789ing dog can fetch a ball if thrown…..
Perhaps a robot could be programmed to find and pick up the wrench — but that would cost big dollars….
Skip over the self-driven cars…. they would have to perform tasks that are monumentally more complicated than picking up a wrench …. and these tasks would be infinite in number… there are literally an infinite number of potentialities that come into play when propelling a vehicle around a city….
Like the robot arm — a car CANNOT think… it cannot pick up a wrench….. you could program it to to quite a few things…. at massive expense….. however inevitably …. and very frequently….
The car would encounter a situation that the program does not recognize…. and someone dies.
I would still choose getting into the passenger seat with the worst human driver in the world … over sitting next to an empty driver’s seat.
Going bigger picture on this — I do not understand this infatuation with self-driving cars… even if they could programmed to perform better than a human…. so f789ing what?
Once again … the kittens must be given strings to bat around…. to amuse them….. to keep their minds off the chaos to come
Uber accident
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/03/19/woman-dies-in-arizona-after-being-hit-by-uber-self-driving-car/23389700/
https://qz.com/1166975/a-new-solar-highway-in-china-perfectly-captures-its-clean-energy-ambitions/
China made a solar panel highway. Stranger than fiction. I wonder how durable it will be.
This is a gimmick. Someone would have to be stupid to create a solar panel highway. 1) cars traveling over it would reduce the effectiveness 2) the way solar panels work is if any cell is “shaded” then it drops efficiency of the whole panel. Cars over this will have this effect 3) The lifespan of solar panels is longer than that of the road, so it would be a colossal waste of panels 4) The panels will get covered with debris and blockers (such as leaking oil) and not to mention they are not durable enough to withstand cars passing over them for 30 years.
I am sure that the reason they would create one of these is to try to have a new product that they can sell to the world. They are too sensible to scale them up themselves.
Good point, Gail. It’s a big sales pitch! You too can pave your roads with solar panels. Now sign here and we’ll start shipping them to you with complete installation instructions (that sort of make sense if you correct for good English).
As mentioned in the article, the first “solar panel road” was inaugurated in France in 2016. Well it is a 1 km (0,6 mile) prototype. It was the wish of our former environment minister Mrs Segolene Royale, a terrible egomaniac incompetent politic woman, a green groupie. Her role is to tell the story that green electricity will replace FF and reduce carbon emissions according to COP xx agreements, and save us all. She’s giving hope, providing a future, proving that “there are solutions” (as a good friend of mind tells me).
The idea of using roads, highways, parking places, for solar panels, is to avoid to use lands, fields, that are used for agriculture. Good point, no ? We don’t have so much space in western Europe than you have in U.S., like you have in the Midwest (and that’s why we are very much reluctant to frack the ground to extract shale gas –considering the fact that we would have reserves that might be promising).
The produced electricity by the road is meant to power traffic signalization devices. Not a big deal ! The cost is 170 EUR / Watt instead of 1 Watt for a standard industrial solar panel central.
The final fun fact is that the installation is set in Normandy. A Northern part of France known (or is is it a cliché) for its awful weather, cloudy, and rainy, while South of France (Cannes, Cote d’Azur) is very sunny. What the … ?
Here is a link to critical article in French from a rather decent scientific magazine : https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/nature-environnement/developpement-durable/la-route-solaire-est-elle-finalement-une-bonne-idee_109562
This is the sort of thing which is being put on trial in the EU ‘Project Stardust’ towns: three of them, one is my family’s home town Pamplona.
Think of the roads as part of our employment plan for engineers.
The propaganda chief at Rus sia Today sent this bizarre message today:
“Dear friends in the West: We don’t respect you anymore!”
“Pu tin isn’t our president, he is our Fuhr er!”
Yosh, do you have a link for this?
http://www.makerussiagreatagain.com
hope I got that right…
The link didn’t work.
Willhem Post has a calculation of the cost of batteries for four day backup for the electricity used in the state of Vermont.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-example-of-electricity-storage-with-tesla-powerwall-2-0s
He also calculates that using the Tesla 100MW/129 MWh Powerpack System would be considerably cheaper at “only” $20.8 billion.
He’s also not calculated how much the cost of materials would increase if one tried to scale this up across the entire country….
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43459156
‘Uber halts self-driving car tests after death’
Whoops!
“While self-driving cars have been involved in multiple accidents, it is thought to be the first time a self-driving car has been involved in a fatal pedestrian collision.”
Didn’t see that news was already posted.
As we detailed earlier, Tempe, Arizona police report that a self-driving Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode when it was involved in a deadly crash overnight.
As ABC15 reports, the crash occurred near Mill Avenue and Curry Road early Monday morning.
The Uber vehicle was reportedly headed northbound when a woman walking outside of the crosswalk was struck.
The woman was taken to the hospital where she died from her injuries.
Tempe Police says the vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash and a vehicle operator was also behind the wheel.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-19/uber-halts-all-autonomous-car-tests-after-deadly-crash-overnight
Some family is going to get very rich off the law suit
This is an argument for arming all citizens…. with bazookas… to kill the AI cars that are attacking Americans!
Elon was right – and that is what his flame throwers are for…
Russian hackers?
I remember someone posted an article about the introduction of these self-driving taxis was posted here a while ago. I said then that it could only work in sparsely populated areas with clear weather, like Arizona; as opposed to areas with mid-to-high level traffic. After all it would only take one fatality to kill this idea. So…I guess it doesn’t even work in Arizona!
Boston is talking about a fourth “nor’easter” this month, and possibly even a fifth. How, in such a densely-populated area, would a self-driving car work in white-out conditions?
Technology is having a bad day today.
The Dow Jones is down 454 points. Facebook seems to be leading the Dow down. Facebook said that a firm connected to the Trump administration improperly kept data on tens of millions of users.
