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History back to 1820 gives hints regarding what may follow
With the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, many expect oil prices to spike and stay high. Instead, they have barely budged. The latest spike in prices is a mini spike. If these oil prices were adjusted for inflation, the spikes in the past would appear even higher.
This is not a new problem. Looking at energy data going back to 1820, low demand (affordability) has repeatedly produced financial crashes, wars, and collapses. We appear to be entering another such period.
In this post, I examine differences in how the economy behaves, comparing two different types of periods: those with low energy affordability (“low demand”) and those with high energy affordably (“high demand”). I also offer my view on what this analysis suggests may be ahead for the world economy.
[1] How high demand differs from low demand
High demand looks like a situation in which, each year, an increasing number of people can afford cars and the fuel that they require. With high demand, the number of new cars sold each year tends to rise. Young people are eager to buy homes because they find homes affordable. They find their incomes relatively higher than their parents’ were at their age. Countries around the world find it easy to industrialize. This allows their citizens to have better lifestyles. As we will see later in this post, the periods of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were periods of high growth in demand for oil products.
What we have now is the opposite: too many young people who cannot find jobs that pay well, even with advanced degrees. They cannot afford to go on a vacation or buy a new car. Record numbers live with their parents after they finish their schooling. They spend their spare time playing video games, rather than socializing with their friends.
The number of cars sold worldwide hit a peak in 2017, indicating indirectly that people are getting poorer. If people are not buying as many cars, demand for oil tends to fall, especially if more of the cars that are sold are electric.
Building new homes also takes oil. According to the US Census Bureau, the number of US new homes sold in the US hit a record of 1,283,000 in 2005. In 2025, the number of US new homes sold amounted to only 678,000, or about 53% of the peak amount. The huge drop in new home construction is a sign that people, quite often young people, are not as well off financially as they were years ago. They cannot afford to buy a new (or even a used) home anymore.
One study based on income tax data revealed that between 1948 and 1970, US incomes tended to rise faster than inflation. Between 1968 and 1983, the incomes of both the top 10% and the lower 90% rose as fast as inflation. However, between 1983 and 2012, the top 10% received far greater increases than the bottom 90% (Figure 2).
If workers in the bottom 90% of the distribution are not doing well, it is difficult to keep prices of commodities as high as those producing the commodities would prefer. Purchases of commodities, including food, and fuel for vehicles, do not rise proportionately with huge incomes. Elon Musk and other very high-income individuals do not spend all day eating or driving their vehicles. The bottom 90% must prosper for demand (affordability) of oil and other commodities to stay high.
[2] What experience with high and low growth in energy supplies since 1820 teaches us.
Several years ago, I prepared an analysis of how the world economy behaved over the long term, over the period from 1820 to 2017. I have recently updated this study. I found that the economy behaved quite well in times of high energy consumption growth. In times of low energy consumption growth, there seemed to be many adverse events, such as financial crashes, wars, and government collapses.
I am afraid that with today’s oil and debt problems, we are headed into a pattern of low energy consumption growth, or even energy consumption contraction. If this is the case, we should expect outcomes at least as undesirable those experienced during past periods of low energy consumption growth in the past.
(a) Methodology
I first prepared a new data set by combining two data sets, the earlier of which was available only every 10 years, with more recent data available more frequently. The energy quantities reported were rising rapidly. To analyze how fast they were rising, I first computed the average annual increase percentage for each 10-year period, as shown on Figure 3.
For example, the period from 1961 to 1970 (shown as the 1970 bar) had a very high annual rate of growth rate for energy consumption. This was the period when many of the interstate highways in the US were opened and many pipelines were added.
On Figure 4, I divided the bars shown on Figure 3 into two parts.
On Figure 5, the blue portions of the bars represent the average annual increase in population over the 10-year period. The red portion of the bar is computed by subtraction from the total. It is the amount that seems to be left over for a rising standard of living. Having a tall red portion of the bar would be very good; having little or no red bar left would represent a problem. Note that in two periods (the one ended 1860 and the one ended 2000), the amount left over for an increase in living standards was negative.
(b) Good things happened in years with very high growth in “Living Standards”
Figure 5 shows the information on Figure 4 as an area chart.
While I don’t show oil prices on Figure 5, those who are familiar with oil prices will remember that high oil prices were a feature of the 1973 to 1981 period. Also, as China began its growth period, another spike in oil prices took place. High growth in energy supplies and high oil prices seem to go together. High demand from a growing economy tends to hold prices up.
The label “China” refers to the rapid growth that took place in the decade after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. This was mostly powered by China’s huge growth in coal supply between 2002 and 2011 (Figure 6).
China and the world experienced another spurt of increased coal production starting in 2022, when coal prices temporarily spiked to a high level, perhaps indirectly related to the conflict in Ukraine. But coal prices have gradually come back down, resulting in flat world growth in coal production since 2023, and a plateau in China’s coal production growth.
(c) Troubled Periods took place when the growth in “Living Standards” was low or negative
Figure 7 labels three periods with very severe dips in “Living Standards.”
The First Troubled Period started with the Panic of 1857, which some consider to be a cause of the US Civil War. According to this view, the collapse was related to an over-expansion of the US economy, followed by the collapse of the debt bubble that had allowed this expansion to occur. Financial problems affected both the North and the South.
As I see the situation, one part of this financial problem was the declining profitability of slave labor. In the US South, the labor of slaves was the main source of energy used to operate plantations. An underlying issue was that the soil had gradually become depleted because of many years of growing of cotton and tobacco. These slaves had been purchased with debt; this debt could not be repaid with interest unless the income of the plantations was sufficiently high. However, poor harvests were not offset by sufficiently higher prices, which led to financial problems for plantation owners.
There may also have been an issue that the population, in general, was becoming poorer, essentially because of overpopulation. I say this because studies show that the height of army recruits had fallen, suggesting poorer nutrition. Sanitation had recently been improved, allowing a larger share of babies to survive to maturity. At the same time, immigration into the US continued. With overpopulation, it was difficult to keep incomes up. If farms were divided among many sons, farm sizes would tend to become smaller, leading to lower farm incomes. There would also be greater competition for factory jobs, tending to hold wages down.
Of course, when the Confederacy lost the war, the Confederate Dollar became worthless. For some, this added another financial crisis.
The Second Troubled Period was 1920 to 1940. This is a notoriously bad period, with the Great Depression and World War II included. Arguably, World War I should also be included. Commodity prices of all kinds fell very low. Tariffs were added in the 1920s. The problems seem to have arisen at the time Peak Coal hit–prices could not rise high enough to cover the cost of extracting coal from narrower and deeper seams. In my view, World War I began at the time of Peak Coal in the UK, and World War II took place at the time of Peak Hard Coal in Germany.
With depletion, the cost of extracting coal kept rising, but the sales price of coal would not rise to compensate for the higher extraction costs. Instead, wages of miners were increasingly squeezed. Strikes and lockouts became common. Taking a job as a soldier seemed like a reasonable alternative.
There were many events from this period that most people would like to forget, including the currency hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic between 1921 and 1923 and the Holocaust from 1933 and 1945. Country lines were redrawn. Some countries disappeared, and new ones were added. Those holding currencies of countries that disappeared were likely left without funds.
The Third Troubled Period was 1990 to 2000.
A major event of the Third Troubled Period was the collapse of the central government of the Soviet Union, leaving the 15 republics as independent states. The collapse also indirectly affected Cuba, North Korea, and some countries in Eastern Europe that were not part of the 15 independent states. With this change, the demand for fuel of all kinds fell in the countries affected. Factories were closed in many areas, including Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union.
The pullback in demand from the collapse of the Soviet Union helped hold oil prices down in the 1991 to 2001 period. Oil prices had previously been brought down by the spike in interest rates in the 1980-1981 period. In my opinion, these low oil prices played a major part in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, as an oil exporter, needed higher oil prices to invest in developing new fields. In my opinion, the impact of the collapse of the government of the Soviet Union kept world demand (and oil prices) low during the 1991 to 2000 period.
The collapse of the Japanese real estate bubble also took place in this period, as did the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Low growth in the world economy, indirectly related to the collapse of the Soviet Union, may have played a role in these financial events.
[3] The world’s self-organizing and self-healing economy
From a physics perspective, all economies are dissipative structures. Other examples of dissipative structures include ecosystems in general, all plants and animals, including humans, and hurricanes. One characteristic of dissipative structures is that, at some point in their lives, they tend to grow. Another is that if there is an injury, within a range, the systems tend to be self-healing. For example, a cut on a person’s arm will tend to heal; a hurricane going over land will temporarily lose much of its force, but it may increase in force again if it returns over warm water.
Another characteristic of dissipative structures is that they are dependent on having a sufficient energy supply of the right kinds to continue their existence. For humans, the energy supply is food; for an economy, it is a combination of many kinds of energy needed to match the built infrastructure of the economy.
All dissipative structures have finite lifetimes. Ecosystems often come to an end through fires. Humans generally do not live more than 80 or 100 years. Economies also tend to come to an end, either by losing a war or by the collapse of a central government, related to debt problems. The collapse of the Soviet Union involved a debt problem, among other issues. Figure 9 shows the huge drop in demand for energy of all types as its central government collapsed.
There is more stability of dissipative structures than a person might expect. Economists talk about an Invisible Hand being involved. Researchers examining dissipative structures talk about them being “self-organizing.” For example, if a fire or a change in climate causes a forest to collapse, it does not take many years for the forest to refill with suitable plants and animals for the somewhat changed situation. If a business or government fails, new, somewhat different businesses or governments are likely to take their place.
I would argue that if the Universe is constantly expanding (so it is an “open system,” rather than a “closed system”), what appear to be self-organizing systems may, in fact, be God-organized systems. In other words, instead of creation being a one-time event in the distant past, some type of literal higher power may be involved in a way that makes creation more or less an ongoing event. A person might wonder with the strange confluence of recent events, including the strange weather patterns associated with El Nino, whether today’s humans are being warned that a major change in economies will take place soon.
[4] What kinds of things may happen in the near future?
(a) Current disturbances in the Middle East and elsewhere are raising long-distance shipping costs for both food and oil. (See this video.) Normally, the price of food and oil must be high enough to satisfy producers and at the same time be low enough to satisfy customers. But now a new layer of costs has been added: the cost of shipping longer routes.
I would argue that because of the problem with low demand (affordability) by consumers, shipping costs must be paid almost entirely through a reduced net oil price available to oil producers and reduced net food prices available to farmers. The amount that consumers can afford doesn’t increase because of higher transportation costs.
(b) Furthermore, the use of extra oil for transportation of oil and food will tend to push the overall economy toward contraction because there will be less oil available for other uses, such as to power agricultural machinery and jet airplanes. If the overall economy begins to contract, we can expect dips in oil prices similar to those in 2008 and 2020 (Figure 1). But if recession persists, low oil prices will not reverse themselves as quickly as they did earlier.
(c) I expect home and farm prices will tend to fall around the world. This is related to the low level of demand (affordability problem) in the US and elsewhere. Figure 11, showing median US asking prices for homes, suggests that home prices have been barely holding their own for quite a while. A decrease would not be surprising with all the pressure the economy is now encountering.
Farm prices are likely to be under pressure as well, because of the difficulty farmers are having obtaining adequate income from their farms. If farm and home prices fall, there is a substantial chance that the debt bubble holding up these prices will collapse.
(d) There are many other debt bubbles that seem to be waiting to collapse. Some of the debt relating to AI seems to be in a bubble. There is considerable commercial real estate whose value seems to be being held up by “extend and pretend” loans. Collapsing debt bubbles tend to lead to collapsing banks. They also tend to lead to banks less willing to make new loans. Layoffs seem likely. All these things point to a major recession ahead, with less buying power for the population.
(f) Collapses of some top levels of government, similar to the collapse of the central government of the Soviet Union, may be ahead. Such collapses can greatly reduce world energy consumption, including oil, with relatively little violence.
[5] How the nature of the economy may help over the long term
As noted previously, economies seem to have self-healing properties. Troubled periods can last for many years, but there seems to be a substantial chance that a way out will eventually be found.
If a government fails because of excessive debt, a new government (or governments) is likely to take its place. The new government will likely have fewer employees and offer fewer services to citizens. Pensions will likely need to be reduced or eliminated completely.
Even if governments fail, or national boundaries are redrawn, I expect that some businesses will continue operations. Such a situation will take place even if a new currency needs to be created to make this happen. Even in a troubled period, new businesses will start operations. Some of these businesses will make use of recycled materials available from failing businesses.
According to the Maximum Power Principle, if there are resources available that can easily be used, somehow, some organization will develop a way to use them. Over the long term, the economy will likely re-organize itself in a way that is more complex and more sparing in energy use. If energy use is efficient enough, it seems likely that a higher price for that energy supply could be made affordable to consumers. But, such a transition may take many years, if it is possible at all.
