PDFs of Posts

PDFs of Posts

Attached is a list of recent posts, plus popular older posts in PDF format. Separately, at the bottom of the list I show some selected presentations, also in PDF format. These may be helpful if

• New readers want to see a list of posts that they have missed; sorry, I haven’t written a book
• Readers prefer reading posts off line
• Printed copies are needed
• Readers have difficulty viewing images
• Readers are looking for a complete list of recent posts–sort of a “Table of Contents”.

All of the posts are now hosted on WordPress. At one point, there was a problem with broken links. These should be fixed. Let me know if there are links that need fixing.  (GailTverberg at comcast dot net)

Posts During 2022

Why raising interest rates to reduce inflation may work out very badly – July 5, 2022

A Few Insights Based on CDC Data Regarding COVID and its Vaccines – June 9, 2022

Is the debt bubble supporting the world economy in danger of collapsing? – May 17, 2022

The world has a major crude oil problem; expect conflict ahead – April 21, 2022

No one will win in the Russia-Ukraine conflict – March 28, 2022

Russia’s attack on Ukraine represents a demand for a new world order – March 2, 2022

Limits to Green Energy Are Becoming Much Clearer – Feb. 9, 2022

2022: Energy limits are likely to push the world economy into recession – Jan. 18, 2022 

Posts During 2021

Is it possible that the world is approaching end times? – December 3, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Really Work as Hoped – August 5, 2021

To Be Sustainable, Green Energy Must Generate Adequate Taxable Revenue – July 15, 2021

How Energy Transition Models Go Wrong – June 18, 2021

Don’t expect the world to resume its prior growth rate after COVID-19 – May 27, 2021

How the World’s Energy Problem Has Been Hidden – May 4, 2021

We can’t expect COVID-19 to go away; we should plan accordingly – April 11, 2021

Headed for a Collapsing Debt Bubble – March 20, 2021

Why Collapse Occurs Why It May Not Be Far Away – Feb. 25, 2021

Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong – Feb. 3, 2021

2021: More Troubles Likely – Jan. 12, 2021

Posts During 2020

2020: The Year Things Started Going Badly Wrong – Dec. 23, 2020

Humans Left Sustainability Behind as Hunter-Gatherers – Dec. 2, 2020

Energy is the economy; shrinkage in energy supply leads to conflict – Nov. 9, 2020

Link to Energy Is the Economy Video in Nov. 9, 2020 Post

Link to Transcript of Energy Is the Economy Video in Nov. 9, 2020 Post

Fossil fuel production is reaching limits in a strange way – Oct. 15, 2020

Reaching the End of Early Stimulus – What’s Ahead? – Sept. 23, 2020

Today’s Energy Predicament – A Look at Some Charts – Sept. 1, 2020

We Need to Change Our COVID-19 Strategy – Aug. 10, 2020

Why a Great Reset Based on Green Energy Isn’t Possible – July 17, 2020

COVID-19 and the economy: Where do we go from here? – June 25, 2020

Increased Violence Reflects an Energy Problem – June 3, 2020

Understanding Our Pandemic – Economy Predicament – May 13, 2020

COVID-19 and oil at $1: Is there a way forward? – Apr. 21, 2020

Economies won’t be able to recover after shutdowns – Mar. 31, 2020

It is easy to overdo COVID-19 quarantines – Mar. 11, 2020

Easily overlooked issues regarding COVID-19 – Feb. 18, 2020

It Is Easy to Overreact to the Chinese Coronavirus – Jan. 29, 2020

Expect low oil prices in 2020; tendency toward recession – Jan. 8, 2020

Posts During 2019

Scientific Models and Myths: What Is the Difference? – Dec. 17, 2019

Recession Ahead: An Overview of Our Predicament – Dec. 8, 2019

Do the World’s Energy Policies Make Sense? – Nov. 14, 2019

How Renewable Energy Models Can Produce Misleading Indications – Oct. 24, 2019

Understanding Why the Green New Deal Won’t Really Work – Oct. 2, 2019

Our Energy and Debt Predicament in 2019 – Sept. 12, 2019

Debunking ‘Lower Oil Supply Will Raise Prices’ – Aug. 22, 2019

Rethinking Renewable Mandates – July 31, 2019

Why stimulus can’t fix our energy problems – July 10, 2019

Seven Reasons Why We Should Not Depend on Imported Goods from China – June 19, 2019