Also, Uber has temporarily suspended its self driving car program, after one of their cars killed a pedestrian. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/19/uber-self-driving-car-fatality-halts-testing-in-all-cities-report-says.html
https://imgur.com/a/5XUss
119 Developing countries face debt collapse
There are 119 countries around the world in dire financial straits, weighed down by massive debt, says a report from the Catholic aid organization Misereor. Their coffers are empty, the threat of bankruptcy looms large.
http://www.dw.com/en/developing-countries-face-debt-collapse/av-42996076
Maybe—
But this is from a group of people who think a cosmic jewish zombie controls the world.
Just saying!
So where is all of the world’s demand for oil and other energy products supposed to come from? Will someone suddenly extend credit to all of these developing countries?
It depends whether or not the countries are monetary sovereign. In which case they repeat the old formula of devaluation. If everyone devalues it just resets the currencies at a lower level without greatly altering the ratios they had to start with. MS countries can always find the money to buy any debt in its own currency. With external debts they have to buy foreign currency. This may be a big cost but it’s still do-able with devalued currency. I suppose then they can renegotiate the loans. But if they need oil and other essentials they have little choice.
“MS countries can always find the money to buy any debt in its own currency. With external debts they have to buy foreign currency. This may be a big cost but it’s still do-able with devalued currency.”
When everything is going well–resources are abundant and economies are growing–this is true. But it is not true as we reach limits. Venezuela is an example of what happens to oil exporters when we reach limits, and oil prices are low. We started to see what happens to oil importers, when oil prices are high, in 2008. Now the world economy is too weak to get the price back up as high as it was them.
Yes but it’s a lot more elastic when MMT understanding is used and maybe the worst of it can be overcome, assuming, a big if, that the government is competent. Venezuela is a case with incompetent government. Everything they do is mistaken and now they are going rogue and feral.
You expect an economy to “go rogue and feral” when energy consumption per capita falls from its previous levels. With a lesser per capita energy problem, we end up with leaders like Trump.
You get the kind of government that available cheap energy can provide. If oil prices were higher, Venezuela would be doing fine. The problem is that prices do not rise to match extraction costs.
‘feral’ Excellent word.
Definition of feral
1 : of, relating to, or suggestive of a wild beast feral teeth feral instincts
2 a : not domesticated or cultivated : wild feral animals
b : having escaped from domestication and become wild feral cats
The Call of the Wild beckons…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s88y5U7QXc
The warm up:
Our upcoming global government will offer “Universal Income” for bankrupt countries. That, coupled with some choice bribes to the ruling elite, and bingo, every bankrupt country signs on….for perpetual slavery.
The the main reason for all these problems ? OVER-POPULATION !
Too many people on this planet will ultimately kill us all….. oh, the irony of it all…..
I agree that over population is the main cause of our problems. However, without over population you can’t have economies of scale. Without economies of scale much of our modern tech could not have been created. It is extremely ironic.
Economies of scale have fuels growth, from the time of hunter-gatherers. Division of labor allows specialization (hunt, gather, make tools), and as a result more can be done. Add the control of fire to this, and humans had a winning combination.
Of course, debt was needed to pull the economy forward. In the early period, this debt was more informal. The nature of the agreement was more or less, “If you keep the best for yourself, or don’t do your part, you will be be kicked out of the hunter-gatherer group, and likely perish. If you cooperate, you can continue to be part of the group, as long as your health holds out.”
some in this hunter gatherer group would make a useful food source—if things got really desperate
I believe that was part of the original deal for dogs: you get the bones and stuff, but if things get tough – we’ll eat you.
ive always been a picky eater
it’s my ”triumvirate of chaos” again—never fails
population –climate change — energy shortage
try to deal with any one and the other two rear up and bite you in the ass
Difficult to do anything about CCCC CCCC unless we can somehow work out how to control the sun
i’ll see what i can do
please leave sacrifices outside my front door
Elon’s on it.
https://kuduka.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/catch22-joseph-1680×1050-wallpaper-898614.jpg
For our 3-2 hundred thousand year existence we have had 1-10 million (just about went extinct 70,000 years ago).
Of course, that was with a intact ecosystem, that is far in the rear view mirror.
7.7 billion homo sapiens? Come now, my delusional friends, anyone thinking?
The spike from millions to billions of humans was no doubt due to cheap energy.
Burning all that energy created a lot of high tech energy consuming devices (cars, planes, compuers, internet). But all this came at a high ecological (and resource) cost. It seems doubtful to me that the resources of the planet and ecosystem (being as depleted as it is) will be able to support pre-industrial population levels when supplies of cheap energies crash.
There are only about 300,000 chimpanzees and about 100,000 gorillas in the world. Without the benefit of burned biomass, we would not have gotten much above these levels.
Even with burned biomass we got to 1-10 million, with a extinction event about 70,000 years ago (we were down to 10,000, probably a lot less- it shows up in our Mitochondria ).
7.7 billion on a resource challenged planet– you must be kidding!
I agree 7.7 billion is impossible.
What’s your definition of “an intact ecosystem”?
Is Antarctica’s ecosystem more “intact” because it has been less impacted by human activity than Madagascar’s. Or is Madagascar’s ecosystem more intact because it is so much more diverse, complex, and brimming with biological activity?
If you’d been living almost anywhere in Canada, Britain or Scandinavia 70,000 years ago you would have had a hard time hunting, gathering, keeping warm, maintaining the igloo, and avoiding being eaten by marauding wolves and polar bears. Overall the world was cooler, it’s land was drier, the air was dustier, and the see-oh-two level was low enough to make agriculture so impractical nobody bothered to invent it. Very probably, there was less biomass and less biodiversity in most places 70,000 years ago than there is today.
Arguably, the world’s ecosystems are more “intact” now than they were then, depending on one’s definition of that fuzzy term.
Your statement on C-O-2 levels 70000 yrs ago is misleading. For example about 150000 yrs ago the levels were higher than they are now. The level oscillated over time, going up and down. Biodiversity has always been there.