“One of five men arrested near RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sunday morning had dialled 999 himself, the BBC understands.
The suspect called the police at 00:45 BST, almost an hour before a farmer also dialled 999 after seeing men in balaclavas.”?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqn8m342rgk9o
I haven’t followed the news, but this whole event seems somewhat farcical. So bad, it makes the Skripal story almost plausible.
They are of course prepping the population for a false flag, although strangely they all(politicians/media) blamed Iran before a single bit of information was known. They’ll swing back to Russia soon enough though. Enjoy the show, it’s only going to get more ridiculous.
“There’s something about their propaganda nowadays that’s just so refreshingly fucking hilarious. Like a fully non-blinded Asch conformity test, they just throw out these absolute whoppers and watch all of us scurrying like little rats trying to rationalize their blatantly obvious lies with the grand narratives we’ve become attached to.”
https://shadowrunners.substack.com/p/the-boiling-frog-getting-cooked
That’s hilarious, thanks.
Also the geopolitical channel ‘The Duran’ explained that they were just fuel thieves.
Unfortunately Putin is not involved and the Iranians neither, that’s a terrible disappointment.
😀 😀 😀
I am closing comments on this post. I have a new post up!
” And, furthermore, do we not have enough humans already? You can run a human for 0.1 grams of gold a day. OpenAI alone has committed to 11,000,000 kg of gold ($1,5 trillion dollars) to Artificial Intelligence, enough to feed and even educate millions of people. ”
https://indi.ca/ai-is-abundant-and-low-value/
But people can’t live on money. They need actual physical goods. They can’t even live on gold. They need food. In fact, they need some cooked food in the mix.
One of the big pushes a few years back was to develop vaccines for Dengue and Monkeypox, before either outbreak. They develop vaccines, then release the virus.
Remember Bill Gates? “The next one will get their attention (smirk)”.
https://x.com/Polymarket/status/2104924907813671069
>> BREAKING: Multiple Florida counties declare states of emergency over a deadly mosquito-borne dengue outbreak.
To top off the problem, the vaccines don’t work very well. They encourage mutations, but they don’t stop the epidemics. At least that was the Covid issue.
There are by now various scientific researches that have clarified that what there’s inside (like metals and preservatives) are not so healthy, expecially if one takes many of them.
It is in fact another way to treat people than medicines.
Medicines first pass through the digestive barrier, whilst the v. go straight into the bloodstream.
Human body has less defenses in that way, in case of negative interactions.
V. are nevertheless helpful to deteriorate people’s health.
They may solve a problem, but they create others that go under the health expenses umbrella.
The more the umbrella is private the more is good for the business, until we reach the current point that the snake-system is already and unfortunately eating its own tail.
It is good if the situation is too many people….
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/worse-covid-consumer-confidence-crashes-september
‘Worse Than COVID’: Consumer Confidence Crashes In September
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index plunged in September (-6.7pt to 81.9) – the lowest headline print since April 2014. . . .
Confidence fell in September across all political affiliations – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
Consumers’ average and median 12-month inflation expectations also jumped in September to 6.1% and 5.1% respectively. . .
The share of consumers anticipating higher interest rates over the next 12 months jumped by 5.2 ppts to 68.4%. Consumers still largely expected stock prices to rise in the next 12 months, but optimism moderated in September.
Finally, consumers’ write-in responses regarding factors affecting the economy were mostly pessimistic in September:
“References to prices, the high cost of goods and services, and oil and gas prices in particular, rose to new heights, reflecting September’s surge in fuel costs.”
TALES FROM MADAGASCAR
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2026/sep/29/people-with-albinism-living-in-terror-in-madagascar
The country is struggling to address a rise in attacks, with a record 13 people – mostly children – killed this year for body parts, which some believe can bring good fortune
I understand that Gail herself has some connection with this country, the land of lemurs and werelemurs.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gf5ACP3MZEuJwrN4GnbdrBTl3nqtShTO/view
My father was born in Madagascar and lived there until his teen age years. His parents were Lutheran missionaries there. They were both from western Norway, and spoke Norwegian as their first language, but they met in the US. French was the government’s language at that time. The boarding schoolboy my father attended was for missionary’s children. It used English. So my father learned four languages as a child: Norwegian, English, Malagasy, and French.
My parents visited there some years ago. It has gone downhill a lot since French rule. I expect that population is too high, now, also. The missionaries told people about sanitation, among other things.
Four languages! Phenomenal.
From the internet:
The Malagasy people are an admixed population with dual origins in Austronesian Southeast Asia and Bantu East Africa, resulting from centuries of intermarriage between these groups.
The Malagasy language is part of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, making it the westernmost language in this group.
It is most closely related to Ma’anyan, a language spoken in Indonesia, and retains significant vocabulary from Malay, Javanese, and Bantu sources.
This linguistic link confirms the Southeast Asian origin of the island’s first inhabitants, despite its geographic proximity to Africa.
Madagascar’s wildlife is characterized by extreme endemism, with approximately 90% of its plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, due to the island’s isolation for roughly 88 million years. The ecosystem features over 100 species of lemurs (including the Indri, Sifaka, and Ring-tailed lemur), the carnivorous Fossa, and more than 60% of the world’s chameleon species.
Health Insurance will belong to the past.
For the top, AI will prescribe solutions for virtually all diseases, targeted to their genetics.
And only for the top.
The rest will enjoy socialized single payer insurance system, so if someone is hit with something the AI underwriter finds unworthy to treat, the person dies. Period.
Health insurance has been a racket since at least the Nixon Administration brought us HMOs in the 1970s. It’s important to keep oursleves healthy outside of the system as much as possible.
Agreed! My father was a doctor. He told me all kinds of problems, from years ago. Then I worked with medical malpractice insurance. That added a lot more to my knowledge. Then we ran into Covid and its vaccine.
https://wolfstreet.com/2026/09/28/anthropic-lost-42-billion-on-4-6-billion-in-revenues-in-2025-leaked-ipo-prospectus/
We need a big bailout
Money can be thrown from choppers
Anthropic Lost $42 Billion on $4.6 Billion in Revenues in 2025: Leaked IPO Prospectus
by Wolf Richter • Sep 28, 2026 • 60 Comments
It plans to spend $518 billion in the coming years on cloud, computing, and infrastructure obligations and now needs a lot of AI magic money.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
Anthropic, which is targeting to go public at an IPO valuation of $2 trillion (trillion with a T), generated a net loss of $42 billion in 2025 on $4.6 billion in revenues, according to its IPO prospectus that was leaked to Reuters.
The net loss had multiplied by five from $8 billion in 2024. The revenues had multiplied by 12.
Complete insanity.
Only made possible by fake “money” created out-of-thin-air.
“When the capital development of a country becomes the by-product of the workings of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done.”
— John Maynard Keynes
The human spine is highly vulnerable to damage because evolution changed it from a horizontal bridge when human ancestors were quadrupedal into a vertical, weight-bearing pillar in a short amount of time. When human ancestors shifted to bipedalism (walking upright), the spine didn’t fully adapt to bear the additional loads of the head and torso directly over the pelvis. By the time humans develop back problems, their limbs are too weak to go back to quadrupedal locomotion.
Good point!
drb753, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on returning to quadrupedal locomotion after peak biped or peak affordability or perhaps some appropriate rural jokes about shared hardship.
Not going to work very well obviously. Here I should say that during the good season many prefer bicycles (I pedal almost every day for my espresso), about 7 months a year. In winter it would be on foot. There are several horses in the village but they do not work. Cows would have to do most of the work (potato plowing and hay transport). At the village level survival is possible but both hay and firewood would be a lot of work. I think that the last gasoline will be for chainsaws and the last diesel for hay. and the last hay would be for milk of course.
Diet would be similar to the Gleason’s in 1940 (starts at around 6:30, link below), based on dairy and potatoes. I should say that my 3 dogs ate only meat and potatoes and a bit of sheep guts, and they were/are in excellent health. I gave one to a loving home where they eat a lot of grains and I can already see the decline (and she is about 1.5 years old). One potato field, tended by my mechanic, essentially feeds two families and numerous friends including me. They all show up to pick the potatoes, and you have 20 people on a field no larger than 0.25 hectares. This year it easily produced 5-6 tons. you could extrapolate to the whole village on one field, and the law states that the land around the village is commons. You could plow by cow and harvest by pitchfork, and of course there is plenty manure for fertilizer.
Meat and eggs are nearly free, with eggs somewhat seasonal, and goat milk also seasonal. Cows produce low amounts of milk, whether they work or not, but obviously sufficient. I think it would be seasonal work in May-July, harvest in september, plus firewood and butchering in late fall (firewood for the next year). Fruit preserves in August, and lots of sauerkrauts (too much for my taste). Drinks will be kvass and ivanchai only, not terrible. Town stores will have tools, salt, sugar, and chainsaw and harvesting equipment parts. Locals will sell oats and wheat for livestock.
Thanks drb, this is the kind of collaboration inside villages that might work in some places.
Probably Russia from what you have been talking about.
It is the kind of collaboration that Antonio Turiel has been promoting in his latest posts.
I touched that point with Gail, but my impression is that maybe I was not enough clear to express that point.
Anyway I additionally think that this kind of ‘old-village-collaboration’ is more probable in contests with long history on their shoulder than ‘young’ ones, like in US.
Same kind ‘old-village-collaboration’ (as you surely know), one can find it in Italian villages in the Alps.
We directly experience that when we go there for holidays, talking with locals and looking what they do.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/27/tense-standoff-loyalist-march-portadown-protesters-block-route
======================
Old rivalries in Northern Ireland, kicking off again after so many years of peace. All around the world we are seeing this: Africa, Asia, Latin America – and now it’s starting again in Northern Ireland. A sign of the times.
Not enough goods and services to go around. Food and other necessities too expensive for many citizens.
This seems to be a problem as old as civilization. Slaves were used in the past because labor costs were perceived as being too high.
The ideal investment was an investment were workers were paid next to nothing and demand was very high.
The Romans – and no doubt others -often fought whole tribes, 25, 50, even 100,000 in number.
One imagines that the general took the decision as to whether to kill all of them, or to spare useful young men, women and children according to the state of the slave market at the time.
The Ottoman Turks regularly took slaves as tax, mostly children. The ‘harvest’ as they called it.
The correct way to deal with the Loyalists is give them the same treatment the Pied Noir got in Algeria
Don’t be daft, sea invasions are expensive .. look at d day. Without a safe fortress on Erin’s isle, the place could be taken over by any tom, dick or harry it’s only got 7 million but it’s the size of England… then England is surrounded to the west. To be cut off from supplies from afar . By froggies and square heads. So those Hiberno Norse , gallowglass and Scot’s Irish (from the Viking interminglings (and a few more recent Scot’s planters ) will continue to ‘not want to be papists or Marxists, nor spending their days drinking.
GASOIL ARGENTINO:
https://juancarlosfurlan.blogspot.com/2026/09/gasoil-argentino-el-dia-despues-de.html
Very interesting article.
Everything seen from another perspective.
Thanks
We have been told that the “center will hold better than the periphery. Argentina seems to be the periphery. A sad situation:
ARGENTINE DIESEL: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
September 26, 2026
The United States is facing its worst diesel crisis in history. Its refineries are operating at near capacity and cannot produce any more. Middle distillate inventories have fallen to their lowest level since 1982, and retail prices have reached record highs, directly impacting transportation, agriculture, and industry. The problem isn’t a lack of crude oil; it’s the composition of that crude. U.S. refineries were designed to process heavy crude, not the light shale oil extracted from the Texas subsoil. For decades, that gap was filled with Canadian oil sands, which, when blended with shale, allowed for the production of the diesel the economy demanded. That system is collapsing: Canadian production is stagnating, the war with Iran has cut off the flow of heavy crude from the Middle East, and U.S. shale is showing signs of depletion.
Washington’s response to this crisis fell within what we might call the initial expectations of the new Monroe Doctrine. The plan consisted of changing the refining mix: replacing the Canadian blend with Argentine and Colombian shale, plus Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude. This was the strategic axis that explained the renewed interest in the Orinoco Basin, Colombian fracking, and Argentine shale. And within this plan, Argentina had an assigned role: to reduce its domestic diesel consumption to free up volume. This reduction would not be achieved through energy efficiency or a transition, but through economic destruction. The policy of Javier Milei’s government is explicitly pro-American, and it is this policy that produced the decline that is now freeing up diesel. Every industry that closes, every truck that stops running, every factory that shuts down its furnaces, was a piece of the original plan.
