This kind of material does not constitute a dialogue. I would like to know more about the subject. The information here is thin.
On Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 01:06:38PM -0700, The Buffalo In Da' Midst wrote: > "All this occurred against the background of what has come to be > called Peak Oil, the turnaround point in global oil production, and > indeed the all-time high-point of world oil consumption, ***which can > be dated precisely now (in the rearview mirror) as having topped > absolutely in July of 2006***... > > The Disinformation Society - James Kunstler > Tuesday, 11 September 2007 > > One question that readers ask me often is why the mainstream media is > doing such a poor job of reporting the nexus of the global energy > emergency and the turmoil in global finance. I maintain my "allergy" > to conspiracy theories. There isn't any clique of top-hatted Wall > Street biggies with monocles joining with with gray-suited CIA-types > to intimidate editors with tongs and electrodes. American culture has > become self-dis-informing. > > As my friend Peter Golden (blogger at Boardside) puts it so well: > > "When people lie, they know they are doing something wrong. But when > they just make things up, there's no consciousness of right or wrong > at work. It seems morally okay to live in a fantasy world â and this > is much more pernicious to the public discourse than lying." > > My friends, who are mostly ex-hippie, yuppie progressives, have been > locked in prayer to exorcise the evil spirit of George W. Bush for six > years, but they fail to recognize a more comprehensive failure of > leadership in every sector of American life, and especially in the > ones where a lot ex-hippies-now-yuppies run things. Our political > leadership may be deplorable, but so is our leadership in business, > education, the arts, and especially the media. > > The poster child for this is The New York Times. In their reporting on > the world oil situation, they have consistently and uncritically > swallowed the public relations handouts of Daniel Yergin's Cambridge > Energy Research Group (CERA), a wholly-owned PR shop serving the oil > industry. Laziness doesn't even explain this. It's bad editorial > leadership. It's a failure to ask the important questions. > > On Friday, the oil futures markets closed a dollar-and-change away > from the all-time record high price (the same day the Dow Jones > Industrial Index fell 250 points.) Today's (Monday's) lead headline in > the NY Times Business Section is "Disney to Test Character Toys for > Lead Paint." Well, I hope we get that situation straightened out so > that civilization can continue with a full supply of Disney action > figures under the Christmas trees â and forget for a minute whether > Grandma will be able to drive to the WalMart in December, or whether > WalMart will be able to keep the diesel tanks filled for their > "warehouse-on-wheels, or whether both Grandma and the Assistant > Manager of her local WalMart are three months in arrears on their > re-set mortgage payments, and maxed out on their Discover cards... > > To me, there seems to be an obvious correlation between the current > failures in the financial markets â in particular the credit sector â > and the gross failure of leadership across the board in American life. > Ultimately, credit depends on legitimacy, and so does authority. They > are tied together. For years, both have been immersed in fantasy > rather than reality. > > How does one otherwise account for the remarkable disappearance of > standards in lending among the human beings who lead banking > institutions? All the banking executives didn't wake up one morning > missing sixty IQ points. And yet neither can one say that they all > woke up one morning with evil intentions to work wickedness in the > world. They simply became subsumed in a fantasy that there was no > material difference between borrowers with a proven ability to pay > back loans and borrowers with no record of credit-worthiness. And they > got rid of the problems that might have ensued by selling off > wholesale bundles of good-and-bad loans to willing buyers (other > banking executives) further down the line, who in turn sold > certificates representing these bundles to willing executives in > pension groups and money markets. It became normal. It was justified > at the tip-top of American leadership by the Explainer-in-Chief saying > that it was a good thing for as many Americans as possible to own > their own house. > > Did the American media report on this chain of dangerous fantasy? Not > in the least. They were simply mesmerized by the amazing, supernatural > rise of nominal house prices, and the fantastic flow of paychecks from > the production home-builder's payroll offices, and the fabulous > cash-out re-fi's that sent streams of revenue to the Crate-and-Barrel > furniture outlets, and the Williams-Sonoma catalog headquarters, and > the plastic surgery parlors. > > All this occurred against the background of what has come to be called > Peak Oil, the turnaround point in global oil production, and indeed > the all-time high-point of world oil consumption, which can be dated > precisely now (in the rearview mirror) as having topped absolutely in > July of 2006 â the exact moment, incidentally, that a gigantic pin > first pierced the outermost molecules of the soapy film that held the > housing bubble together. > > Oil production (all liquids, including natural gas byproducts, tar > sands, what-have-you) are down now by more than a million barrels a > day. We've only experienced it so far in the juddering rise of oil > futures prices. Over this brief period of time since the absolute > peak, the losses of supply have been yielded in the world's poorest > societies, who simply drop out of bidding for oil supplies. > [...] > > In Full: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2373/81/ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