U.S. Shale Drillers To Become Profitable For The First Time
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-Shale-Drillers-To-Become-Profitable-For-The-First-Time.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+oilpricecom+(Oil+Price.com+Daily+News+Update)
This is good news, but shale can’t make up for all the worlds declining conventional supplies…Which will be the final nail in the coffin of BAU..Because they can’t do anything about it!
Actually, the article doesn’t really give any proof that they will be profitable. It just reports that Goldman believes that with increased hedging at prices around $60 per barrel, “This should allow many producers to grow, while spending within cash flow during 2018.” It doesn’t mean that the companies can pay their income taxes or overhead expenses, as far as I can tell. There is certainly no proof of the Goldman statement regrading profitability.
this seems to offer a reasonable oulook on shale drilling etc–a few years out of date, but still credible i think
http://peakoilbarrel.com/imminent-peak-us-oil-production/
It seems like the profitability of tight oil fields has been a question now for almost 10 years. If a person has to look THAT closely to determine if tight oil is profitable or not, then it probably isn’t.. It should be blatantly obvious that is is profitable or not. Shouldn’t even be a question. If these tight oil companies were profitable, they should be rolling in the dough and the economy should be booming again. Well the bottom line is they are not financially sound and the economy is on the brink of collapse.
Good eye Gail…Goldman is notorious for lying. They said a few months ago they expected GDP to be 4 percent this year.
Financial crack…
Credit card debt surpasses $1 trillion in the US for first time
https://www.acainternational.org/assets/wallethub-study-credit-card-debt-surpasses-1-trillion/dollarsigngraph.jpg
By Nataly Pak
8 March 2018
(ABC News) – U.S. consumers’ total credit card debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, according to a new study by the personal finance website WalletHub.
Consumers took on an additional $92.2 billion in debt last year, the highest single-year amount since 2007. The average U.S. household owes $8,600 on credit cards, WalletHub found.
The accumulation of debt reflected Americans’ confidence in the economy, according to Jill Gonzalez, a senior analyst at WalletHub.
“We haven’t seen anything like this,” she told ABC News. “Consumer confidence is at its highest point. Since the recession, people have been saving up for houses, cars … new furniture and appliances, which often get charged on credit cards.”
In the fourth quarter of 2017 alone, consumers added $67.6 billion while the charge-off rate remained at historical lows.
Charge-off rate is the percentage of credit card users whose unpaid balances credit card companies are unable to collect.
The low charge-off rate is helping lenders continue to extend credit, making it easier for consumers to spend.
However, the delinquency rate increased at the end of the third quarter last year, she said.
“People are spending so much more than they have. They cannot keep up with the bill,” said Gonzalez.
It is not clear that recent accumulation of debt really reflected Americans’ confidence in the economy. When oil prices rise, one way of working around the situation is letting credit card balances increase for a while. Oil prices started rising in July of 2017, which was third quarter of 2017.
The accumulation of debt reflected Americans’ confidence in the economy
https://nataliaantonova.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/cannot-handle-the-hysterical-laughter.gif
Yes, this was too funny.
Novichok . The assumptions are unravelling;
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49003.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49005.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49012.htm
The new Nissan leaf with the 30 kW rated battery-pack seems to have a problem; there is a 10% annual power loss being experienced by many owners of 2nd hand imports in NZ (24 kW model seems to be ok). Magazine item National Radio 19th March.
The stated range of 170 km is dropping round 15km a year; range anxiety anyone?
Costs of well over 10 k and up to 18k are being bandied around.
Bit of a shock!
you mean, EVs aren’t going to save us?
well, we will still have the Cora’s…
No, apparently not; well in my lifetime…..go figure.
So many smart people, so many dumb ideas!
The silo thinkers have similar cool-aid refreshments.
If the fundamental axioms are wrong, then the ideas have to be dumb, however ‘smart’ the people.
We will see one more fantastic mal-investment after another.
A bit like the captain of a sinking battleship saying ‘Hey, there wouldn’t be any problem at all if only we could just manage to turn this ship into a submarine!’
That is priceless!!!! I am so happy to see this …. stuuuupidity and delusion need to be punished….
But these EV flunkies don’t mind though …. it’s a small price to pay to be a saving the world pioneer!
Just like they don’t mind having to wait hours to recharge their car on a long haul trip i.e. more than a couple of hundred km…. it gives them time to relax… have lunch (and dinner)… and a coffee… and read a book… (Kindle)… check their Apple watch…. surf FB and Por n h ub….
Reminds me of the video of the Tesla owner who was bringing his new heap of junk back to the dealer every couple of weeks with various rattles, misaligned body parts, etc etc etc….
And he was not getting upset!!! A 100k car and it’s basically a pc of sh it and you are not upset?
I’d drive the f789ing thing through the showroom window – throw the keys on the floor — and demand a refund…
But nnnnnnnooooooo…. he needs to give Elon a break… after all… it’s for a good cause….
“Reminds me of the video of the Tesla owner who was bringing his new heap of junk back to the dealer every couple of weeks with various rattles, misaligned body parts, etc etc etc….”
I’ve seen this as well and it astounds me. People with distorted windshields, ill-fitting door panels, doors that won’t open or won’t latch, etc. and they seem to completely take it in stride in a $100k car, even though it seems to take them half a dozen attempts to fix as well. The Tesla fans are a weird cult indeed.
The fender and the bumper had a gap of a cm or so… and Tesla said they would not fix it because it was ‘within the tolerance range’
And then there’s the reality that most Tesla’s are charged using electricity produced from coal…
Duh….double Duh…. double More ons….
Cult-thinking: like the Germans in 1945 believing Hitler was just about to reveal his Wonder Weapon, while the country was being bombed into the Stone Age as a result of his incompetence….
I agree. Generally people who spend $100k+ on a car are insanely picky. I too do not understand how Tesla customers are not completely outraged and outspoken about the problems these cars have.