The factual proof that this plan existed lies in the numbers. Argentina’s diesel imports plummeted by 78 percent between January and July 2026, falling to 121,995 cubic meters from 786,183 in the same period of 2025. At the same time, diesel exports jumped from 24,130 to 174,225 cubic meters, almost eleven times higher. This turnaround isn’t explained by efficiency; it’s explained by the collapse of domestic demand in Argentina. Fuel consumption is at its lowest level since 2021, and this trend has intensified since Milei began dismantling the subsidies that kept prices below international levels. The result is a country that structurally has little diesel fuel but still exports it because it no longer has the economic activity that consumed it.
Near the end:
None of these elements alone proves that the United States will seize Argentina’s diesel fuel. But together they create a scenario in which such appropriation is no longer unthinkable. And here we must be precise with our words, because euphemism is the first line of defense against plunder. This is not a low-cost purchase, nor an asymmetrical negotiation, nor a predatory contract. It is theft. Theft of all the diesel fuel circulating in the country. Not the surplus, not a portion, not an agreed-upon volume: all the diesel fuel that Argentina has available in storage facilities, refineries, trucks, and service stations. A theft without compensation, without free agreement, without a legal framework to legitimize it beyond force or coercion. The Venezuelan precedent leaves no room for doubt: Maduro’s oil wasn’t bought from him, it was seized, the country was intervened in, control of the industry was taken, and the resources were disposed of as spoils of war. Drug trafficking was the excuse, oil was the loot. And with Argentina, the script would be the same, but the loot would be all the country’s diesel fuel.
And here we arrive at the crux of the matter. The original plan no longer exists. What remains is the urgency. The US crisis is irreversible in the short term. Venezuela and Colombia will not be ready in time. The infrastructure that could facilitate a legal purchase will not be operational until 2027, and even then it will transport crude oil, not diesel. Argentina has a government that has already demolished its domestic market and responds unconditionally to Washington. Argentine diesel is available now. There are no technical barriers, no political barriers, no logistical barriers. Only the decision remains. And when that decision is made, there will be no prior notice. There will be no negotiation. There will be no statement announcing the withdrawal. Overnight, all Argentine diesel could cease to exist in Argentina. It could cease to fuel transportation, agriculture, industry, and the daily lives of millions of people. It could disappear from the economic circuit without anyone having signed anything, without anyone having bought anything, without anyone having agreed to anything. It will be, as in Venezuela, theft. Armed robbery disguised as something else. The threat is not hypothetical. It is imminent.
Hospitals seem to be under pressure around the world to cut costs.
In the US, we hear about private equity buying out hospitals and saddling them with lots of debt. This is followed by cutting wages as much as possible.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2026/09/17/banning-corporate-medicine-stopping-private-equitys-debt-trap/
In China, there is now a report that cutbacks are appearing in hospitals that are somewhat parallel.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/wage-cuts-hit-hospital-workers-china-financial-pressures-mount
Workers at hospitals in several parts of China are facing cuts to wages and performance bonuses, with some medical workers reporting monthly base salaries of less than 2,000 yuan ($298) as public institutions struggle under mounting financial pressure.
Only two health insurance companies remain in Slovakia: one private and one state-owned, after one private insurer acquired another.
https://www.sme.sk/index/c/dovera-kupuje-union-na-trhu-ostanu-len-dvaja-hraci-na-poli-zdravotnych-poistovni
The root problem stems from the way the financial system is allowed to burn, one end of the candle: A debt-based fiat currency created by the FED. This system allows politicians to pay for the promises they make to buy votes. After all, no voter refuses the promise of a free lunch. They leave the debt to be paid by future voters through lower living standards and inflation.
The politicians become established and become magnets for corporate bribes. They write laws that are favorable to the parasites who feed on this system of debt. Corporations, from banks, to the military-industrial complex , to big pharma, now the medical industrial complex, etc. are all in on this financialization racket. It is essentially wealth extraction and wealth concentration. Nowhere do these laws undermine societies more than favorable tax laws which reward financialization with lower capital gains tax rates, ( because we have to reward investment to create more economic growth) and in the end, bailouts for failed businesses. The producers in contrast get taxed at high rates. Ass backwards. There are no term limits for these parasitic half-politicians. So they hollow out our country. Just as doctors have given away their profession, the politicians have given away our country. Meanwhile, the other end of the burning candle analogy, that of our physical world- oil, minerals, topsoil, fresh water, essential manufacturing gets depleted. We are burning the candle at both ends.
But for now, we in the western world are too comfortable to do anything about it.
More reason to believe that good energy data is going away (or has already gone away):
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russia-Tightens-Secrecy-On-Energy-Exports.html
Refinery production figures, export contracts and tanker routes are now off-limits to public reporting in Russia, under a decree Putin signed Monday, Reuters reported. The Kremlin points to unfriendly actions by Washington and its allies as the reason, and the restrictions took effect on signing, with the government given 10 days to define exactly which product codes are covered.
Data on refining volumes at Russian plants is now restricted, along with contract details, including product names, quantities, prices, buyers, sellers, payment terms, shipping routes, and vessel coordinates at export terminals. Customs statistics and planned sales volumes on commodity exchanges fall under the same rule. None of it can appear “through mass media or internet networks,” per the decree text, unless a company chooses to disclose its own figures.
I have been exposing the lies of fraudulent data ” SoH now at 80% pre war capacity ” . Yanbu line now loading 4 mbpd . So here is someone who does the maths on this .As Matt Simmons said ” When in doubt check the maths ” .
” Headlines flashing that Saudi E/W pipeline is resuming but at what flows out of the 7 mbd capacity?
We did the maths earlier.
25% and there is no nett export.
40% and we are looking at 1 mbd exports.
Both assume the domestic refineries are supplied first and FO/crude burn for power gen is satisfied.
https://x.com/JuneGoh_Sparta/status/2102340048268247068/photo/1
Further I did some tracking from where this 80% figure is coming . It is coming from Kpler . The problem is that Kpler itself gets the data from third parties . Kpler has no satellite tracking facility or capability . It does not crosscheck ( just like JODI , IMF , WB etc) . So it is all GIGO .
Thanks for your attention .
Dude .
Global diesel & gasoil seaborne exports yoy in kbpd .
https://x.com/BurggrabenH/status/2101966733846221069/photo/1
Ravi, that chart is (unfortunately) like a well-placed uppercut.
Ha. I told myself before clicking, yet another zero suppressed chart. But the zero is in there. Uppercut is an apt description.
There is no way to track dark ships… unless fake data is fed to Kpler by the US government.
Therefore, Kpler data is now perfectly consistent with what the US energy secretary has been claiming.
It is a data laundering operation, just like what the rating agencies did into GFC, right before elections, to shift public sentiment, for a few more weeks, until fuel & food scarcities engulf the world and such claims cannot be entertained, by the many sheep 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Copy/paste
All data is garbage since Covid. They lied about those stats, so why would they care about economic stats anymore? If information is power and we’re in a “war” for power, why would they tell anyone the truth?
Depleting savings
“In an effort to maintain their standard of living, Slovak households are drawing increasingly deeper into their savings. However, their willingness to spend is keeping the entire economy afloat, notes the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) in its latest quarterly forecast. Private consumption is one of the main pillars of gross domestic product (GDP).”
Read more: https://www.sme.sk/index/c/ekonomiku-zachranuje-ochota-slovakov-minat-prisposobili-sa-stresu-tvrdi-kazimir
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Talking about survival and dipping into savings to survive .
The Indian middle class has borrowed $ 210 billion by hypothecating /mortgaging their household gold jewellery to pay the bills .
The Bank gold loans surged 88.1% year-on-year in July 2026.
• NBFC gold loans grew by 68.5% year-on-year in July 2026 .
Gotta buy the latest iPhone .
Your money can become inaccessible, not only in a bank account. This limits your ability to spend.
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/business/billions-in-savings-stuck-what-could-turkiyes-fund-turmoil-mean-for-economy-3229145
Increasingly dipping into savings cannot be a long-term solution, however.
Society and the school system lie, and tensions arise as a result.
“At the primary school in Staškov, in the Čadca district, an eighth-year pupil carried out a knife attack. He injured a classmate and two teachers; one of them died from her injuries.
The police have arrested the suspect but have not yet disclosed a motive. The alleged trigger was said to be his grandmother’s ban on him serving as an altar boy due to his declining academic performance.”
Read more: https://www.sme.sk/domov/c/policia-zasahuje-na-zakladnej-skole-v-staskove-preveruje-nasilny-trestny-cin
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
https://www.sme.sk/domov/c/policia-zasahuje-na-zakladnej-skole-v-staskove-preveruje-nasilny-trestny-cin
I have read that a cat was squashed by a moving car in your town. It must have been front page news. Can you fill us in the details? Was it perchance an orange cat?
If you have a bad day, simply do not read my comments. It is easy. Or turn off the computer. Go outside. Enjoy day.
I see that unlike other Eastern Europeans you do not enjoy a little humor.
It depends. Feelings are mixed. The sad thing is that some people simply don’t have the time to see what is really happening because they are constantly rushing, while others are in denial.
MG… I really appreciate all that you post. It’s parallel to what we’re seeing here in the US. At night I’ll watch youtubers compile tiktok videos of people in distress. We are lucky in this group as we know collapse is underway but there are so many that are lost, confused and without community. The media has fed us the American dream until today.
Today’s situation reminds me of the 1990s, but the debts are much higher. The younger generation has little in the way of prospects and is increasingly just living from day to day. Most people rely on supermarkets rather than domestic food production. The prices of all kinds of goods and services are rising, while fewer families have two parents with solid incomes who can provide financial support. And the opportunities on offer increasingly look like this: “We will give you an advantageous loan.”
This is not a good situation!
Moreover, there is a growing gap between older teachers and a younger generation that is completely immersed in smartphones. Or they turn to other activities (such as serving as altar boys in this particular case) that provide them with an escape from the dead or dying world around them.
Too much tragic knife crime. But only a sissy would WANT to be an altar boy. Probably he’ll grow up T-G.
Now media mention this:
The Minister of Education confirmed to us that school counselors had been addressing a certain issue at this school for several days. “The issue was still being discussed here as recently as last week; an intervention team was already here yesterday,” confirmed Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker (Hlas-SD).
“He created a photo showing two teachers standing next to a concentration camp,” said a classmate. “He was supposed to get a C or a B in conduct,” said another classmate.
“His grandmother is raising him because his mother was quite difficult, so I think that’s where we need to look for the cause of what actually happened,” explained a relative of the attacker.
https://spravy.stvr.sk/2026/09/utocnika-v-staskove-vychovavala-stara-mama-podla-spoluziakov-prisiel-do-skoly-bez-tasky-iba-s-nozikom/
If he grew up transgender and underwent the relevant operations, he’d be an altered boy. 😉
Yep, he’d enter the cockpit of transformation.
“Cockpit: the waste disposal area in a gender reassignment clinic”.
The city of Vancouver is blocking off streets for “only bicycles” now.
Vancouver man says traffic calming measures leaving people ‘barricaded in their own neighbourhood’
“Graffiti scrawled on a concrete barrier blocking cars from driving along East Georgia Street sums up the sentiment of many living in Vancouver’s Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood. It reads: “This is not a solution.”
The frustration is aimed at City of Vancouver traffic calming measures that some say have turned the streets into a maze, restricting vehicle access to and from the homes they used to enjoy.
One long-term resident said the situation has left people “barricaded in their own neighbourhood.”
“Simply put, if you live in the neighbourhood, you can’t get out of the neighbourhood,” said Tom Siracusa, who’s lived in Hastings-Sunrise for 50-plus years.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/traffic-calming-opposition-hastings-sunrise-9.7333121
15 minute cities
I always wanted to live in Chicago where everyone walks or takes trains. Just not have the whole hassle of owning a car.
Chicago is amazingly flat, too. When I lived in Chicago, I rode a bike a lot also, on the bike path along Lake Michigan (not to work).
But the city has gone downhill a lot in recent years. Businesses have moved out of the inner city. There were a lot of beggars when we last visited. People don’t want to go downtown very much, now.
Illogical, Captain. If it’s flat, it can’t go downhill – and neither can you. 😉
Absolutely, Dothk!
You’re on a roll!
But you won’t roll very far in Chicago.
“You’re on a roll!”
Better than being IN a roll, and about to be eaten by a giant. 🙁
Just like in Metro Boston region, Really no need for a car at all, the Metro, bus or Commuter rail covered just about everywhere. I only used a car on my days off or rode the bike to neighboring cities for exercise, fun and sun.
Boy, those were the days
PS Here in South Florida forgetaboutit
That’s what I loved about my hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I never lived there but our family would frequently visit. The public transportation is excellent and you can walk endlessly… And what’s great is the city planners lined the streets with trees.
Traffic calming baby. It is safe and effective.
yes!!!
