Tag Archives: high oil prices

The world’s self-organizing economy can be expected to act strangely, as energy supplies deplete

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Gail Tverberg

It is my view that when energy supply falls, it falls not because reserves “run out.” It falls because economies around the world cannot afford to purchase goods and services made with energy products and using energy products in their operation. It is really a price problem. . .

It is my expectation that these and other issues will lead to a very strangely behaving world economy in the months and years ahead. The world economy we know today is, in fact, a self-organizing system operating under the laws of physics. With less energy, it will start “coming apart.” World trade will increasingly falter. Fossil fuel prices will be volatile, but not necessarily very high.
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Posted in Financial Implications, oil shortages | Tagged , , | 4,063 Comments

Why raising interest rates to reduce inflation may work out very badly

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Gail Tverberg

Are we headed for very high energy prices? Or, are we headed for a financial system that starts falling apart? The whole economic system may change remarkably. For example, what many people thought was money, or a promised pension plan, may not really be there when the time comes to get value from it. Shelves in stores may be empty when it comes time to make a purchase. Continue reading →

Posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications, News Related Post | Tagged , | 3,945 Comments

Spike in energy prices suggests that sharp changes are ahead

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Gail Tverberg

Now, through several iterations, the economy has become increasingly complex, with less and less redundancy to provide stability. The energy price spike that is being experienced today is a warning that something is very, very wrong. As I see the situation, the trend toward complexity has gone too far; the economic system is starting to break down. Sharp changes appear to be ahead. The world economy is shifting into contraction mode, with more and more parts of the system failing. Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , , | 4,474 Comments

How the World’s Energy Problem Has Been Hidden

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Gail Tverberg

We now live in a strange world filled with half-truths, not too different from the world of the 1930s. US newspapers leave out the many stories that could be written about rising food insecurity around the world, and even in the US. We see more reports of conflicts among countries and increasing gaps between the rich and the poor, but no one explains that such changes are to be expected when energy consumption per capita starts falling too low. Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 3,735 Comments

The World’s Fragile Economic Condition – Part 1

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Gail Tverberg

Where is the world economy heading? In my opinion, a large portion of the story that we usually hear about how the world economy operates and the role energy plays is not really correct. In this post (to be continued … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications, Introductory Post | Tagged , , , , | 1,500 Comments