They are drunk on kool aid… slobbering spitting … crawling on all fours… nothing matters when in such a state…
How can an internal combustion engine be beat. Bought truck with 42K miles for 10,000. cash, no loan so no interest paid. Has only required regular maintenance and replacement parts as they wore out. Averaged 10K miles a year and just about to hit 200,000 miles. V6 4.0 liter engine still runs like a clock on cheap unleaded, 87 octane. A fill up costs about 45 bucks and even though it’s 21 years old, it goes 300 miles before needing another fill up and that hasn’t changed since I bought it. How can an EV possibly beat that?
It cannot. But the ev is “green”. Perception is everything.
“But the ev is “green”. Perception is everything.”
True, but it still needs to be financially practical for the consumer.
a battery hedge trimmer uses the same battery, and has the same year on year loss cycle
so why is anyone surprised
“a battery hedge trimmer uses the same battery, and has the same year on year loss cycle”
I’ve noticed the same thing with the my cordless batteries for my hand drill. One tip is to leave a trickle amount of power in the battery, because it is then easier to charge. Many people make the mistake of thinking it’s better to completely drain the battery before charging but this makes the loss of capacity speed up.
So yes, it’s no surprise the same thing is happening to EV batteries. The only remedy would be further development in battery tech. to overcome this problem.
the solution of course is a 350m battery and a 2 min charge, with no power rundown
not saying impossible—but so far elusive
if that were possible, then you would run into the problem of juice being sucked through fillin/charging stations.
at the moment, the energy sits it a big tank under the forecourt, filling 50 cars an hour no problem
imagine the infrastructure necessary to get that much electrical energy delivered to the same place
and no—streetside chargers wouldnt work, because there would always have to be more of them than cars to allow for spaces at them and installation cost would be prohibitive
walking in london the other day, stepped over a cable running out through somebodys letterbox to their ev—pretty sure that has to be illegal
I don’t see how EV batteries can last much beyond 5 years. Especially if the vehicle is recharged every day. All other Li-ion that are recharged daily begin to deplete in as little as a year. So, even with all the fancy charging algorithms, I don’t see how is the EV battery going to be much better.
Yep — mobile phone batteries are no different than EV batteries… and performance really starts to degrade after a couple of years…
Self flying plane for New Zealand! FE will you buy one?
https://cora.aero/
“Cora was designed with the planet in mind from day one. It’s part of the electric revolution that’s leading us to a sustainable future. And with the power to rise above the road, Cora will help ease the pressure traffic places on all our lives.”
and electric, too!
a sustainable future!
if we all buy one, we can save the planet!
let’s do this!
Who funds this sh it?
OMG, I do!
And so do you if you pay tax in NZ. They got you FE!!
‘Zephyr Airworks, Kitty Hawk’s operator in New Zealand, is working with the government, businesses and local communities to make the dream of everyday flight a reality.’
See, pigs can fly on the back of enough taxpayer money.
Its the ‘NZ Tesla’.
Sunuvabitcch…. I see the HK govt caved in and is again offering steep subsidies to Tesla purchasers… so I am paying corporate tax dollars so that wealthy Green Grooopies and make believe….
And yes I do pay tax in NZ… so I am feeding another f789ing bunch of beggars here…
I’ve got so many daggers stuck in my back….
I know – I will smoke a kg of meth… and a potato sack of weed… and come up with a really really stewpid idea… and pitch it to the Minister of Green Propaganda… I am thinking the sheep + solar panel breeding thing….
Where’s that bottle of Oxy… I need my Oxy….
Maybe flying cars are the answer is one can’t afford to maintain the roads……
Poor FE: all over the world only to end up in one of the centres of loony Green-think.
They should link up with the ‘Project Stardust’ people in the EU: great minds can do more, together!
I’ve got just the snowflake to be the global head of Koombaya!
https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/130/590x/secondary/Justin-Trudeau-crying-1100875.jpg
http://www.informationliberation.com/files/trudeau-cries-again.jpg
One must choose one’s words with care… when surrounded by Group-Thinkers….
Group Think can lead to grim outcomes for dissenters:
We need to have products that make it look like there is hope. The world is changing for the better. Technology will save us.
“And with the power to rise above the road, Cora will help ease the pressure traffic places on all our lives.”
Holy living frack they built a plane that can rise above the road!
The funny thing .. other than in Auckland… there are virtually not traffic problems in NZ… cuz there’s no people
but come shtf time—everyone knows where you live
it will start to get very crowded
Vermin are very good at finding food … when there is very little to be had…
Anyone notice Cora only flies at 120 kilometres per mile? I can do 50 on my bike (well down hill). I’ve had a couple of helicopters and a couple of electric cars and the two don’t mix well. helicopters run at close to full power most of the time and anyone who drives electric knows your battery range is cut by75% at high speed. Another problem is called dissymmetry of lift. Imagine rotor tip going 100 miles per hour, now move the aircraft forward at 100 mph and you can see the advancing blade is going 200mph and the retreating blade is going 0! The American military has the Osprey were the rotor becomes a propeller when tilted forward this design doesn’t. FE assessment is correct!
Some millennials aren’t saving for retirement because they don’t think capitalism will exist by then
Elias Schwartzman, 29, a musician, told me. “When I’m at retirement age, around 2050, I think it’s possible we’ll have seen a breakdown of modern society.” Schwartzman said that he saw the future as encompassing one of two possibilities: an apocalyptic “total breakdown of industrial society,” or “capitalism morphing into a complete plutocracy.” “I think the argument can be made that we’re well on the way to that reality,” he added.
https://www.salon.com/2018/03/18/some-millennials-arent-saving-for-retirement-because-they-do-not-think-capitalism-will-exist-by-then/
thanks, BD…
I suppose that some persons can figure out that IC is showing cracks and can foresee that it will someday totally crack up, even without knowing the FF basis for prosperity and the scenario of the inevitable decline of FF in the coming decades…
this article supports that idea…
I wonder what Elias and those like him would think if they knew about the reality of FF resources.
