Tag Archives: oil prices

2023: Expect a financial crash followed by major energy-related changes

If the world economy experiences major financial turbulence in 2023, we could be in for a rough ride. In my opinion, a major financial crash seems likely. This is could upset the economy far more seriously than the 2008 crash.

I am certain that some mitigation measures can be implemented. For example, there can be a major push toward trying to make everything that we have today last longer. Materials can be salvaged from structures that are no longer used. And some types of local production can be ramped up.

We can keep our fingers crossed that I am wrong but, with less oil and other energy resources available per person, moving goods shorter distances makes sense. Thus, the initial trends we are seeing toward regionalization are likely to continue. The move away from the US dollar as the reserve currency also looks likely to continue. Moreover, if the changes I am talking about don’t occur in 2023, they are likely to begin in 2024 or 2025. Continue reading

Posted in Financial Implications, Oil and Its Future | Tagged , , , | 3,753 Comments

The economy is moving from a tailwind pushing it along to a headwind holding it back

When the Crisis Stage occurs, there are fewer goods and service per capita to go around, so some members of the world economy must come out behind. Conflict of all kinds becomes more likely. Political leaders, if they happen to discover the predicament the world economy is in, have little interest in making the predicament known to voters, since doing so would likely lead them to lose the next election.

Instead, the way the physics-based self-organizing economic system works is that alternative narratives that frame the situation in a less frightening way gain popularity. Political leaders may not even be aware of how dependent today’s economy is on fossil fuels. Researchers may not be aware that their “scientific” models are misleading because they look at too small a portion of the overall system and make unwarranted assumptions. Continue reading

Posted in Alternatives to Oil, Energy policy, Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 3,874 Comments

Today’s Energy Crisis Is Very Different from the Energy Crisis of 2005

Back in 2005, the world economy was “humming along.” World growth in energy consumption per capita was rising at 2.3% per year in the 2001 to 2005 period. China had been added to the World Trade Organization in December 2001, … Continue reading

Posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 3,147 Comments

The world has a major crude oil problem; expect conflict ahead

World crude oil production has been falling behind needed levels since 2019. This problem, by itself, encourages the world economy to contract in unexpected ways, including in the form of economic lockdowns and aggression between countries. This crude oil shortfall seems likely to become greater in the years ahead, pushing the world economy toward conflict and the elimination of inefficient players. Continue reading

Posted in Financial Implications, oil shortages | Tagged , , , | 4,255 Comments

Russia’s attack on Ukraine represents a demand for a new world order

Russia’s attack on Ukraine represents a demand for a new world order that, over the long term, will support higher prices for fossil fuels, especially oil. Such an economy would probably be centered on Russia and China. The rest of the world economy, to the extent that it continues to exist, will largely have to get along without fossil fuels, other than the fossil fuels that countries continue to produce for themselves. Population and living standards will fall in most of the world. Continue reading

Posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications, News Related Post | Tagged , , , , | 5,373 Comments