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.

Our Energy Problem Is a Quantity Problem

Posted on May 30, 2018

(This post consists of a short overview article I recently wrote for Transform, a magazine for Environment and Sustainability Professionals, plus six related Questions and Answers.) Reading many of today’s energy articles, it is easy to get the impression that our … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 1,746 Comments

How the Economy Works as It Reaches Energy Limits — An Introduction for Actuaries and Others

Posted on May 11, 2018

Why have long-term interest rates generally fallen since 1981? Why have asset prices risen? Can these trends be expected to continue? The standard evaluation approach by actuaries and economists seems to be to look at past patterns and assume that … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 1,963 Comments

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 , , , | 1,703 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 , , | 381 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 , , , , | 1,124 Comments