Soviet #collapse lessons for #USA and #EU? #2012 #peakoil #IMF #DSK

Clipped from www.theoildrum.com

Peak oil and the Fall of the Soviet Union: Lessons on the 20th Anniversary of the Collapse

Synopsis: The causes of the fall of the Soviet Union are thought to be inefficiency and the Soviet response to the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s. However, a more plausible explanation is the decline in Soviet oil production caused by peak oil. This gives the world an example of a modern economy confronted by peak oil and what lessons we can learn from it. Read more at www.theoildrum.com

 

Pemex At Lowest Levels Ever while Carstens Makes a Bid for IMF #peakoil #collapse #dsk

You can be sure that Carlos Slim is heavily invested in PEMEX bonds which essentially is privatizing without public support

Clipped from www.bloomberg.com

Pemex Oil Output Declines at Fastest Rate Since World War II

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state oil company, will probably report its fastest drop in production since 1942, eroding revenue as plunging crude prices limit the amount of cash available to drill for new reserves.

Pemex last year likely extracted 2.8 million barrels a day, down about 9 percent from the 3.08 million a day pumped in 2007, representing a total of $20 billion in lost sales, according to data compiled by the government and Bloomberg. The Mexico City- based company, which had revenue of $104 billion in 2007, plans to report annual production figures tomorrow.

“The fall in oil prices and lower production is going to make expensive exploration projects less attractive now.”

Pemex’s “biggest problems have yet to come,” said Alejandro Schtulmann, head of research at Empra, a political- risk consulting firm in Mexico City, in an interview. “The fall in oil prices and lower production is going to make expensive exploration projects less attractive now.” Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

Windfall profits tax on banks and big oil #collapse #teaparty #dems

Clipped from www.businessinsider.com

You're About To Hear The Words "Windfall Profits Tax"

Similarities between 2011 and 2008 are piling up.

So it only stands to reason, that with big oil set to report near-record earnings, per the WSJ and with anyone complaining about higher gas prices, that we revisit the Democrats' big idea from 2008. It was in May of that year that this idea seriously got debated. Read more at www.businessinsider.com

 

In the coming global economic #collapse, the USA wont be 1st #CDS #global #economy #IMF contributes #transition #peakoil

Its happening. The fallout of the financial crisis of 2008 is finally unfolding around the world. Expect to see 3-10 EU nations default by December 2011

Clipped from www.bloomberg.com

Default Swaps Trading on U.S. Debt Doubles on Deficit Wrangling

A total of 819 contracts covering a net notional $4 billion of debt were outstanding as of May 20, up from 449 contracts covering $2 billion a year ago, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. Average daily trading volume surged to $490 million last week from $10 million the week before, making the U.S. the fourth most active among 1,000 contracts tracked by DTCC, up from 633rd.

“In a way, it’s worse than in Greece because no one can bail out the U.S.,” said Georg Grodzki, the London-based head of credit research at Legal & General Investment Management, which oversees $580 billion of assets. “Complete political paralysis is OK if your deficit is 3 percent, but not if it’s 10 percent.”

This year’s federal budget deficit is projected to reach $1.5 trillion, or 9.8 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The government will run out of options to avoid a default if the limit is not raised by early August, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said May 2.

Greek debt is the world’s most expensive to insure at about 1,400 basis points for five years and more than 2,000 basis points for one year. Swaps on Norway are the world’s least expensive at 17 basis points for five years and 5.5 basis points for one year. Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

Mexican Economic Miralce? Carstens for #IMFpost #CDS #collapse #global #economy #transition #peakoil #narco

Mexico's financials are about as open as OPEC's reserves statements. Mexico's economy depends greatly on the USA recovery and yet somehow they are magically growing.

Must be the damn drug trade funneling $60B into the economy untaxed.

Clipped from www.bloomberg.com

RT: [eksit101] Is the #ENDTHEFED victories the October surprise? Just all seems fishy. #NWO #RESTORETHEREPUBLIC http://t.co/UXpSahotsE f...
— #New World Order (@nwohashtag) October 1, 2013

IMF Candidate Carstens Winning Over Bond Investors at Home: Mexico Credit

Carstens’s “credibility has been enhanced,” Pablo Cisilino, who helps manage $22 billion in emerging-market debt at Stone Harbor Investment in New York, said in a telephone interview. “Carstens came out and said we’re going to stay put and inflation is not going to pick up, it’s going to come down. Something that you’ve been predicting happens, your credibility gets enhanced.”

“It definitely says that the market is perfectly happy with the way that Carstens is conducting monetary policy,” Kieran Curtis, who helps manage more than $3 billion of emerging-market assets, including peso debt, at Aviva Investors in London, said in a telephone interview. “No change for still a reasonable period of time is quite a reasonable sort of policy outlook to expect.”

“Weak” economic growth is more responsible for the decline in consumer prices in Mexico than Carstens, said Benito Berber, Latin America strategist at Nomura Securities.

Mexico has nominated Carstens, who was deputy managing director at the IMF from 2003 to 2006, to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the organization last week to defend himself against criminal charges including attempted rape. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who is also seeking the top job at the Washington-based Fund, has won endorsements from European countries including the U.K., Germany and Sweden. Read more at www.bloomberg.com

Japan is Crumbling #CDS #collapse #global #economy #IMF contributes #transition #peakoil

Watch the CDS and IMF, bank bailouts, protests, and austerity measures while security related stocks soar.