I spoke with a millennial today. He said he took a course in college on the collapse of civilizations. I was surprised to hear that. However he was not aware that our present civilization will soon collapse. I informed him briefly on the energy problem and gave him this website. He may read about himself here.
Hello Mr Millennial — welcome to the funeral site for the human race.
Fast Eddy … standing by … should you have any questions.
Atoll of Nukutepipi
Guy Laliberté became in 2007 the owner of the atoll of Nukutepipi in the French Polynesia. Major works that took place there were expected to end in 2016 at the cost of approximately 20 millions CA$, according to Journal de Montréal (see below).
In May 2014, Guy Laliberté told the Journal de Montréal that he wanted to make of this place a shelter that could accommodate his family and friends in the event of a global catastrophe. “Because of all that’s happening in the world, I said to myself: that could be the place where, in case of an epidemic or a total war, I could bring people I like and my family so that we’d be protected. It will be completely autonomous on the level operation: solar, environmental, ecologic.”[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Lalibert%C3%A9
Sex, drugs & acrobats
On the eve of Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary, a new book exposes the stunning rise and wild times of its billionaire founder
As it approaches its 25th anniversary on June 16, Cirque du Soleil is solidly entrenched as one of Canada’s greatest entertainment and business success stories. From its almost mythic origin as the creation of a group of young Québécois idealists, hard-working, hard-living, utopian-minded street performers led by a (literal) fire-breather named Guy Laliberté, the Cirque and its postmodern, animal-free productions now span the globe. Laliberté, who used to sleep in parks while performing for spare change, parlayed his extraordinary drive and ambition—and rode the wave of Quebec nationalism unleashed by the Parti Québécois election victory of 1976 (premier René Lévesque was a crucial early Cirque supporter)—into becoming one of Quebec’s six billionaires. On the eve of his 50th birthday, Laliberté’s $2.5-billion personal fortune now puts him at number 261 in Forbes’ ranking of the world’s richest people.
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/sex-drugs-acrobats/
This island could be a great place to celebrate the Death of BAU. How does one get invited?
you’re the World Champion Genius God Emperor… 😉
so why would you need an invitation?
I need the coordinates.
US training Syria militants for false flag chemical attack as basis for airstrikes – Russian MoD
https://www.rt.com/news/421589-us-preparing-syria-provocations-airstrikes/
is that like the false flag attack in Salisbury, England?
Retailers are filing for bankruptcy at a staggering rate — and these 19 companies could be the next to default
http://www.businessinsider.com/retail-bankruptcies-expected-this-year-2018-3
https://imgur.com/a/9m9Pz
I bet the bankruptcy rate is very low in Russia…
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43088445
Think Russia’s a great place with great leadership? That’s a good article on the state of Russia.
Brought to you by the BBC, the government mandated monopoly in the UK.
So JJ, are you saying that’s fake news?
isn’t forcing the BBC on its population the kind of thing you would expect under totalitarianism?
You don’t have to pay for the BBC in the UK if you don’t use its services.
how easy is it to get out from paying?
It used to be very difficult to not to have to pay for the BBC if you owned a TV or radio in the UK because it was impossible not to receive BBC services but you didn’t have to pay the licence fee if you didn’t own a TV or radio.
These days there is more of a grey area. You can receive digital TV and media services and demonstrate that you don’t use the BBC, in that case they will not charge you. It’s a bit of a problem for the Beeb as slowly, slowly more people aren’t paying the licence fee and it’s becoming more difficult for them to demonstrate their services are being used.
“how easy is it to get out from paying?”
Very easy. Don’t buy a licence.
If there is no licence at an address, regular letters will be received threatening a visit from licensing officers, but these can be ignored. In the unlikely event licensing officers ever do show up, they have no right of entry to the house nor is one obliged to speak to them.
thanks for those two answers…
long live the BB… uh…
long live the BAU…
David, my understanding is BBC is independent of the government, that is it doesn’t take it’s talking points from them like Fox does from the Republicans. If you have proof otherwise please provide links.
can you prove your assertion that the BBC is “independent”?
I won’t even ask for proof that they are unbiased, because as you well know, there is no such thing.
The BBC is MSM. Therefore it is not independent. It – like all MSM – get content from the Ministry of Truth.
It is 99%+ worthless
As much as the BBC claims it is independent from the government, it probably isn’t, that said, the BBC has always maintained a principle of independence and always claims to be fair and balanced.
The benefit of having an organisation like the BBC though, is that in being relatively free from commercial pressures it can be far more experimental in its output and give creative people far more independence in their work. From that point of view, I’m quite happy to pay for the licence fee.
And the UK Government is not independent either… they take their orders from The El ders.
And they get rewarded for doing so
According to The Richest, Blair’s net worth is estimated at $30million (around £22.1million).
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/899968/Tony-Blair-net-worth
£330,000 for a 20-minute speech at a world hunger event? Tony Blair is an inspiration to us all
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/330000-for-a-20-minute-speech-at-a-world-hunger-event-tony-blair-is-an-inspiration-to-us-all-10289764.html
For comparison, in Germany 70% of those who are unemployed live below the poverty line [worst in the EU]. It’s all down to neo-liberal policies of Austerity.
It is all down to not enough energy to go around. Germany could outspend its income, and thereby temporarily raise the income of the unemployed. But doing so would push the Euro down, relative to the dollar and other currencies. Thus, it would make the price of oil higher, and make it more difficult for Germany to import oil.
Wage/income disparity is what we expect, when there is not enough energy to go around. Germany’s focus on wind and solar are part of what is hurting the poor as well.
Yes, it’s a quite deliberate policy choice to keep the Euro favourable. Trouble with all this neo-liberal thinking is that the Economy is more important than society, and the people have to serve the Economy instead of the other way round.