The real truth is that humanity has been consuming resources like we won the lottery. Just spending without keeping track of anything. And just like what happens in real life if you don’t keep track/budget.
It really is that simple.
And notice the similarities between the deniers arguments and someone winning.
“we’ll NEVER run out”. They always say that.
I’m sure many lottery winners have thought the same thing. I mean look at how celebrities/sports athletes hit it big and go bust. Why? Cause they didn’t keep track/budget and thought “I’ll NEVER run out”.
Celebrities are pre selected by the big promoters a lot of the time for being spendthrift with their income. This is desirable because the big promoters can sell them extravagant things ( like indirectly owning luxury car dealerships, clothing stores, etc) and recover a lot of the money they spend on “talent”.
That doesn’t work in the larger economy because most employers don’t indirectly own sellers of everything thing their employees need. If their employees are unhealthy, they are not going to buy a hospital so they can treat them. Too unprofitable.
I don’t think we had any other choice .
Limits to Growth was presented to the world , it was rejected everyone chose capitalism.
The powers that be had no other choice but to attempt to beat theproblem at hand using a ‘stealth approach’ all the while utilising a capitalistic approach.
Our only chance now are a high oil price but permanently somewhwere in the order of over 100 US dollars that price will bring forward more unconventional oil if we can get the oil price to 200 US dollars permanently we can get out a few more decades of unconventional oil and gas that is our only chance along with renewables and EVs.
I think you’re right. By the time they figured it out it was way too late.
“I don’t think we had any other choice.”
Nonsense. The choice was made by our “betters”. They decided they’d rather remain in power and go full speed into the wall then give it up and be honest. Even under capitalism, if they’d let the system work the way it should, it would have done a better job of conserving resources then the what they ended up deciding to do.
People keep stealing the copper EV charging cables, though.
Zerohedge has an article:
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/de-globalization-endgame-deutsche-bank-warns-historic-copper-squeeze-could-ignite-50
“De-Globalization Endgame”: Deutsche Bank Warns Historic Copper Squeeze Could Ignite 50% Rally
From refined petroleum products and rare earths to industrial metals and certain agricultural commodities, tightening physical markets underpin our “own the bottlenecks” theme.
Deutsche Bank’s head of metals research, Daniel Ghali, added urgency to that theme on Monday morning, warning that available copper inventories globally have fallen to “unprecedented lows.” As US and Chinese stockpiling squeezes supplies available elsewhere, Ghali sees copper rallying roughly 50% to $22,050 a ton by the second quarter of 2027.
There is also a chart in the post showing that “contained tungsten” resources have been drawn down by 75%, over the last 25 years.
https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/2026-09-25_15-27-25.png
Commodity Rally/Supercycle > Hyperinflation > Demand Destruction > Deflation > Mining/Industry bankruptcies > End of industrial products and first world services > No maintenances > Entropic degradation
The game is pretty clear, we just don’t know the timeline.
Perhaps the US can make use of low-grade iron sources, which seem to be available. Tariffs to try to make the end product economic compared to alternatives may be helpful.
USGS says:
Taconite is a hard, dense rock containing a mixture of silicates and magnetite and is abundant on the Mesabi Range. New processing methods developed in the mid-20th century made taconite mining profitable.
The Twin Cities Daily Planet says:
Taconite is a low-grade iron ore. Originally thought to be of little value, taconite was considered overburden (waste) in the days when high grade iron ore was mined. The iron content, magnetite, is only 20- 30% compared to 50 – 60 % iron content in red ore.
Now, we read, Blast, at last: Minnesota’s first new iron ore mine in 50 years targets new era of steelmaking
Mesabi Metallics is preparing to begin production later this fall, with more than 1,000 construction workers currently on site finishing work on the facility. . .
Last week, local leaders and mine company executives hobnobbed with Trump administration officials who came to the Iron Range to witness one of the first blasts at Mesabi Metallics, a massive new $2.5 billion iron ore mine and processing plant in the final stages of construction outside the tiny town of Nashwauk. . .
The mine’s opening comes at a critical time in northeast Minnesota, which is still reeling from closures last year at two of the region’s six taconite facilities: Minorca in Virginia and Hibbing Taconite. . .
There’s additional excitement surrounding the Mesabi Metallics project because the mine will produce what are known as “DR” pellets, which can be used to create a high-grade iron product called “Direct Reduced Iron” that can feed smaller, more nimble electric arc furnaces, which now produce 70 percent of steel made in the U.S.
Two other Minnesota mines recently upgraded to produce DR pellets: Northshore Mining in Babbitt and Silver Bay, owned by Cleveland-Cliffs, and U.S. Steel’s Keewatin Taconite mine.
Mesabi initially plans to ship its pellets to customers around the country. But it has bigger ambitions. It’s also planning another $5 billion dollar investment to build a new facility to make its own DRI product.
I don’t know: Is it possible to produce high-quality steel, using only DRI pellets and electric arc furnaces? Or is it simply equivalent to reprocessing used steel, to produce something that is good for making some simple things, but not for making high-tech devices?
” The mine’s opening comes at a critical time in northeast Minnesota, which is still reeling from closures last year at two of the region’s six taconite facilities: Minorca in Virginia and Hibbing Taconite. . .”
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it . Guaranteed failure .
Unless complexity brings a whole lot of improvements in output per unit of energy.
Specifically, if you need to melt twice as much ore to get the same iron, and your costs are dominated by energy, then your iron is going to cost twice as much.
“The answer, increasingly, has been commodities—specifically industrial metals. China has been accumulating copper, aluminium, nickel and zinc far beyond immediate industrial needs, managed by the State Reserve Bureau, state-owned firms and entities linked to local governments.
In this sense, metals serve a dual purpose. Financially, they are dollar-denominated stores of value that cannot be sanctioned when held domestically, and do not rely on the solvency of foreign governments. Strategically, they align with China’s industrial priorities: as the world—and China increasingly—electrifies, demand for copper, nickel and aluminium will surge. Stockpiling today ensures supply security tomorrow and provides leverage over global markets.
In effect, Beijing has created a parallel reserve system—much less liquid than Treasuries, but more tangible and politically insulated.”?
https://ceinewsletter.substack.com/p/from-paper-to-metal-chinas-surplus
Interesting.
If sulfuric acid is in short supply, world supply of copper, nickel, and uranium will be impaired. China is in a much better place than the US on all of these. Uranium supply is closer to them (Kazakistan and Australia) than to the US. Russia is the main center for upgrading uranium.
China seems to have a much better chance for increasing the use of electricity using these materials than the US.
Bessant talks big but has no mojo when the going gets tough . Begging the Fed not to raise interest rates .
” Now, Bessent is calling for The Fed to “keep an open mind” on the US inflation outlook – and that productivity gains from AI and deregulation will keep it in check, according to Bloomberg.
In short, the administration is quietly terrified that The Fed is going to look at the oil-driven inflation prints, panic, and hike rates straight into a structurally vulnerable economy. Bessent is effectively pleading with the Fed to look past the energy spike and recognize that tightening monetary policy won’t clear Iranian gunboats out of the Strait of Hormuz.
The market is pricing a 70% chance that The Fed will hike in October, ahead of the Midterms.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bessent-begs-fed-mercy-hormuz-stand-sends-oil-soaring-and-10-year-yield-nearly-20-year
I see that the 10-year treasury rate is quoted at 5.249% right now. This would imply higher mortgage interest rates, among other things.
I also see that the price of gold is down to $4,152. Higher interest rates reduce the price of gold. Other things look like better investments, as one reason.
The US 10-year Treasury rate is now considerably higher than Italy and Greece – both, as we know, basket cases.
It should be noted that the 10-year rate is assumed to be the average of very short-term rates during that time frame – otherwise there would be an arbitrage opportunity available via the swap market. So this is indeed getting scary from a government financing perspective.
Zerohedge has an article behind the paywall talking about the need for the new data centers to have their own power supply. The article seems to say that the most popular option today is natural gas fuel cells. This popularity seems to come because it seems to be one of the ones that can be scaled up quickly. Building other kinds of natural gas plants would take much longer.
This option in some ways seems to be more expensive, but it seems to be more doable in the short term.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bring-your-own-power-plant-goldman-now-sees-behind-meter-powering-25-all-data-centers-2030
Fuel cells (solid dark blue) max out on time-to-power, availability, load-following, power-path efficiency, water use, noise and sensitivity to gas prices, then collapse toward the center on the two metrics utilities have traditionally cared about most: LCOE and upfront capital costs. Recip engines (green dashes) are close to the mirror image, with top marks on cost, modularity and load-following but near-bottom scores on maintenance, noise and emissions. And the heavy-duty turbine/CCGT, the workhorse of every utility IRP for the past 30 years, scores well on LCOE, availability and efficiency, but ends up close to the center on time-to-power, which is the one axis that matters when the order book runs to 2031.
I don’t know much about this.
Is this the tool of the future?
https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/senate-investigation-finds-rampant-use-of-tethers-stablecoin-by-iranian-regime-ce652e22
Senate Investigation Finds Rampant Use of Tether’s Stablecoin by Iranian Regime
Wallets sanctioned over Iran ties overwhelmingly dealt in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, according to Senate Democrats
Iran has relied on digital dollars issued by one of the world’s most profitable cryptocurrency companies to bypass a U.S. sanctions dragnet, according to a report that Senate Democrats plan to release Monday.
The report, by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, says Tether’s stablecoin has become a primary means of payment for the Iranian regime and a tool for funding terrorist proxy organizations such as Hezbollah, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Tether, which issues the stablecoin known as USDT, represents about 60% of all stablecoins by market capitalization. Stablecoins are a type of crypto pegged to real-world currencies—in the case of USDT, to the U.S. dollar. That makes them less volatile than other types of digital assets and better suited as a means of exchange or payment, including by money launderers. . .
The Senate report includes instances where wallets attributed to Iranian entities transacted in USDT. In one case, documents leaked online appeared to show an Iranian company brokering the purchase of tens of millions worth of USDT by the Central Bank of Iran, the Journal reported earlier this year.
An analysis of public blockchain data later linked some of the USDT to a $1.5 billion hack of the crypto exchange Bybit by North Korea. The purchase of the stolen crypto was part of an effort by Iran to prop up its currency, the rial, and to continue selling oil to allies such as China, the Senate report says, citing an Iranian media report.
Tether has the ability to freeze and “re-mint” USDT—meaning remove it from one wallet and re-create it in another. The Senate report criticizes Tether for failing to quickly freeze USDT in wallets sanctioned by the U.S. and Israel.
Stablecoin smells very bad. It smells like someone is planning on it being the only world currency… which at some point will almost certainly turn out to be flawed beyond repair.
Don’t worry. Elon Musk will have created a special currency for Mars by then, which we will be able to fall back on.
The Mars Bar—a stable store of wealth and calories, as long as the refrigerator doesn’t go on the blink. See how much it’s risen against the dollar and the pound over the decades!
that could be their plan eliminate cash and bring in stablecoin with everyone having a digital wallet the benefits to this is interest rates can go beyond the zero-bound this is a lot better than having cash if you want to avoid ‘bank runs’ and panics which would occur with cash if interest rates went negative for example negative 5 %.
Leave the cities
Ukraine is bracing for its worst winter ever. Experts recommend leaving major cities
https://hnonline.sk/svet/96304579-ukrajina-sa-chysta-na-vobec-najhorsiu-zimu-experti-odporucaju-opustit-velke-mesta
Sad situation. At some point, it is hard to see why bombing continues. What is there left to take out?
The purpose is to create a constant difficulty to Russia, guilty of exploiting its resources in person, without outsourcing them to external ‘good’ companies and managers… 😉
Build Back Better.
Who builds?
The Masons.
When they first came out with the “build back better” narrative, I asked people what the first step to fulfilling this task would be.
Not one person answered correctly.
What must be done before building back(better or not), would seem to be an easily answered question. Maybe people didn’t like thinking about the complete destruction of all they believe and hold dear, so couldn’t bring themselves to say “wiping away everything(and everyone) that’s in the way”.
It’s amazing how many people are now, unknowingly, playing that very game for them. Fear plays with the mind and makes people dismiss their own rationale. Oh well, they’ll be the first to be cleared when things get dicey.
Those Georgia Guidestones didn’t demolish themselves!
Americans make the best Georgia Guidestones; Japanese make them smaller and cheaper!
As for the two banners on the building next to the mini Guidestones in Mure, the one on the left says let’s all work to build a century of human rights and declares Takamatsu “a city that respects human rights,” while the one on the right declares Takamatsu “a nuclear-free city.”
isn’t it good when finally more people are Awakening to the reality that the elites are real that they are trying to create utopian Society and in fact there is no far left or far right just the elites playing everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJLPsRfF57I
Tl. dr.