Why it (sort of) makes sense for the US to impose tariffs – May 22, 2019

The climate change story is half true – April 30, 2019

The true feasibility of moving away from fossil fuels – April 9, 2019

A Different View of Venezuela’s Energy Problems – March 20, 2019

Have We Already Passed World Peak Oil and World Peak Coal? – Feb. 22, 2019

How the Peak Oil story could be “close,” but not quite right – Jan. 30, 2019

2019: World economy is reaching growth limits; expect low oil prices, financial turbulence – Jan. 9, 2019

Posts During 2018

Electricity won’t save us from our oil problems – Dec. 20, 2018

Low Oil Prices: An Indication of Major Problems Ahead? – Nov. 28, 2018

Why we get bad diagnoses for the world’s energy-economy problems – Nov. 7, 2018

The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 2 – Oct. 14, 2018

The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 1 – Sept. 23, 2018

Introduction to the “World’s Fragile Economic Condition” – Sept. 16, 2018

How energy shortages really affect the economy – Aug. 27, 2018

Supplemental energy puts humans in charge – Aug. 2, 2018

The world’s weird self-organizing economy – July 11, 2018

Eight insights based on December 2017 energy data – June 22, 2018

Our Energy Problem Is a Quantity Problem – May 30, 2018

How the Economy Works as It Reaches Energy Limits — An Introduction for Actuaries and Others – May 11, 2018

Why oil prices can’t rise very high, for very long – Apr. 19, 2018

Energy Return on Energy Invested – Prof. Charles Hall’s Comments – Apr. 12, 2018

Why the Standard Model of Future Energy Supply Doesn’t Work – Apr. 4, 2018

Our Latest Oil Predicament – Mar. 13, 2018

Raising Interest Rates Is Like Starting a Fission Chain Reaction – Feb. 21, 2018

Nine Reasons Why Globalization Can’t Be Permanent – Jan. 31, 2018

Will the World Economy Continue to “Roll Along” in 2018? – Jan. 9, 2018

Posts During 2017

The Depression of the 1930s Was an Energy Crisis – Dec. 19, 2017

A Video Game Analogy to Our Energy Predicament – Nov. 28, 2017

Will China Bring an Energy-Debt Crisis? – Nov. 8, 2017

The Approaching US Energy-Economic Crisis – Oct. 18, 2017

Why political correctness fails – Why what we know ‘for sure’ is wrong (Ex Religion) – Oct. 1, 2017

Why political correctness fails – Why what we know ‘for sure’ is wrong – Sept. 26, 2017

Why Oil Prices Can’t Bounce Very High; Expect Deflation Instead – Sept. 6, 2017

World GDP in current US dollars seems to have peaked; this is a problem – Aug. 14, 2017

Researchers have been underestimating the cost of wind and solar – July 22, 2017

The Next Financial Crisis Is Not Far Away – July 2, 2017

Falling Interest Rates Have Postponed “Peak Oil” – June 12, 2017

Open Thread and a Few Observations on Japan – May 25, 2017

Why We Should Be Concerned About Low Oil Prices – May 5, 2017

The Economy Is Like a Circus – April 17, 2017

Why Energy-Economy Models Produce Overly Optimistic Indications – March 26, 2017

Raising Interest Rates Can’t End Well! – Mar. 13, 2017

Oops! The economy is like a self-driving car – Feb. 20, 2017

The “Wind and Solar Will Save Us” Delusion – Jan. 30, 2017

2017: The Year When the World Economy Starts Coming Apart – Jan. 10, 2017

Posts During 2016
EROEI Calculations for Solar PV Are Misleading – Dec. 21, 2016

What has gone wrong with oil prices, debt, and GDP growth? – Dec. 7, 2016

The energy problem behind Trump’s election – Nov. 17, 2016

How researchers could miss the real energy story – Oct. 27, 2016

Why energy prices are ultimately headed lower; What the IMF missed – Oct. 11, 2016

What really causes falling productivity growth–an energy-based explanation – Sept. 20, 2016

Intermittent renewables can’t favorably transform grid electricity – August 31, 2016