Sorry to bring man made glow bull warning up again, but this article is fascinating.
https://harpers.org/archive/1958/09/the-coming-ice-age/
If you still believe that it’s man made after reading this there really is no hope for you.
‘The Arctic was ice free in the last ice age’
Thank you to Commentator Nassim at Automatic Earth for this one.
I think this is the better story:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43210257
Russians have more, and poverty is down…
more importantly, though not stated in the article, is that Russia has massive FF resources, so their (near) future should be one where their prosperity is increasing…
what other country could reasonably say that?
Yep, very few imports, massive resources, and a expanding agricultural sector (up 1100 percent from Yeltsin), well educated and small population.
It will be Russia and Canada, with possibly Chile and Argentina (if they get a good call) as the last of of the intact entities,
I’m sure that I once read that Canada annually exports a higher % of its resources than any other country…
if that is still true, then Canada’s (near) future is iffy…
though they do have a small population and lots of wood…
burn, baby, burn.
Prosperity for whom? Putin and his buddies? Surely you don’t mean the average citizen because unlike Norway they don’t share oil profits with ‘The People’.
It’s fascinating how Russia use to be ruled by the Czar and his family and a few around him owned the wealth, then they were executed in the revolution, but now Russia’s back to the same situation with it’s political leaders/oligarchs owning the wealth of the country.
so are you saying that they are a lot like us here in the USA, where every ounce of GDP growth seems to be going to the 1%?
all in all, I’d rather live here.
so where is the US sovereign wealth fund?
Russia is of course the most corrupt country in the world barring all the others.
nyet…
The USA is quickly becoming Russian…. in terms of polarization of wealth….
nyet…
sovereign states throughout history were always just that
owned by the sovereign in the literal sense—he then rented out parts of it to people who supported him, they paid rent, and so propped up the entire system.—the actual name of the sovereign is irrelevant
it has been the concept of ”ownership” that has caused the planet to seize up, and to organise itself to get rid of the people who have insisted that ownership is some kind of ”normality”—it isn’t
humankind is the only species that thinks it owns the land it lives on
maybe time to stop and think about that
Good point!
Although… other animals are territorial… and will attempt to drive off interlopers…
there is no concept of ownership though in any commercial sense—thats just a survival of the fittest thing
as a guest scientist on a German research cruise, i was taking a break and wearing my usual Hawaiian attire (tee shirt, shorts, slippers). the chief scientist saw me and said “you look like a tourist!”. so I shot back: ‘Chief, we’re all tourists!” he turned and walked away.
thats what a call a cruise ship
with a heirarchy of scientists
and that’s why the neocons want a war with Russia, to steal their massive FF resources.
da…
IEA: Russia’s oil output to reach its peak in 2020
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/IEA-Russia%E2%80%99s-oil-output-to-reach-its-peak-in-2020.html
So much for future! They already collapsed once cause of peak oil and an oil shortage..The only reason they were able to establish another one was because they opened up to free markets and private industries that brought in upgraded enhanced oil recovery technologies…
The Soviet Union collapse because of low oil prices. This is the opposite of the high prices that most people assume will come with “peak oil.” A major reason that they could extract more oil was because oil prices rose again, making more expensive techniques and more expensive locations economic.
huge conventional oil reserves… even with a peak in 2020, their decline will be slow through the 2030s…
AND massive natural gas reserves…
meanwhile, their main customer is Europe, which has almost no FF resources…
the (near) future:
the flow of wealth will be from Europe into Russia…
but don’t shoot the messenger…
I didn’t create that reality.
Their prosperity is increasing, only if the price they can sell their fossil fuels at are high enough prices to cover their costs, plus needed taxes, plus needed reinvestment expenses. Otherwise, they are in a position like Venezuela and Norway and Saudi Arabia.
I wouldn’t classify Russia in that category. They manufacture high tech weaponry. They earn more off agricultural exports than they do oil. They have no debt.they have large hard currency reserves. Being practically the worlds single largest source of energy AND food will be a very powerful position in the future. They clearly have a lower cost of extraction of oil 5an the US does. I would say they are in a relatively strong position.
Yes, Russia is fairly autarkic when it comes to the necessities to keep things rolling; they really depend on imports for things like higher tech automobiles, computers, cellphones, etc.
Your jingoism is fascinating! And sad! And a worry. ..and has confirmed in my mind we are indeed in a predicament with no way out.
da…
Mr Wyoming …:) reassuringly consistent!
I like JH… really…
and Keith, too… (in a different way)…
miss you, Keith!
Its an eclectic commentariat here for sure; Thanks Gail!
Maybe Keith is still paddling his canoe, but in another pond/creek/…puddle?
I believe Don haunts Tim Morgan?
OFW rocks!
I don’t always post…
but when I do, I prefer Dos OFW…
stay thirsty (for knowledge), my friends…
It is amusing that in 2018 jingoism is to be found in liberals instead of conservatives. At least we get a bit of fun new entertainment sometimes…
And what does it say about the state of the UK — when the population is not only force fed propaganda — they even have to pay for the privilege…
If you don’t eat your meat you can’t have any pudding!!!! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?
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How does it feel to live life like this….
http://www.justinjin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Justin-Jin-Travel-107-web.jpg
Is that Lake Baikal? If so it’ll support heavy rail
Feels good…like a good day of ice-fishing with safe ice to walk on. My misspent youth.
Have to wonder if that pic is of frozen ice or a painted floor? After all, would they really risk an actor walking on cracked ice?
Having spent an inordinate amount of time ice fishing, I can tell you that by all indications that ice is over a foot thick which would be able to support a 2 ton SUV. The cracking is exactly what normal lake ice looks like in midwinter in northern realms.
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https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-18/uk-spy-agencies-warn-power-companies-brace-crippling-russian-cyberattack
Did it not occur to them that Putin could simply push a button … and No Gas for You!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svSGKJFSl-8
I am not getting it… why does Putin not simply mention this detail?