1 The Singularity has already arrived. With existing AI, the elites can basically find ways to live forever.
2. The first party which achieves the highest level will basically destroy everyone else, and rule the world forever.
3. All cognitive jobs will be obsolete by at most 2 -3 years
4. That’s why all the data centers are built in a frantic speed. The elites will basically break away from the rest of population, forever.
Kulm , the elite are not as intelligent as we think they are . The ” pillars of IC are °— oil , electricity and metals . Oil is the master resource . The decline of the master resource will mean the end of IC and it will take no prisoners . I have often given the example of Peter Theil who has a hideout in NZ but failed to get there during the Covid crisis . Three points I want to make .
1 . Being rich does not make you intelligent . Andy Hall was ” the king of oil” till he went bankrupt . In an interview later he said ” Don’t attribute to genius what you can attribute to luck ” . Several years ago I heard a philosopher ask the question ” what would Bill Gates be doing if he was born in 1759 ” . The answer , tilling the farm or being dead by 1810 . We are the lucky generation to enjoy the fruits of ” the oil age ” .
2 . I see statues of Lincoln , Mandela , Gandhi , Bolivar but none of Ford , Carnegie , Rothschild or Vanderbilt s . Makes me go –hmmm .
3 . Death is the great equaliser .
Be well .
What elite figures have lived much beyond 100? Henry Kissinger, Ancel Keys, David Rockefeller and the UK Queen Mother (Charles III’s granny) got to 100 and so did some more ordinary people or ‘minor celebs.’ Living to 110 or 120 is *really* difficult.
David , this is a good one . I am 75 and myself wonder what I will do if I go on to be 100 ? Then I say to myself thanks to the miracle of ” modern medicine ” I would be in my grave by 60 . Operations — Colon cancer , prostrate , gall bladder stones , urinary canal blockage (twice) . Luckily I am under no long term medication . Sometimes I think if suddenly the world had no drugs for hypertension and diabetes — how many would pop off in just a year ? Thanks to the oil age .
Best advice on staying healthy w.o. drugs seems to be in books by dissident doctors, e.g. Malcolm Kendrick (ex-NHS GP) wrote ‘Statin Nation’, ‘The Clot Thickens’ etc. There are at least half a dozen easy ways by which the average person should be able to live to ~100 instead of ~80.
He seems horrified that pharma managed to label the sun as ‘dangerous’ starting ~45 years ago. Vitamin D tablets seem to have improved my health since 2018. I try and spend more time outside now I’m retired.
Jeanne Calment (who reached 122) would have got enough sun in Arles/south of France. In the UK winter gloom I think I need a sunlamp. I eat healthily and exercise but 52 degrees is *very* far north. I tan easily and this protects my skin from sunburn but also cuts down vit.D production.
I was born and raised at 52º north in London, but since my early 20s I have resided at 35º north in Kyoto, where the sun always rises 17º higher at noon than it does in London.
This is very helpful in the winter months because the extra sunlight is beneficial even when the UV is not strong enough to allow the skin to generate vitamin D. But you can have too much of a good thing, and I have to make sure not to get broiled and grilled alive at midday in July and August.
As we get older and crinklier, our skin cannot utilize the sun’s UV to make vitamin D so efficiently, so alternative methods are called for.
If you like seafood:
• Salmon: One of the best natural sources, providing up to 400–900+ IU (International Units) per 3.5-ounce (100g) serving depending on wild-caught or farmed.
• Herring and Sardines: A small 3.5-ounce serving provides around 190–200 IU.
• Mackerel and Tuna: Reliable oily fish options containing solid amounts of vitamin D per standard serving.
• Cod Liver Oil: A single tablespoon packs nearly 1,300 to 1,500 IU, making it a very concentrated source.
As for landfood:
• Egg Yolks: A large egg yolk provides a small amount (around 40–50 IU) of vitamin D3.
• Beef Liver: Contains a modest natural amount of vitamin D in a standard 3-ounce portion.
• Mushrooms: Certain varieties (like portobello or morels) grown or exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light can naturally produce helpful amounts of vitamin D2.
And then there are those wonderful vitamin D3 supplements containing cholecalciferol derived from lanolin found in sheep’s wool. There is a chorus of “alternative experts” who decry these as “rat poison” because in mega doses, this stuff is used for exactly that purpose, but to parallel what the CDC said about ivermectin, “you are not a rat. You are not a mouse. Seriously, y’all, take it in moderation and together with suitable amounts of vitamin K2 and magnesium!”
The obituaries in the local paper listed four centenarians who passed on in Northern Kyoto last week, aged 101, 102, 104 and 108.
A bit further south, following the death of 115-year-old Shigeko Kagawa of Nara Prefecture on August 27, 2026, a Kyoto resident named Fuyo Kishimoto was officially recognized this month as the new oldest living person in Japan.
Kishimoto is 114 years old and continues to reside in a nursing facility in Kita Ward, Kyoto. Her status was widely publicized by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare on September 15, 2026, to mark Respect for the Aged Day, alongside the milestone announcement that Japan’s total centenarian population has surpassed 100,000 for the first time.
A hundred thousand people over 100 years old!! Imagine how the Canadian Government would celebrate that?
About 95 percent of these old codgers are women, but Kyoto does boast the oldest verified man in history, Jiroemon Kimura, a resident of in Kyotango, Kyoto Prefecture, about 20 km north of my place, who died in 2013 at the age of 116.
The BBC did a story on Kimura while he was still with us. Intriguingly, he Kimura said he was not sure why he was able to live so long. “Maybe it’s all thanks to the sun above me,” he said. “I am always looking up towards the sky, that is how I am.”
Kyotango people have a reputation for particularly being long-lived. In addition to being far from the major cities and a generally laidback sort of place with plenty of hot spring resorts, Tango-no-Kuni is close to the Sea of Japan and they eat a lot of fresh fish there.
According to the BBC article, Kimura worked in his local post office until retiring and was said to have helped his son with his farming until he was around 90 years old.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22851848
This is total gibberish.
The Canadian Prepper has a reputation for being somewhat “over the top” in his ideas.
Have any of them been right to date? I recall “The Oil Drum,” any day the last drop would come out of the gas pump and we would all walk. One could grow very old waiting for the end of the world.
Dennis L.
I would rather err on the side of saying, “not too much.” There are too many unknowns.
Kulm, when you wrote “The first party which achieves the highest level will basically destroy everyone else, and rule the world forever”, you should have finished with “ha ha ha ha haaaa!” It would have sounded more authentically evil genius-ey.
He does not understand that if the Chinese start restricting chips they will soon be without their acclaimed surveillance systems. It will then be just a matter of smoking them out of their underground burrows.
> 2. The first party which achieves the highest level will basically destroy everyone else, and rule the world forever. <
Kulm, just on that point, how can they 'rule the world forever' if they have already 'destroy[ed] everyone else'?
They would be the only people left to be ruled over.
And then they would be the 'ruled over forever'?
There can be 'rule' only if there is 'ruled over', and if only they are left, then they must be the 'ruled over of the world'?
America’s Diesel Surplus Is an Illusion
https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/p/americas-diesel-surplus-is-an-illusion?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1225061&post_id=217611789&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=216vfx&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Read together .
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2026/08/05/affordability-not-scarcity-is-the-real-energy-crisis/comment-page-14/#comment-519398
Last week’s EIA crude storage data for crude oil was so off, you can see the massive spike in implied US oil production. In aggregate, EIA overcounted ~12 million bbls in last week’s report, which will be reversed in the coming weeks.
https://x.com/HFI_Research/status/2104117623252463768/photo/1
Oil Manipulation has been non-stop this week.
1. The Saudi E/W pipeline to open on Tuesday
2. A diesel export ban to be implemented
3. Hormuz to be open in 7 days
4. Iran and US were talking in person in NY
All were false .
This is why, in order to conserve mental and physical energy, one should only pay attention to things like:
1/ What fuels are available at the pumps, and at what prices.
2/ Is the JIT system working as usual or hiccupping? Which sectors are decaying?
3/ Power cuts, failing national and international grids.
4/ Do courier deliveries arrive to schedule?
5/ Are jets still flying, and to and from where? etc
These things can’t be faked. There is so much noise to signal these days. This approach simplifies on’s day wonderfully.
We know we are in a Collapse, unlike the majority. That too simplifies things.
Sensible preparations, no wasted energy, or emotion (the fools who still follow politics and support one side or the other).
👍.
I hasten to add, that I greatly value those who attempt to arrive at a realistic picture of what is going on, and above all,what energy and resources etc are really flowing and moving, etc.
Not sure, but this might interest you. Someone that follows how certain corporate “grabs” are implemented, from their inception(remember those law introductions/changes in 20/21( over a thousand)).
https://europeanpowell.substack.com/p/the-deed-and-the-zone-how-trump-came
Haven’t read many, but a couple about our own shores where enlightening, when coupled with some infrastructure implementations I had noticed, all starting just when you would have thought our government had more immediate demands to be getting on with. The scale for expansion is disturbing.
Yes even zero hedge is in on the game of everything is awesome! I think Israel controls zero hedge now
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/hormuz-oil-flows-rebound-two-thirds-prewar-level-irans-grip-erodes-attacks-19-ships
ZH became useless/misleading/gaslighting years ago…
Hormuz is open and the Yanbu pipeline is back in operation , the problem is that the market is not buying the lies anymore . They are saying ” show us the bacon” . oil prices are up 5% on market openings after the weekend . Indian basket at $ 123.65 add insurance and freight then landed cost is $ 150 .
https://oilprice.com/oil-price-charts/
The BS from Bloomberg . Believe this .
” Overseas shipments have restarted, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the operation. Saudi Aramco began testing the pipeline and rebuilding pressure last week, aiming to resume meaningful flows by the weekend.
In a separate report last Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Aramco was working quickly to repair the damaged section of the pipeline after a drone attack destroyed a pumping station. “
“Overseas shipments have restarted”
Really, I didn’t think that they had put the fires out yet*
The Remaindermen are jostling for position, so it looks like big change in Riyadh soon.
https://fountainbridge.substack.com/p/anglo-franco-defence-pretence-for-saudi
The article also puts to bed the silly claim of a deal between AnsarAllah and the US in Muscat, regarding passage through the Red Sea(AnsarAllah representatives were there to meet Chinese satellite suppliers).
* Anyone that knows Chinese satellite sites will be able to see how it looks(just not as well as AnsarAllah now can).
More BS .
” BREAKING: Trump is prepared to ease sanctions on Iran and release its frozen assets in exchange for progress on the nuclear issue, per a US official to Al Jazeera
US oil falls nearly 4% on the news.
Iran declared on Friday it will no longer negotiate over its nuclear program at all, and said it will make no concessions on enriching uranium or shipping its highly enriched uranium out of the country, the main US demand . “
Weekly EIA data has always had a lot of problems in it.
Followup on a post by Student on price caps in Italy .Meloni proposes but the finance minister says subsidies unsustainable , calls a meeting of refiners . Only 2 days .
https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/italy-seeks-refiners-help-boost-domestic-fuel-production-bid/
Depletion never sleeps .
West Germany used to produce some 100 000 Barrels of Oil a day back in 1980. Now all of Germany produces just a measly 30 000 Barrels a day. It needs 2 Million a day to function.
The UK produced 2.8 Million Barrels/day in 1998. Now they are down to 700 000/day. They need 1.4 Million/day.
Australia produces 350 000 a day but needs 1.2 Million.
China produces 5 Million/day it needs 16 Million/day.
Japan produces 10 000/day it needs 3 Million/day.
India produces 500 000/day it needs 5 Million/day.
Even the much lauded US that produces 13 Million Barrels/day is not self sufficient because it consumes over 20 Million Barrels/day.
Out of the 200 countries on this Planet there are perhaps 20 that are self sufficient in Oil and can export it to the other 180 countries that are dependent on it.
The much lauded “reserves” are 2-3 months for most countries.
Most countries have been using their reserves for the past 6 months. I doubt that they can keep drawing on them for another 6 months. We are in for a 1973/1981 Oil price recession on steroids.
Most Trucks run on Diesel. Most of our products are made out of petroleum. Prices will reach astronomical levels in a few months, choking consumers and the economy. Transportation of goods will become uneconomical. Industry will run out of Energy to produce things. Farmers will run out of artificial fertilizer. People will be unable to afford gas to get to work or they will eat up all their income. And then there is a Super El Nino that will make things even worse.
Most people out there are completely oblivious towards what is coming. They complain about gas prices, but they don’t think one step further what this means in the grand scheme of things.
Ravi… thanks for all the info you share!
UPDATE: Looks like they have slowed the pace of SPR releases, so this may stretch out through October .
https://x.com/chigrl/status/2104271214869143671/photo/1
Ravi, the situation looks even rosier and more idyllic from what they are saying in TV.