An Updated Version of the “Peak Oil” Story – August 8, 2016

Overly Simple Energy-Economy Models Give Misleading Answers – July 25, 2016

Energy limits- Why we see rising wealth disparity and low prices – July 6, 2016

China: Is peak coal part of its problem? – June 20, 2016

$50 Oil Doesn’t Work  – May 31, 2016

The real oil limits story; what other researchers missed – May 12, 2016

Debt: The Key Factor Connecting Energy and the Economy – May 2, 2016

US 2015 oil production and future oil prices – April 18, 2016

Why we have a wage inequality problem – March 29, 2016

Our economic growth system is reaching limits in a strange way – March 17, 2016 – (Relates to entropy)

Why globalization reaches limits – March 1, 2016

The physics of energy and the economy  – Feb. 8, 2016

Why oil under $30 per barrel is a major problem – Jan. 19, 2016

2016: Oil limits and the end of the debt supercycle – Jan. 7, 2016

Posts During 2015

We are at Peak Oil now; we need very low-cost energy to fix it – Dec. 21, 2015

Economic growth: How it works; how it fails; why wealth disparity occurs – Dec. 8, 2015

Why “supply and demand” doesn’t work for oil – Nov. 23, 2015

Oops! Low oil prices are related to a debt bubble – Nov. 3, 2015

Our electricity problem: Getting the diagnosis correct – Oct. 14, 2015

Low oil prices: Why worry? – Sept. 29, 2015

How our energy problem leads to a debt collapse problem – Sept. 14, 2015

Deflationary Collapse Ahead?  – Aug. 26, 2016

How economic growth fails – Aug. 10, 2016

Nine reasons why low oil prices may “morph” into something much worse  – July 22, 2015

What Greece, Cyprus, and Puerto Rico have in common – July 8, 2015

BP data suggests we are reaching peak energy demand – June 23, 2015

Why EIA, IEA, and BP oil forecasts are too high – June 9, 2015

Cuba: Figuring out pieces of the puzzle – May 26, 2015

Why we have an oversupply of almost everything (oil, labor, capital, etc.) – May 6, 2015

Overview of our energy modeling problem – April 23, 2015

Putting the real story of energy and the economy together – April 15, 2015

The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem – March 9, 2015

Role of wages of the common worker in oil prices, collapse – Feb. 25, 2015

A new theory of energy and the economy – Part 3: The problem of debt as we reach oil limits – Feb. 11, 2015

A new theory of energy and the economy – Part 2 – Charts showing the long-term tie between energy and the economy – Feb. 5, 2015

A new theory of energy and the economy – Part 1 – Generating economic growth – Jan. 21, 2015

Oil limits and the economy: Where are we headed in 2015-2016 – Jan. 6, 2015

Posts During 2014

How increased inefficiency explains falling oil prices – Dec. 29, 2014

Ten reasons why a severe drop in oil prices is a problem – Dec. 7, 2014

Eight pitfalls in evaluating green energy solutions – Nov. 18, 2014

Oil price slide – No good way out – November 5, 2014

Eight pieces of our oil price predicament – October 22, 2014

WSJ gets it wrong on “Why peak oil predictions haven’t come true” – October 6, 2014

Low Oil Prices- Sign of a Debt Bubble Collapse, Leading to the End of Oil Supply – September 21, 2014

An Energy-Related Reason Why US Healthcare Outcomes are Awful – September 9, 2014

Update on US natural gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables – August 25, 2014

Energy and the Economy – Twelve Basic Principles – August 14, 2014

Making Sense of the US Oil Story – August 6, 2014

World Oil Production at 3:31:2014–Where are We Headed – July 23, 2014

Debt: Eight Reasons This Time is Different – July 7, 2014

Why Standard Economic Models Don’t Work–Our Economy is a Network – June 23, 2014

IEA Investment Report – What is Right; What is Wrong – June 10, 2014

Converging energy crises – And how our situation differs from the past – May 29, 2014

The connection between oil prices, debt levels, and interest rates – May 21, 2014

Russia and Ukraine – The worrisome connection to world oil and gas problems – May 7, 2014

Eight energy myths explained – April 23, 2014

Oil limits and climate change – How they fit together – April 11, 2014

The absurdity of US natural gas exports – March 31, 2014

Oil limits and the economy: One story, not two – March 21, 2014.

