Author Archives: Gail Tverberg

About Gail Tverberg

My name is Gail Tverberg. I am an actuary interested in finite world issues - oil depletion, natural gas depletion, water shortages, and climate change. Oil limits look very different from what most expect, with high prices leading to recession, and low prices leading to financial problems for oil producers and for oil exporting countries. We are really dealing with a physics problem that affects many parts of the economy at once, including wages and the financial system. I try to look at the overall problem.

Why oil prices can’t rise very high, for very long

Posted on April 19, 2018

Oil prices are now as high as they have been for three years. At this writing, Brent is $74.14 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate is at $68.76. These prices aren’t really very high, if a person looks at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 195 Comments

Energy Return on Energy Invested – Prof. Charles Hall’s Comments

Posted on April 12, 2018

In my most recent post, Why the Standard Model of Future Energy Supply Doesn’t Work, I made some comments about the calculation of Energy Returned on Energy Invested. Professor Charles Hall sent me the following response to what I said, which he … Continue reading →

Posted in Guest post | Tagged , , | 374 Comments

Why the Standard Model of Future Energy Supply Doesn’t Work

Posted on April 4, 2018

The most prevalent view regarding future oil supply, as well as total energy supply, seems to be fairly closely related to that expressed by Peak Oilers. Future fossil fuel supply is assumed to be determined by the resources in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 1,120 Comments

Our Latest Oil Predicament

Posted on March 13, 2018

It is impossible to tell the whole oil story, but perhaps I can offer a few insights regarding where we are today. [1] We already seem to be back to the falling oil prices and refilling storage tanks scenario. US crude oil … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 2,023 Comments

Raising Interest Rates Is Like Starting a Fission Chain Reaction

Posted on February 21, 2018

Central bankers seem to think that adjusting interest rates is a nice little tool that they can easily handle. The problem is that higher interest rates affect the economy in many ways simultaneously. The lessons that seem to have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 2,489 Comments