As well as ENI, which proposed the price cap on petrol and diesel (Euro/L 1,99 petrol, Euro/L 2,19 diesel), also IP (an Azerbaijani-owned company, previously Italian) has now announced too that it will adhere to the same price cap.
Rumours say that this price cap will probably last until the end of the year.
…And they all lived happily ever after…
I’m keen to see what will actually happen.
Anyway, starting from Monday morning price will be those ones.
https://www.quotidiano.net/economia/ip-prezzi-price-cap-benzina-we2byrvv
https://www.fortuneita.com/2026/09/25/carburanti-eni-fissa-price-cap-a-219-per-il-diesel-e-199-per-la-benzina/
Fuels: Urso and Pichetto summon refining operators to the Mimit on 8 October.
To assess a production increase to tackle high energy prices (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Rome, 25 September – The Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, and the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto, have convened a meeting for Thursday 8 October at 4.30 pm with companies operating in the refining sector and in the production of goods and derived products.
The meeting, to be held at Palazzo Piacentini, will focus on analysing key issues to assess how national refineries can increase production of key products to mitigate the effects of the current international situation on the country’s supply.
In addition to UNEM (Unione Energie per la Mobilità), representatives from Sonatrach, Socar-IP, Iplom, KPI, Alma Petroli, Ludoil/Isab, Eni, Saras and Innovhub have been invited to attend the meeting.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
https://www.borsaitaliana.it/borsa/notizie/radiocor/economia/dettaglio/carburanti-urso-e-pichetto-convocano-al-mimit-8-ottobre-operatori-raffinazione-nRC_25092026_0922_175607618.html
I would agree. In the introduction it says,
On paper, the United States should be the world’s safety valve in this fuel crisis. American refineries make far more diesel than Americans burn. But every one of those barrels is already spoken for. Between rising domestic demand, heavy export commitments and refineries running near their limit, the U.S. is drawing down its own stocks, not sitting on a surplus.
The world is short of diesel and jet fuel, and has been so for several years, since long before the closure of the Hormuz Strait and the problems in the Red Sea, and the Russia-Ukraine War.
Trump can be proud the service economy is booming!
Funeral Services.
This is a growing service, if people can afford to pay for it.
I call BS on the claim, but it’s still an interesting tidbit about the vax from a British MP:
https://x.com/Resistance20001/status/2103945257582834035
>> UK MP Andrew Bridgen was told by a Senior Minister in the tea room at the UK Parliament:
>> “You can speak out all you want. It doesn’t matter. You are vaccinated. You will be dead of cancer soon.’
It is possible, of course, that the other politician was simply being gartuitously malicious to Bridgen.
Yes I think so. That’s what I mean by “call BS” – not that the event didn’t happen.
That kind of behavior sounds typical of the chinless entitled ruling and managing classes in the UK. They are trained at Eton and Oxford in the offensive use of irony, sarcasm, and cruel taunting as a blood sport to make other people feel small or to get their gander up, as the snobs and nobs say. Ugly, callous attitudes like these are a big part of what has ruined the UK. Although they are far from being the whole story, of course. The Norman Pagett element also has to take a share of the blame.
The British ruling classes have never gotten over the loss of their colonies and the managing classes have never gotten over the loss of all those cushy colonial administrative jobs that came with big houses and servants. It has turned subsequent generations into a legion of loathsome, twisted, spiteful, jaundiced, and vindictive failures who love nothing better than to lash out at or put down other people.
The barb aimed a Bridgen was neither ironic nor sarcastic, but could be classified as blunt invective. Depending on the speaker’s intent, it could fall somewhere between malicious gloating (schadenfreude) and dismissive fatalism. But most likely it was just some dyspeptic old scrote without a shred of decency trying to upset a person who has, naively in their view, retained some scruples and principles and had the temerity to display career-ending levels of courage and decency that they themselves lacked.
It’s interesting that Bridgen was defeated at the last election. For me, this is more evidence that the country is beyond saving. As i see it, if the voters won’t vote for the one MP who resisted the “vaccine” mandates, and won’t educate themselves about the threats to their health, their livelihoods, and their liberties so that they can defend and protect themselves, it really is all over and there is nothing anyone can do to help them.
And now we are hearing of UK government plans to bring back conscription so they can fight the Russians. I never thought I’d see such developments in my lifetime. But this is what you get if you don’t push back at the first sign of government overreach. One year, the people are clapping for carers. A few years on, they are cheering the conscripts as they march off to the killing fields. And anyone who objects is a conchie!
Agreed. The psychological strain of living in blighty today is the hardest part. Mental and spiritual midgets as far as the eye can see, amongst the managers and the managed. The home nations are all some kind of Lilliput. I’d expect the 4 horsemen to show up at some point in the future and deliver a 1990s Russia type of spanking. The conditions are setting up perfectly for it.
After living through the happenings of Mar 20 – Mar 22, I looked at this place as a failed state….all the institutions of society are rotten to the core. I’d guess that some mix of past acheivements, and still having a critical mass of competent people in the “engine room” is keeping us afloat.
What makes it worse is having little in the way of true wilderness….limited options for escaping the madding crowd.
Bridgen lost by a large margin, raising many people’s suspicions that fraud was involved.
TPTB could have studied previous results in the constituency and arranged for a more credible outcome. However they seem to have decided to over-egg the pudding. No idea why.
Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t thought of fraud, but now you mention it, it seems somewhere between plausible and obvious. Bridgen was a major embarrassment to the people carrying out the COVID response, and he stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise compliant Parliament.
Bridgen in an hour long video a few months ago explained that in the previous election, he won with 65% of the vote. For the election he lost, he was expecting to win with about 65% of the vote again. Andrew said that just before the last election, the entire council election team were replaced with a govt-sponsored team, and he got 3% of the vote…
Vijay Prashad talks about this issue about 5:00 into the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzOYfAdj0L0
Vijay Prashad: Xi Put an Exit From the Iran War on Trump’s Desk. Why Is It Still Sitting There?
Not surprised, that Xi wants a “phased” reopening of the SoH, as the PRC gets (got) 70 pc or so of its crude imports from “behind the SoH” (mostly from gulf arabs, not Iran). But would the MOU/Islamabad agreements restore what was destroyed by drones or missiles a few weeks ago? No, not at all. The US seem to have completely different plans and will withdraw anyway. “Read my lips!” :-)))
Withdrawing seems like the best strategy. We don’t have enough more weapons. We have done it many places before: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea. Quit and bring troops home. I am doubtful anyone is really winner in this war.
But the US cannot admit that China talked them into withdrawing. Common sense will be behind the move.
To paraphrase Pam Bondi: “There is no desk!”
Culture in developed countries in a nutshell.
https://www.youtube.com/@FXBGNeighbors/videos
This isn’t just a specific market or audience, this is the entire culture. Other stuff not covered on this page are niche. If someone who comes from the developing world wonders what the culture is like in the developed world, I will point to this page.
The blurb on the first video on this page talks about the food ministry that this particular woman is doing, based on the funding of a nonprofit. She has cooks food for any anyone who needs it.
I helped with a food distribution non-profit back in the 2017-2019 timeframe. (I was told that my help was no longer needed in 2020. They were no longer using volunteers over 65 years old.)
At first, the group cooked meals for people who came. Some wore backpacks and seemed to be homeless. Later, they switched to a model of handing out food supplies that they collected from local grocery stores and restaurants. They obtained food that was near its expiration date or was for a particular holiday that was past. People drove up in their vehicles and collected this food. This food was aimed particularly at families who lived in nearby rent-by-the-week hotel rooms (that have some ability to cook). The total weight of foods that each family collected was recorded. It was subject to some upper limit.
As time went on, there were more requirements of those picking up food. Their names and addresses needed to be checked off of government lists. I was not involved with this, so I don’t know the details. It seems like whenever the government gets involved in these things, they go downhill.
Religions of all types strongly encourage people to look out for the needs of the poor. And the culture of Africa and of places where family structure is strong emphasize taking care of the vulnerable. Remember Hillary Clinton and her book, “It takes a village.” The whole system works much better when family structure is there, and people know each other. Governments impose all kinds of rules and overhead expenses that make the system work less well.
“Governments impose all kinds of rules and overhead expenses that make the system work less well.”
Like certain cities making it a crime for citizens to feed the homeless because of salt content not approved by the local government. As if the homeless care about that when scrounging thru a garbage can looking for something to eat.
This is how the fool the public that all is normal . Nobody counts barrels per week .
” Crude oil exports via Hormuz at 33.7 million barrels this week, data shows ”
This actually means only 4.5 mbpd was going thru instead of 18 mbpd .
” https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hormuz-commodity-ship-transits-fall-single-digits-shiptracking-data-shows-2026-09-25/
We would like to think we have very precise data on how much crude oil and refined products get through, but I don’t think we do. There is also oil that is exported in other ways, including through the Red Sea and through pipelines that empty out south of Oman, or up north toward Turkey.
There is also, of course, the issue of many of Russia’s refineries being taken down. This means that Russia has less diesel to export, but it has more crude oil to export. World refineries that can handle the types of fuel available need to work overtime to refine available supplies.
Axios, citing US officials: Approximately 60 million barrels of oil have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 72 hours .
Unbelievable lies .
Say what? Show us the evidence.
https://x.com/LawMccroskey/status/2103884682886795624/photo/1
Narrative: “the Strait of Hormuz is
open”
Reality: trucking oil hundreds of miles across Iraq because the Strait is still closed
19 hits (on Friday/Saturday per IRGC) vs 0 (per UKMTO) .
Price is a form of evidence.
https://x.com/mb_ghalibaf/status/2104252847902904491
Taken from
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/ghalibaf-challenges-us-hormuz-claims-as-oil-prices-remain-el
UAE appears to have given up on the fiction of bypassing Hormuz, so they’ll be visiting Tehran regularly over the coming months(with gifts) and Saudi strikes on Yemen are down to less than 30 a day, so they are running out of usable equipment, whilst gaining nothing but the badge of ineptitude(new son soon needed). The Yemenis in contrast have gained vast areas of land, confirming their rightful control of the local waterways and by doing it all in their steadfast manner, have also gained millions of supporters(prophetic for some). Iraq, after pressure, implemented the flight sanctions, but are having a high level meeting(after some words from Tehran) about it tomorrow, so it will be dumped on the quiet by Tuesday.
Some patterns are becoming extremely regular, so regular in fact that very soon it will be the “new normal” and no one will question the change(which has also become a regular pattern).
Maybe the UAE didn’t really need to leave OPEC. Ramping up its oil supply won’t give it much more, if it can’t really get it out as hoped.
I had forgotten about leaving OPEC. I would guess that they were told to do that, at that particular time. On the same day that they announced alternatives were unfeasible, the butcher of Palestinian children showed up in Abu Dhabi(the tribe that stole control of the UAE), so while Dubai and the others are looking for peace, we can guarantee they will be playing for the opposite side.
Explosion des prix du Diesel : Qui aurait pu le prédire?
https://2000watts.org/index.php/energies-fossiles/petrole/prix-petrole/1491-explosion-des-prix-du-diesel-qui-aurait-pu-le-predire.html
Soaring diesel prices: Who could have predicted it?
Diesel shortages are driving prices up. Today, the average price of diesel at the pump in the European Union is €2.23 per liter, a new all-time high. To give you an idea, the most expensive diesel is in Denmark, at €2.73 per liter. In the USA, diesel is reaching a peak of $1.73 per liter ($6.53 per gallon). The trend is global.
Who could have predicted it? Everyone! Since 2008, so many alarms have sounded and warning lights have been flashing non-stop. In the hydrocarbon sector, diesel is the canary in the coal mine. From the Yellow Vest movement to today, history is moving in the same direction.
Back to the Future
Diesel is traditionally the fuel of choice for transportation, particularly for cargo ships and trucks. Virtually everything in your home was transported using diesel.
The post goes then through the rising use of diesel for many purposes since 2020, and the diesel shortages in 2016 through 2019, including the Yellow Vest Movement. Then the Pandemic of 2020-2021, followed by wars and more wars cut back diesel use further.
The post ends with a section, “Stop consuming diesel or methane gas.” If you drive a diesel car, replace it with something else. If you heat your home with diesel or methane gas, replace the system with something else when its natural life is ended.
I don’t see diesel and methane (natural gas) as equivalent, at least in the United States. Europe suffers from a shortage of both diesel and natural gas. France has much of its electricity from nuclear, so I expect in this case he is suggesting moving to nuclear from electricity, rather than natural gas.
In this regard, I have always thought, in fact, that the so-called Volkswagen scandal in the US arose because the US decided to give the Germans a slap in the face for having dared to introduce some excellent cars that, however, ran on diesel – a fuel they have to use sparingly and which was, in any case, becoming increasingly scarce.