Is there perhaps a certain responsibility to one’s customer’s to be worthy of trust? A different approach would be to increase the cost to the end user. Cooperation of one sort or another seems to work better than confrontation.
Not when your customer is trying to cut your throat and steal your goods.
it’s complex…
Russia needs the revenue from gas sales to Europe…
the buying countries know this…
Russia is building a pipeline to China (correct?)…
if so, Europe knows this…
for now, the status quo benefits Russia and Europe…
when will this arrangement change?
I am sure Russia would not collapse if they shut the gas for a week…
Or better still… increase the price by 20%… just because they can
Saddam insane cut off oil exports to the US around 2001. And look what happened to him..Don’t make em George Bush this button, over nothing.
I am not sure whether or not this is exactly true. Clearly the world oil price is terribly important to Iraq, a country that gets its revenue from oil exports. Oil prices were at a record low in 1998-1999, no doubt harming the country. They were a little higher in 2000 and 2001.
If prices were low, and I were the leader of Iraq, I would cut off exports as well.
This is what the CIA says about Iraq Economic Data 1989-2003
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/chap2_annxD.html
I am sure that once a pipeline is in place to China then Yuan will replace Euros in the Gazprom accounts.
What recovery?
https://imgur.com/a/J2J44
how many homeless in Moscow?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VSOBg6SlWk
Michael Pento a financial expert talks about what’s going to happen if interest rates keep rising.
so they won’t keep rising…
US 10 yr yield down to 2.84%…
the PPT will not fail…
the Percent Protection Team…
He didn’t say immediately. He just said it has to at some point.
Interest rates in some ways reflect difference between consuming now or delaying until later. If there is no ‘later’ then they are a fictitious entity. We are consuming/have consumed the future so grab that seed corn and bake that corn-bread.
It used to be people prefered now above later, hence a positive interest rate.
If people, or at least the system, ”knows” it will be less in the future, they can accept giving up consumption today for less consumption in the future.
I think you are right. Zero interest really means that there is no later. (I am not quite sure what negative interest rates mean–perhaps, even less in the future.)
If we know that there is going to be high inflation, a high interest rate makes sense.
Returns on debt and shares of stock should, in theory, give a somewhat higher yield to the shares of stock, because of the greater risk involved. (This occurs, because when there is not enough to go around, debt get paid first.)
Within the time delay, one issue is the amount of growth the business can expect. Another is the amount of inflation that can be expected. A third issue is the likelihood that the investment will not return enough, and because of this, the borrower will become unable to repay the debt with interest.
We are at a situation where the amount of growth a business can expect is low, unless it cannibalize other businesses, the way Amazon is doing. Energy companies seem to be depleting their reserves, because prices stay too low from them to make adequate new investment. Saudi Arabia needs to issue debt, to maintain needed government programs. The price of oil is too low to collect adequate tax revenue.
Would not zero (real ”risk free”) interest just mean you are happy getting back what you save?
If you know there is no later then you would not save even if offered a million percent interest.
My guess is that negative interest rates reflect consumption of existing capital as there is no future or long-term use for it. High bonuses paid to staff of failing companies is another symptom of this disappearing future.
Is not consumption of existing capital same thing as de-growth? Decaying infrastructure of a government, older and less healthy population.
Zero interest rate means that we have increasing amounts of dead stuff, while the energy, including the energy of humans and their population, is declining. The production of the new stuff does not produce more energy, including the rise of the human populations, anymore. There will be more and more dead stuff, which means, that sooner or later negative interest rates will be normal.
Question is HOW negative is required and for how LONG does society manage to reorganize before collapse.
That’s an interesting way to put it, Gail, that Amazon is cannibalizing other businesses. I hadn’t thought if it exactly that way before.
I read somewhere that the periphery (non-super wealthy) are being incrementally cut off, much like the human body cuts off blood flow to the periphery (feet, hands, nose, ears) to maintain blood flow to vital organs. So are the super wealthy cannibalizing the rest of us with help from politicians, essentially making that same decision a body does?
The idea of a future with a super wealthy class sequestered away from the masses of super poor, is portrayed in many sci-fi movies, and sometimes life imitates art. It seems like it’s headed in that direction, a dystopian future where the best resources are only used for the top .01% while the rest scavenge what gets tossed out by the top class. I know we already have shades of that but I’m referring to just two classes here, .01 & 99.9 with extreme disparity of wealth.
Interesting, Amazon is what catabolic collapse looks like. When there is nothing left to cannibalize, stock goes to zero, pensions go puff? How many industries are left? Medical and dental supplier are rumored to be next on the list.
This was not quite what Michael Greer saw, if it is a truth, those who did became very wealthy. To those who have, much will be given.
“Medical and dental supplier are rumored to be next on the list.”
I wonder if that’s due to restrictions med. ins. puts on how much can be charged for a particular procedure.
Dream of US Oil Independence Slams Against Shale Costs
It will take 2,500 new wells a year just to sustain output of 1 million barrels a day in North Dakota’s Bakken shale, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.that Iraq could do the same with 60.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-27/dream-of-u-s-oil-independence-slams-against-shale-costs
https://imgur.com/a/PxYWP
Right now, the main approach is to blend the ultra-light with heavier grades of oil to create a mixture that can be put into refineries. This has created high demand for heavier oil (20-30 API gravity). The main sources for the U.S. are deep-water Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Venezuela and Canada. Much of this heavy oil has problems of its own for refiners especially the syn-crude from Canada and Venezuela that contains large volumes of bitumen that requires a special kind of refinery (“cokers”) that can deal with the carbon and sell it as petroleum coke.
Most of these refineries are in the Midwest (Chicago area mostly). The deep water GOM crude contains considerable sulphur that must be removed before refining further. As you can see, it is a complex problem. It reflects the fundamental premise of Peak Oil—namely, that we have run out of cheap oil.
