Tag Archive | "extinction"
A review before the exam
Actually, this review is too late for the many people who have already endured economic collapse. As any of those folks can tell the rest of us, we do not want to receive the lesson after the exam. I’ve written all this before, but I have not recently provided a concise summary. This essay provides [...]
Continue reading...Muddling along
Monday, August 2, 2010
After a woefully inept introduction, this essay forces me to stare into the abyss of planet-destroying myth. If you believe we’re headed for a muddle-through future in which we correct massive ecological overshoot with the tranquility of Buddhist monks, this is the essay you’ve been waiting to read. Come on along, if you dare, keeping [...]
Continue reading...Economic and environmental consequences of expensive oil
Friday, July 16, 2010
What are the causes and consequences of expensive oil? The first question is posed in this article, and answered surprisingly well by a neoclassical economist. He understands the relationship between the price of oil and economic growth, and he hints at constrained supply while also expressing irrational exuberance about continued economic growth. As an economist, [...]
Continue reading...Making other arrangements: I’d like to help you
Monday, June 28, 2010
Now that my own living arrangements are in order — to the extent that’s possible in light of ongoing, accelerating global climate change, decline of American Empire, and demise of the living planet — I would like to help other people more directly than I am able via the blogosphere, email, and telephone. My ability [...]
Continue reading...The agenda revisited
Saturday, June 19, 2010
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer, one of my philosophical heroes) ______________________ Based on recent comments in this space, and also in my email in-box, I am compelled to provide an updated overview of my proposed agenda [...]
Continue reading...We didn’t start the fire
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Actually, to counter singer/songwriter Billy Joel, we did start this FIRE. Not you and me, of course, but our culture. The U.S. industrial economy is all about Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. The FIRE is about to run its course, extinguished by the absence of fuel in each of those interconnected sectors. The financial sector [...]
Continue reading...A Few Rocks from the Box: A Meditation
Monday, May 24, 2010
This guest post is authored by John Rember _____________________________________ 1. In my sophomore year of college I enrolled in a course that had given generations of students a painless way to satisfy the liberal-arts science requirement. It was known as Rocks for Jocks, and the final exam was the easy identification of every rock in [...]
Continue reading...Time to bury the dead
Monday, May 10, 2010
The final nail in the global financial coffin was hammered into place this morning by the masters of the Eurozone. The trillion-dollar bailout Ponzi scheme to save Greece is yet another example of kicking the proverbial can down the road, hoping the taxpayers fail to notice the 800-pound gorilla fighting its way out of the [...]
Continue reading...Rollercoaster redux
Thursday, May 6, 2010
To his imperial credit, Barack Obama did manage to calm the stock markets for a year. But his promises of oversight and transparency are being overwhelmed by his actions. It’s obvious the banksters will not be regulated on Obama’s watch in any significant manner because the entire American economic system is based on fraud, and [...]
Continue reading...What works, maybe: individual options
Monday, April 26, 2010
Like global climate change, peak oil represents a predicament, not a problem. There is no politically viable solution to either of these great challenges. Political solutions require economic growth, forever, and therefore no significant sacrifice on the behalf of the electorate. Further, the industrial economy is underlain by the assumption of growth: The industrial economy [...]
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Monday, August 16, 2010
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