Because even an /d/ot could have seen that it was a manufactured scandal.
The hilarious culmination of all this is that Germans and French, full of diesel cars, accepted to break with Russia, their first source of that fuel, to defend Ukraine which depended from Russia for the same thing.
And they were planning to switch to electric cars, making electric energy with gas coming from Russia, the same Country like above 😀
Actually I have always thought also that comic movies are becoming very few lately, because reality is by far more comic than a whatever comic movie.
Diesel is more energy dense than gasoline. Logically, it should sell for quite a bit higher price than gasoline. Historically, this has not been the case however. I remember a time before 2000 when it sold for less per gallon than gasoline. At that time, there were at least a few diesel powered autos sold in the US.
Europe used to get a large share of its fuel from Russia, and Russian oil provided a lot of diesel, relative to gasoline. This is why Europe moved in the direction of diesel-fueled automobiles.
In the US, the oil supply has always been quite light. In recent years, it has moved even more in that direction, because tight oil from shale gives little diesel and jet fuel.
Also, gasoline is fairly easily substituted away by diluting it with ethanol, or by making electric automobiles. This means that gasoline supply goes even farther than it did, years ago, in the United States.
So, in the US, there is no need for diesel vehicles. It is necessary to match the vehicle supply with the types of oil available in a particular area. Any excuse is a good excuse for keeping diesel vehicles out. So you could be right about the mileage scandal being an excuse to keep diesel automobiles out.
Interesting article, it is funny how the author doesn’t get that diesel is a scarce fuel because Oil is not an equal chemical source, but there are different types of Oils (from chemical point of view) and not all Oils give diesel.
Among these Oils, US Tight Oil which gives mainly gasoline (or petrol, saying in the UK’s way, I think).
That is the key to understand better.
We touch this argument earlier, but it is an argument that Gail has always talked about, clarifying the misunderstanding in which many people fall in.
In Europe, even natural gas is in short supply, so I supposed he could be confused.
France has had success with nuclear, but I wonder how long that can continue. It needs a lot of upkeep to continue operating. Uranium supply is short on a worldwide basis. A better supply of sulfur would be helpful in getting it out, because sulphuric acid is used in extraction.
Sulfur is in short supply also, because of the lack of extraction of “sour” oil (containing sulfur) from the Middle East. This has the potential to hold back uranium availability.
this is so much worse than people think..
refiners are GIVING UP their diesel storage tanks..
not because they’re full.. because they can’t find enough diesel to put in them..
13 million barrels of empty storage.. a 4-year high..
and these are 6-to-12-month leases.. the industry is quietly telling you this lasts into next year..
diesel already hit $6.03.. an all-time record..
Louisiana already declared an emergency..
the truck that brings your food runs on diesel.. the tractor that grows it runs on diesel..
you’re going to pay for this.. you just haven’t seen the receipt yet..
follow for the next alert..
Kenzo Lee on X
Something is going to go wrong. I am guessing “empty shelves” more than high prices. But also, companies going out of business, or cutting back the number of air flights. Or governments ordering people to stay at home more.
Reddit user in Indianapolis had his outside air conditioner stolen for scrap $
https://www.reddit.com/r/indianapolis/comments/1woozjo/well_someone_stole_my_ac_unit/
I suppose that could happen anywhere. The units here are stand-alone units on little concrete pads, outside of home. They are situated in a way that they tend to be difficult to see from the street. Outside heat pumps and air conditioners would seem to both be vulnerable to this type of theft.
Humans have created a dead, artificial environment that provides them with neither food nor energy. It is a permanent energy sink that requires continuous energy inputs to keep nature from reclaiming it.
Adding more AI capacity adds to this problem. The one good thing that comes from the AI build-up, even if it flops in the way it is envisioned, is the increase in electricity production capacity, often from natural gas.
This electricity could be used to ramp up US manufacturing. It could also perhaps be used to power more light vehicles traveling short distances.
I guess travelling is becoming a luxury. Farmers are cutting back on fertilizer use, agricultural workers are demanding higher wages, and Chinese machinery is cheaper than current domestic brands.
But Chinese machinery still depends on imported spare parts. The same applies to Chinese cars.
People standing in front of supermarket shelves do not see the dire reality.
Kevin Walmsley looks at Russian natural gas exports from the Chinese perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MufwaCOHhow
Iran War fallout: Russia and China quietly take over natural gas markets in Asia, with Qatar gone
Sorry, mostly propaganda hogwash. 35 mn. tons crude per year are 0,7 mmbd (mn. barrels per day; M times M equals 1 million in my book), while world consumption is about 100 million barrels a day (all liquids). Re natgas China took 38 bn m3 via PoS1 and intends to increase delivery from PoS 1 to 44 bn. m3. North Stream 1 alone delivered 59 bn m3 natgas to Europe in 2021. And the PoS 2 is a nice project with a nice mou, becoming reality in 5 years at best. I doubt that though. Hearing about this project since 2012 or so.
There is no russian natgas available to compensate Katar losses for Asia (not to speak of chinese natgas). China currently gets about one fourth from Russia of what the EU used to consume (155 bn cubic meters) – from yakutsk, which seems to have some CH4 (but by far not as much as yamal). I guess, the PRC needs the natgas for its own industry. And crude oil? 35 bn. tons annually amounts to 717.200 Barrel per day, as compared to worldwide consumption of 106 million barrels daily (“all liquids”).
Thanks for looking at the specifics.
I wonder whether, if China has natural gas to export (from what it imports), it means that the Chinese economy is not doing very well.
Also, many people in China used to get piped in waste heat from nearby coal-fired power plants to heat their homes. This heat was essentially free. Now that nearby-coal deposits have depleted, this source of heat has disappeared. I understand that natural gas heat was offered to some, but at a charge to cover the natural gas. People couldn’t necessarily afford it, so the uptake was’t necessarily high.
I suppose this depends a whole lot on whether the Blue Energy folks know what they are doing with respect to extraction of the type needed in Venezuela. Also, if there are hidden subsidies.
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/pentagon-backed-oil-company-is-set-to-vie-for-chevrons-crown-in-venezuela-f8e4300a
Pentagon-Backed Oil Company Is Set to Vie for Chevron’s Crown in Venezuela
The rise of a U.S.-backed oil company in Venezuela has frustrated executives at Chevron, which has long been the dominant producer there.
North American Blue Energy Partners, the Trump administration’s new partner in Venezuela, said it has lined up 60 drilling rigs, 30 steam boilers that generate hot steam to move heavy oil, and 70 pieces of heavy equipment. Two drilling rigs are set to depart Houston on Monday for a six-day voyage to Venezuela on a cargo vessel called the BBC Washington.
NABEP is seizing the opportunity to develop 17 oil fields said to contain 65 billion barrels of oil, or one-fifth of the country’s vast reserves, which it secured last month through a deal with the U.S. It is expected to reap substantial production gains in its more developed fields in a relatively short amount of time. The Pentagon will take a 35% passive stake in the company and has preferential rights to purchase 20% of its production at cost.
“NABEP is increasing oil production for the Western Hemisphere, as promised,” said a spokesman for the company, which is led by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. “We are only in a race against ourselves.”
Meanwhile, since the deal was announced last month, executives at Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have privately expressed frustration to others in the industry about the prospect of competing against a rival with ties to the U.S. government.
NABEP is a financialized creation. They have ever turned a profit and probably never will.
There is a lot of detailed knowledge that NABEP likely doesn’t know. According to the WSJ article:
Privately, Chevron executives have expressed skepticism that NABEP can reach its output goals as quickly as outlined, and therefore some don’t view Betancourt’s company as a threat to its place in Venezuela’s pecking order, people close to Chevron said.
Still, executives at American oil companies have privately said the presence of a U.S.-backed company in Venezuela could create an uneven playing field and discourage investment, people close to the industry said.
Help is on the way .
German lawmakers backed a temporary fuel-tax cut worth €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) starting next week as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition seeks to ease the burden of surging prices on consumers.
The measure, a three-month reduction of as much as 17 euro cents ($0.19) a liter for gasoline and diesel, passed both houses of Germany’s parliament on Friday so it can take effect Oct. 1.
Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats suffered three bruising defeats in state elections this month, with voters taking aim at the political establishment and the far-right Alternative for Germany gaining support .
‘Eni sets price cap of €2.19 for diesel, €1.99 for petrol’ (Italy)
What do you think of this move?
I wonder if that could mean some kind of rationing and how competitors will behave.
Thanks
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/eni-sets-price-cap-of-219-for-diesel-199-for-petrol/ar-AA2cYeiz
It sounds like a way to have inadequate supply.
The Xi Trump meeting was a “nothing burger ” . Xi promised to send two pandas . Trump is delighted . 🤣
They are at least talking to each other, without physical fights. I consider that a plus.
War in the Middle East seems to have settled down, a bit, temporarily.
I’ll second that and another nothing burger is Iran’s proposal for “peace” before the mid term elections reported by the NYT
Iran Proposes 7-Day Plan to End War
Under the offer, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and nuclear talks would be revived.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, told reporters at a press briefing at the United Nations General Assembly that the proposal closely mirrored the commitments laid out in a so-called memorandum of understanding that was struck between the United States and Iran in June but quickly unraveled.
He said Iran was ready to begin putting the plan into effect as soon as Washington agreed to it.
“We have introduced a plan to the United States through the intermediators that if certain conditions are met, the Strait of Hormuz would be open on the end of the seventh day and talks would restart,” Mr. Araghchi said.
He said “it would be better,” if a deal was reached before the U.S. midterm elections.
Sure thing, the cheques in the mail on all your frozen assets too…
A nothing burger
Message to Iran…your frozen assets are gone, baby gone…
Yes. The Iranian conditions for re-opening the Straits of H rapidly (7, lift sanctions, return frozens assets, withdraw from the ME, etc.) don’t differ significantly from what was in the MOU, details – Gaza added? – longer discussion needed.
Iran knew that the US would refuse the offer, as it was refused before.
So? Iran may be trying to project an image: Sticking to their demands, principles, conditions – ‘We stand fast for our ppl’ etc. at home.
Iran being seen reasonable on the W stage. ‘We proposed some ‘reasonable deals’ (gotta use Trumpy terms), and were refused time and time again.’
Another aim might be to rally support from other countries (see UN meeting etc.)
And then what? Imho this move does not enhance Iranian power, Resistance, etc. Maybe it is to buy time, I wouldn’t know about that, but overall, dismaying (from an IRA. support pov.)
One MSM blurb on this matter
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqgmrr9ekr7ko
“On September 8, the US Treasury proscribed 36 aviation-related entities, including 27 Iranian airlines and a network of foreign ticketing agents, ground-service providers, and aircraft-procurement companies. . . .
The US is casting the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast. However, it is better understood within the framework of Washington’s wider, multi-theatre war to preserve US financial supremacy—and as such Beijing is the real strategic target.”?
https://ceinewsletter.substack.com/p/the-impossible-choice
The name of this article is “How Iranian Airline Sanctions Are Aimed at Beijing.”
I think that the Advanced Nations are increasingly fighting a war against what I call “Other than Advanced Nations”–who gets the diesel and jet fuel, and everything else that is needed.
Sanctions against Iran’s airlines are part of this war.
How did Peszkian and Aragachi return to Tehran ? The Chinese purchased the fuel and the gifted it to Iran Air . 🤣Sanctions don’t work .
Surprize!
An article by Larry Johnson. (Sanctions is one of the wars):
https://sonar21.com/three-wars-one-bill-how-hormuz-ukraine-and-sanctions-are-squeezing-the-express-giants-and-pushing-up-global-prices/
Three Wars, One Bill: How Hormuz, Ukraine and Sanctions Are Squeezing the Express Giants and Pushing Up Global Prices
This article is the result of my conversation earlier today during my flight from Istanbul to London. I was sitting next to a FEDEX pilot who was on his way to Paris via London. I asked him about aviation fuel prices and the effect on FEDEX and I got more than I bargained for. The world’s express carriers like to present themselves as barometers of the global economy. In 2026 they are also measuring something else: what it costs to run a global air network when two of the three main east-west air corridors are effectively closed. The answer so far is that FedEx and UPS are surviving the shock largely by passing it on to their customers. That cost doesn’t disappear. It moves down the supply chain and into the inflation numbers central banks are now fighting. . .
Surcharges have protected FedEx and UPS far better than airlines or asset-light truckers. FedEx’s chief customer officer said in March that the fuel surcharge was “doing its job” and would keep the company profitable. . .
On the evidence so far, shippers are bearing most of the cost. UPS’s CFO described the net profit impact of surcharges as “modest,” and FedEx said they were not a material driver of adjusted operating income. . .