Reaching debt limits – With or without China’s problems, we have a problem – March 11, 2014

Reasons for our energy predicament- An overview – March 4, 2014

Beginning of the end? Oil companies cut back on spending – Feb. 25, 2014

Reaching limits to growth – What should our response be? – Feb. 17, 2014

Limits to growth – At our doorstep, but unrecognized – Feb. 6, 2014

A forecast of our energy future; Why common solutions don’t work – Jan. 29, 2014

Ten reasons intermittent renewables (wind and solar PV) are a problem – Jan. 21, 2014

Why IEA, EIA, and Randers’ 2052 energy forecasts are wrong – Jan. 13, 2014

Why a finite world is a problem – Jan. 2, 2014

Selected Posts from 2013 and Prior

The real oil extraction limit and how it affects the downslope – Dec. 18, 2013

Diminishing returns, Energy Return on Energy Invested, and collapse – Dec. 6, 2013

What’s ahead? Lower oil prices, despite rising extraction costs – Nov. 15, 2013

Sustainability: How humans’ economy differs from nature – Oct. 31, 2013

Rising energy costs lead to recession; eventually collapse – Oct. 23, 2013

Two views of our current economic and energy crisis – Oct. 14, 2013

Our oil problems are not over! – Oct. 2, 2013

Why I don’t believe Randers’ Limits to Growth forecast to 2052 – Sept. 25, 2013

Oil and gas underlie Syria’s conflict – Sept 9, 2013

Energy products: Return on investment is already too low – June 24, 2013

Peak oil demand is already a huge problem – April 11, 2013

Twelve reasons why globalization is a huge problem – Feb. 22, 2013

Oil supply limits and the continuing financial crisis – In Energy Volume 37 January 2012

Why Malthus got his forecast wrong – December 12, 2012

World Energy Consumption Since 1820 in Charts – March 12, 2012

Selected Presentations

Energy-Economy Update Perspective Presented to Conference in Venice, Italy via Zoom, Oct. 12, 2020

Recession Likely: Expect a Bend in Trend Lines Presented twice to the Casualty Actuarial Society Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, November 12 and 13, 2019

Don’t Count on Rising Energy Prices – Presentation to SSP Subsection of IEEE, WiSEE, Ottawa, Canada, October 17, 2019

Energy-Economy Update Perspective – Presentation to SSP Subsection of IEEE, WiSEE, Huntsville, Alabama, December 12, 2018

How the Energy System Really Works – Presentation to Atlanta Beyond Oil, Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 10, 2018

Energy Economics: Is a Discontinuity Ahead Presentation given at the Bermuda International Life & Annuity Conference, Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda, Sept. 27, 2018

The World’s Fragile Economic Condition Presentation to the Casualty Actuaries of the Southeast at Georgia State University, Sept. 17, 2018

Insights Regarding the Operation of the Energy Economy – Presentation at BioPhysical Economics Meeting at Wells College in New York on June 16, 2018

Reaching Limits of a Finite World – Presentation at Society of Actuaries Life & Annuity Symposium in Baltimore on May 8, 2018

The Approaching US Energy Economic Crisis Final – Presentation at IEEE WiSEE Meeting in Montreal on Oct. 11, 2017

The Problem of Properly Evaluating Intermittent Renewable Resources – Presentation at Biophysical Economics Conference in Montana on June 20, 2017

The Next Financial Crisis – English version of Presentation to “Ecologists in Action” (in Madrid, Spain) – June 26, 2017

Elephants in the Room Regarding Energy and the Economy – Presentation at “New Narratives of Energy and Sustainability” workshop on April 20, 2017, as part of Inspirational Workshop Series, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium.

The Mirror Image Problem – Presentation to Committee of UK Actuaries – Mar. 14, 2017

The energy problem behind Trump’s election – Nov. 17, 2016 (Not a presentation to any live group; presentation covers more advanced topics and thus may be difficult for those without adequate background)

Complexity: The Connection Between Fossil Fuel EROI, Human EROI, and Debt – Biophysical Economics Conference – June 27, 2016

Energy and the economy – Twelve basic principles in a finite world – UNED Energy Conference – October 10, 2014

Converging crises – Age of Limits Conference – May 25, 2014

How high and rising oil prices can lead to limits to growth; EROI is now too low – Biophysicial Economics Conference – June 10, 2013

Collapse 101 – Age of Limits Conference – May 25, 2013

Energy and the economy: Bumping against the growth ceiling – Several audiences – August 31, 2011

An update on the peak oil story – China -May 13, 2011

Where are we headed: Peak oil and the financial crisis – March 25, 2009 (Link is to article on The Oil Drum. Presentation is available for download by link in article.)