The issue is affordability. Oil, no matter where it is produced is expensive to produce. In Saudi Arabia and much of the world, necessary taxes are the important cost. Most analyses leave taxes (and a lot of other things) out.
If tight oil were causing huge refining problems, the price that refineries would be willing to pay for it would drop, to pay for the additional refining costs. A person can see differences in average purchase prices by area in EIA data.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/PET_PRI_DFP1_K_M.htm
Looking at the above schedule, a person can see that in December 2017 the average price refiners were willing to pay for US crude oil as $56.98 for the US as a whole. Our biggest source of tight oil is Texas. The average price paid for crude from Texas is $57.27, so The difference goes the wrong direction. North Dakota’s average price is $56.44, which is $0.54 below the average price. This difference could probably be justified based on shipping distance alone. I think you worry excessively about small problems.
And it doesn’t matter so far..
Why, because THEY (all) print, hide debts in the closet, and then print some more.
And THEY won’t seriously question (or act on) such lunacy prematurely, since quasi BAU depends on it, e.g. the Germans have to continue churn their luxurious exports, the Chinese have to continue the dream of leap frogging backwardness through ever-growth and illusions of becoming the global top dog again.. And so on..
yes yes yes yes yes…
and…
how many wells in Germany to get the same results?
ps: that’s a joke, but don’t let that stop someone from doing the calculations.
2500 fracked wells instead of 60 conventional wells to produce the same amount of oil fits with Taintors theory that the problems associated with civilizations leads to greater complexity. In this case 41.66 times more.
doesn’t greater complexity require greater energy inputs?
if, then…
complexity is all time high, world energy is all time high.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/17/lead-petrol-more-deadly-than-we-thought-brexit-bring-it-back
Those over 30 years of age spent a good part of their lives breathing in lead from the burning of fuel that used it as an additive. A UK study has shown it is 10 times more dangerous than originally thought.
“The study found that deaths, especially from cardiovascular disease, increased markedly with exposure, even at the lowest levels. It concluded that lead kills 412,000 people a year – accounting for 18% of all US mortality, not much less than the 483,000 who perish as a result of smoking.”
a mere 412,000 per year?
I mean, it’s good that it’s no longer an “additive”…
but when the average person lives to their late 70s…
something’s gotta kill ’em…
when it’s no longer “lead”, it will be something else.
Restrictions on the right to burn good old-fashioned “regular” gasoline notwithstanding, the US still leads the way in filling people full ‘o’ lead.
As for the study quoted above, how do we know how many of those people who died from cardiovascular disease did so because they ate too many Big Macs with a large side order of fries, how many had chronically low levels of vitamins A, B, C, D and E, how many were driven so insane by political correctness that they burst a blood vessel, or how many were zapped with a heart attack ray gun on the orders of the Bushes, the Clintons, or Putin?
Moreover, if all that unleaded gasoline hadn’t been used, how many Americans wouldn’t have been born in the first place because their parents couldn’t drive the Chevy up to Inspiration Point?
yes yes…
therefore…
the grant money should be raised higher so these (well paid) scientists can study this further.
“Looking back, it seems insane. Bluntly put, we took a known poison and – for three quarters of a century – used it in machines that puffed it out in breathable form. Then we drove them millions of miles a day, all over the world, regularly dosing billions of people with the toxin.”
Looking back, the whole civilisation thing will seem insane.
looking back, life expectancy went way up in those “three quarters of a century”…
and those “machines” are awesome…
nothing like driving aimlessly with great music blasting in the car stereo…
or…
is that insane?
I meant looking back from a little bit further into the future.
You know, the cannibals eating your radiactive intestines while raping your daughter future.
oh, the FE future… okay…
Its Ok though, we have moved onto poisoning our water with chloride and fluoride ‘acids’, so BAU…you know, meet the new poison same as the old poison …or some such thing!
I must admit… if dummmbing down a population is the goal… leaded petrol is an excellent idea
Then throw in a ‘smart phone’ and job done.
Indeed: dumb + smartphone = The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number – in ‘rich’ countries.
Not so much when your job is dealing with the waste in Africa, but even that is a job which gets you a meal and drink at the end of the day………
Sometimes the only paying job in town is sawing off the very branch upon which you are sitting.
Dumb Phone
https://c.mobilegeeks.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Smartphone-Zombies-1280×720.jpg
Bernays had something to do with fluoride in the water as well as introducing cigarettes to women in the early 20th century. His ideas are compelling and worth a read.
There are a lot of other things that are in the environment that should not be. There are various food additives that have not been tested, in the quantities that they are used. Food colors are one suspected problem area, but so are quite a few other food additives.
All of the RoundUp weed killer that gets into food is another problem area. It is one of the suspected causes of autism. Clearly some environmental toxin (or some combination of things) is causing a much higher incidence today.
There is also the problem of things being missing that should be present. Our bodies need the fiber from food. They also need the nutrients that are added when animals eat grass, rather than grain.
The big problem with US life expectancy and with health status started in1980. This is when US citizens started to become overweight as well.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/figure-1-6-female-life-expectancy-at-birth.png
This seems to be about the time when caloric intake began to be too high, relative to exercise levels.
It is easy to get excited about one particular problem, but I expect that lead levels are not really more than a small part of our overall health problem.
Bitcoin $7,700…
heading towards zero!
but hey, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has been great fun!
$7,400…
Military official claims Russian nuclear submarines approached US bases undetected
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/russian-military-official-claims-nuclear-submarines-approached-us-bases-undetected
“Starshinov claimed Russian submarines came “close enough” to American shores and were “undetected,” but did not infringe on U.S. maritime borders.”
they stayed in international waters…
just like US subs do…
you know, those US subs which also are armed with nuclear missiles…
If they were undetected… how do they know?
(I didn’t read the article)
Doesn’t matter. Tesla will conquer Mars. Treasuries will keep their well known fundamentals as ‘treasure’
I’ll promise.
Treasure is treason, in the empire of lies.