For both the carriers and the inflation outlook, the deciding factor is how long the Hormuz disruption lasts. If jet fuel stays near $190 a barrel through peak season, the question stops being whether FedEx and UPS can pass costs on. It becomes whether their customers, and the consumers behind them, can keep absorbing them. The next markers are September CPI on October 14, and FedEx’s commentary on surcharge recovery and volumes in its fiscal Q1 2027 report.
Cargo freight is generally for high value cargo that can absorb increases with less difficulty than ships, truck or rail freights.
Anyway this seems to be the latest report.
“WorldACD: Global air freight volumes fell 1% in early September.”
It is in line with what I would expect, clients absorb prices, but volumes are decreasing and will probably decrease even more in the next weeks, because I don’t expect that jet fuel will be delivered by aliens to compensate lack of supply we currently have on this earth.
https://www.transportcorridors.com/worldacd-global-air-freight-down-1-early-sept/
Right!
B, the Honest Sorcerer, has a new post up:
https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/what-futures-are-possible-part-ii
This post looks at the future using three different lenses:
–Finance: dollar hegemony and financial stability versus alternative currency/trade regimes and survival in a post-neoliberal world where investments and financial instruments have lost 90% of their value.
–Social Coherence: from failed states to authoritarian high tech city states. Institutional failure rate on one axis, people’s and communities’ ability to adapt by becoming more self-sufficient on the other.
–Ecological Overshoot: the speed and extent of ecological decline due to overshoot and ways of potential human adaptation.
B concludes:
Phew… That was a long-winded way of saying: we are F’d. Or are we? See, while most likely 2025 was the peak of human economic activity—remember: energy is everything—a total apocalypse is far from being guaranteed. An electrified technutopia is also mathematically impossible—except for a handful high tech city states or regions, most likely in East Asia. The rest of the world will have to go through a massive economic decline: abrupt at first, erasing 5-10% of real economic output in the near future, then grinding on slowly as ongoing wars (and new ones) continue to drain and destroy an already shrinking, depleting resource base. Rinse and repeat for a several decades, and you arrive at a radically different world, where large states cease to function (fail) and where local communities / warlords / fill-in-the-blank take their place. This is already a lived reality in many countries across West Asia and Africa (Syria, Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon come to mind) and soon will become a reality in a growing number of countries across Europe and elsewhere. Don’t believe me? Wait 5-10 years and see for yourself.
In the meantime the global economy, and human communities in it, will continue to adapt. Increasingly expensive transport will mean more localized economies. Less fuel availability will result in reduced economic activity. A currency regime change and the dollar losing it’s reserve currency status will mean less exuberance, less credit, less stock market bubbles—but also perhaps more sane financing, less wars (‘no money, no war, honey’) and new methods to settle payments. Change, not apocalypse—fingers crossed. This doesn’t mean that all will be fine: the decades ahead will be rough for sure. War, deindustrialization, and an overall economic decline will be the order of the day, but starting a local-for-local business, organizing communities around ecologically sound principles, reverting to much simpler (and locally more democratic) institutions will always be a good idea—and a goal worth fighting for.
” Change, not apocalypse—fingers crossed .” Don’t agree . He seems to have dismissed complexity in the system . See the post on shortage of Bitumen in Germany or shortage of Sulfuric acid , Urea and Helium . Even those who have been studying these matters for long were not, aware of these side effects from the disruption in the SoH . Collapse or apocalypse cannot be avoided . The two questions are time and speed and of course who goes down the toilet first .
I know that the Democrats near me are very anti-Trump. I suppose this is possible. They don’t seem to have a strong candidate to put up, as a substitute, however.
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/09/24/bring-on-the-generals-roughly-60-percent-of-polled-democrats-would-support-a-military-coup/
It appears that nothing says “saving Democracy” like a good old-fashioned military coup. A new survey from the Center for Strategic Politics found that 59 percent of Democrats would favor a military coup to remove President Donald Trump from office. All it took was four years out of power for these Democratic voters to embrace a coup d’état to negate the results of the last election. What is particularly chilling is that many of these voters still portray themselves as defending democracy by calling for a military takeover. It is akin to supporting drive-by shootings to combat gun violence. That is not the only shocker in this survey.
According to the Center, roughly six in 10 (59%) Democrats polled said they would feel “very positive” or “somewhat positive” if the US military removed Trump and seized control of the American government.
The vast majority, of course, would be happy if Trump were impeached and removed from office (87%) or ousted by his cabinet via the 25th Amendment (84%).
https://i0.wp.com/media.townhall.com/cdn/hodl/ha/images/2026/265/52bb677e-3e85-428f-b9ae-d54cde393589-650×0.webp?w=845&ssl=1
The back and forth about ending or escalating the Iran war goes on:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-proposes-7-day-roadmap-end-war-which-mimics-june-mou
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has newly proposed to the US side a seven-day roadmap aimed at ending the war, while the top Iranian delegation is still in New York City engaged in deep diplomacy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. . .
Pezeshkian further said it was up to the United States to choose when the war would end. “It’s America that must choose whether it wants to end this or not,” Pezeshkian said in response to a question by Fox’s Bret Baier.
Tehran has meanwhile said it is ready to escalate, and even spread the war beyond the Persian Gulf region, into the Indian Ocean for example (where the UK-US have the Diego Garcia base).
The WSJ is saying:
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/why-the-gulf-wants-trump-to-hold-the-line-on-iran-b283a5e1
Why the Gulf Wants Trump to Hold the Line on Iran
New push for talks faces hurdles as U.S. allies seek to keep the pressure on Tehran
Gulf countries generally agree that Trump shouldn’t escalate militarily against Iran. But oil kingpin Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are lobbying the Trump administration to keep up the economic pressure on Iran and not agree to concessions that would ease sanctions or the U.S. Navy blockade, the people said.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, is facing new obstacles in getting its oil to market after Iran’s Houthi militia allies in Yemen began squeezing the kingdom’s shipments through the Red Sea. . .
U.A.E. officials who previously said their Gulf state was eager to end the conflict diplomatically have also poured water on expectations for talks with Iran and said the flare-ups in regional violence and attacks on ships show Tehran is in no rush to return to diplomacy.
“CANADA’S LEADERS WOULD RATHER PROTECT ORGANIZED CRIME & ALLOW THEIR CITIZENS TO BE TARIFFED THAN TO DEAL WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKING & FENTANYL PRODUCTION”?
https://forbiddennews.substack.com/p/the-post-national-state
My feeling is that things are not going well in Canada. The price margin for taxes on crude from the Oil Sands is not high enough. There is not enough other profitable industry. There are long distances to deal with, and the extra costs associated with a long winter and short summer. Remember that Canada was a leader in forcing Covid vaccines.
Not only Covid injections, Gail, but official Death by Doctor, ie MAID euthanasia, which seems to expand in scope relentlessly.
One of my nicest new neighbours here fled Canada to get away from all of that, although it might be a case of ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’.
If Canada is merely to function as a resource-supplier of some kind, the population is both far too large, and far too elderly.
Not only fat will be trimmed, but old bones too…..
would you rather they die eaten by cannibals?
we’re not in Kansas anymore toto.
As long as they die before being eaten by the cannibals, I don’t have any particular objection.
But more importantly, you are presenting what is known as a false dilemma—the Either-Or Fallacy—often framed as a “lesser of two evils” argument.
The implication of your argument is that there are only two options available—the current regime including jabbing people to make them sick and “putting them to sleep” once they are too sick to take care of themselves, or dying being eaten by cannibals.
In fact, there are lots of other possibilities, many of which may be more pleasant and beneficial than either of the above.
Canada has a nominal GDP per capita of approximately $55,728 USD, which is over 7 times higher than Botswana’s nominal GDP per capita of about $7,678 USD.
Adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity, Canada’s figure is roughly three times higher at $64,610, compared to Botswana’s $20,538.
And yet the people of Botswana are happy, always singing, always dancing, alway getting deported from South Africa! And with hardly any cannibalism since the last missionaries were eaten.
If we define happiness as security, stability, and lack of systemic worry, Canadians are generally better off than Botswanans. But if you define happiness as spontaneous joy, laughter, and daily emotional warmth, it is entirely plausible that on the average an individual in Botswana bolstered by strong community bonds, cultural resilience, and close family networks could experience a more joyful day-to-day life than a stressed, isolated individual in Canada.
You should know better than anyone the worlds deeply overpopulated leading to collapse. And this is our only hope (euthanizing billions).
the simple petri dish experiment proves this.
Shame on you for pushing your “far right” political denialism.
I can’t argue with you.
At least, I can’t if you are going to fail to respond adequately to any points I may have made, and instead try to fob me off by repeating wildly alarmist gibberish about overpopulation and cannibalism.
We are talking about Canada here, and not about the many African and Middle Eastern countries that have abysmally low food self sufficiency rates. Canada, by contrast, produces twice as much food as its population consumes, and it could produce much more if needed.
The current Canadian population density is 4.2–4.4 people per km² (roughly 11–12 people per square mile). Of course, a lot of those square miles are permanently frozen. But there is room to increase the acreage of arable land considerably.
But without modern machinery, agricultural fertilizers and herbicides and insecticides, and transport systems, yields would plummet. it would hardly be worth farming at all. So let’s not bother. Instead, let’s kill ourselves and each other and cannibalize them for food. Great idea. Needs must.
Yet, during the Tokugawa period, Japan sustained a peak population of about 30 million people for over two centuries on roughly 50,000 square kilometers of arable land by relying heavily on intensive human labor, composting, night soil recycling, and high-yield wet-rice or multi-cropping systems. This works out to a density of about 600 people per km² of farmland.
Intensive human labor? That sounds too much like hard work. I’m a Canadian, so count me out!
According to Physics.org, Earth could theoretically support roughly 8 billion people using an intensive, non-industrial agricultural system modeled on Edo period Japan, assuming global application of their peak ecological efficiency and management.
If a pre-industrial, non-mechanized society were forced to farm Canada using the highly disciplined, closed-loop organic philosophies of Edo Japan, they would have to rely heavily on cold-hardy dryland grains, root vegetables, and intensive animal draft power rather than wet-rice paddies.Because of Canada’s shorter growing season and lower-yield crops, the land would likely support only 10% to 15% of Japan’s Edo-era density. This places Canada’s theoretical pre-industrial carrying capacity at roughly 35 to 50 million people—which is close to Canada’s actual population today.
I don’t mind being accused of pushing “far right” political denialism, whatever you mean by that. Coming from someone who sees no other future for humanity than a choice between euthanizing billions or cannibalism as the new normal, I view it as a compliment.
No offense taken, but absolutely no shame felt. I make no apology for trying to maintain my sanity and common sense while other people go bonkers in their various ways. I don’t feel under any obligation to share in everyone else’s delusions, and I am not prepared to willingly join anybody else’s Jonestown cult. If that makes me “far right”, then so be it. You’re either with us, or you’re with the granny killers and cannibals.
“They used drugs for years, thinking it was no big deal, until things got out of hand. The number of patients—drug addicts—rose to a record high last year
Last year, nearly 3,400 people received treatment for drug addiction.
They are students, self-employed individuals, and lawyers. For years, they used methamphetamine, cocaine, or marijuana. They thought they could do so without major problems—until things got out of hand. Last year, a record number of patients with drug addictions received treatment in Slovakia. This is according to data from the Center for the Treatment of Drug Addiction (CPLDZ) in Bratislava.
According to Ľubomír Okruhlica, a leading expert in addiction medicine, the increase in the number of patients—drug addicts—is due to an influx of middle-aged individuals seeking treatment.
Pervitin continues to dominate among Slovak drug users. Cocaine is also popular. Marijuana use is high, and heroin use still accounts for a significant share.”
https://www.sme.sk/domov/c/roky-brali-drogy-mysleli-ze-bez-problemov-az-sa-im-to-vymklo-z-ruk-pocet-pacientov-narkomanov-vlani-rekordne-stupol
When people are depressed or lonely, drugs often seem like an option. This is especially the case when a person is without a close family structure to fall back on. Children of divorce or of unwed mothers seem to have more difficulties than others.
Hmm, maybe God is useful after all; it is disappointing to learn you don’t know everything.
Dennis L.
US Post Office sending out armed guards for offices nationwide.
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/us-postal-inspection-service-sends-security-guards-to-facilities-nationwide-including-denver
Papers Please!
It sounds like being a security guard is a new “growth area” for jobs, at least until after the election. If people are worried, perhaps this will calm their fears a bit. Spending helps GDP.
Traffic wardens, too. On bicycles, just to be Green.
‘Environmental Enforcement Offices’ have also appeared here.
They are all mostly physically inferior, so fat! and often foreigners.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an English person in one of these roles.