Clipped from www.bloomberg.com

Japan’s Credit Outlook Lowered to Negative at Fitch Amid Rising Debt Level

Japan faces the rising risk of a reduction in its sovereign-debt rating as Prime Minister Naoto Kan struggles to assemble the political support needed to craft a plan for paring the world’s largest public debt burden.

“It’s an alarm bell for Japan to demonstrate political leadership to take an action to ensure the credibility of the nation’s debt,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Concerns over Japan’s fiscal conditions will become an issue again in the bond market in coming months, which could make it more likely for bond yields to rise.”

The central bank is poised to keep its monetary stimulus, contrasting with counterparts from China to India that are tightening policy to stem inflation. Prices climbed in Japan after global energy and food costs rose and retailers suffered product shortages in the aftermath of the natural disaster. Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

Stanford and BDO Ponzi Scheme #CDS #collapse #global #economy #IMF contributes #transition #peakoil

Its happening. The fallout of the financial crisis of 2008 is finally unfolding around the world. Expect to see 3-10 EU nations default by December 2011

Clipped from www.bloomberg.com

“BDO’s cozy relationship with the Stanford Financial Group was steeped in conflicts of interest and required ongoing deception and duplicitous manipulation of the facts to enable the Ponzi scheme to grow exponentially for over a decade,” investors said in the complaint. “The result is the loss of thousands of investors’ life savings.”

Stanford Investors Sue Former Auditor BDO US for $10.7 Billion Over Fraud Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

Some historical gas price increase due to #oil speculators, more 2 come w/ #peakoil

Investors are anticipating oil price surges due to #peakoil, how broad is that?

Clipped from www.wyattresearch.com

Regulators Sue Speculators for $150 million

The Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) announced yesterday that they are suing two oil traders accused of manipulating the oil markets in the 2008 run-up to $147 per barrel oil. Read more at www.wyattresearch.com

 

Climate Capitalism: Google Wind Farms in Mojave Desert

Clipped from peakoil.com

Google invests $55 million in Mojave Desert wind farm

Google Inc. is investing $55 million in a large Mojave Desert wind farm, pumping fresh air into California’s struggling wind power industry.

Google said Tuesday that it was partnering with Citibank, which is also shelling out $55 million to help finance part of the Alta Wind Energy Center, one of the world’s largest wind installations.

When complete, the project in the Tehachapi Mountains will generate 1.5 gigawatts, enough to power 450,000 homes. The installation will help boost wind jobs in the state 20% while feeding more than $1.2 billion into the Kern County economy, according to developers. Read more at peakoil.com

 

Parallels Between the Decline of the American Empire and Britain's? #collapse #peakoil @chrislhayes @maddow

How will it differ in light of the #peakoil and #peakeverything being reached?

Clipped from www.bbc.co.uk

Britain, the Commonwealth and the End of Empire

1945: End of World War Two The collapse of British imperial power - all but complete by the mid-1960s - can be traced directly to the impact of World War Two. The catastrophic British defeats in Europe and Asia between 1940 and 1942 destroyed its financial and economic independence, the real foundation of the imperial system. Britain had survived the war, but its wealth, prestige and authority had been severely reduced. It also erased the old balance of power on which British security - at home and abroad - had largely depended. Although Britain was one of the victorious allies, the defeat of Germany had been mainly the work of Soviet and American power, while that of Japan had been an almost entirely American triumph. Britain had survived and recovered the territory lost during the war. But its prestige and authority, not to mention its wealth, had been severely reduced. The British found themselves locked into an imperial endgame from which every exit was blocked except the trapdoor to oblivion. Top Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

Hemp as part of #USA #energy policy #2012 #colapse #peakoil

Clipped from www.beyondpeak.com

Hemp

Beyond Peak Oil

Hemp vs. Marijuana Similarities Hemp and marijuana are varieties of the Cannabis sativa plant. They're both illegal to grow in the United States, although hemp products are legal. Both have similar aromas when in bloom. Differences Smoking marijuana makes the user high. Smoking hemp doesn't. (Hemp contains less than 1 percent of the active ingredient THC, marijuana has 10 to 20 percent.) Marijuana plants tend to be short and bushy, hemp can be as high as 25 feet tall. Marijuana can be used to smoke or eat. Hemp can be used to produce more than 25,000 products. Read more at www.beyondpeak.com

 

Wildgoose Arcadia Dyer indicated in oil speculation #cftc #peakoil

http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/56186221

 

 

Very clever crime followed by very clever investigation. Good job cftc

#BRIC Taking #UK #USA #EU Place in #Geopolitics #2012 @maddow @ezraklein @chrislhayes #collapse

"Britain is no longer one of the world's price setters. We take our prices from international commodity markets driven by China and India. That is something we have got to live with and adjust to. It is painful. It is a challenge to us in government to explain it. The political class as a whole is not preparing the public for how massive the problem is"

Goldman Sachs has argued that, since the four BRIC countries are developing rapidly, by 2050 their combined economies could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world. These four countries, combined, currently account for more than a quarter of the world's land area and more than 40% of the world's population.[7][8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRIC

Clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

Vince Cable: People do not understand how bad the economy is

Business secretary says politicians have not made clear the time and pain needed to restructure Britain's broken economic model

Vince Cable has warned that the political class has not yet prepared the public for the scale of the underlying problems facing the UK economy and the coming squeeze on living standards.

In a frank interview with the Guardian the business secretary repeatedly referred to the time and pain that will be needed to restructure what he regards as a broken economic model.

"It is a challenge to us to communicate it better. I don't think it is understood that the British economy declined 6 or 7% – [that is] 10% below trend," Cable said. "We are actually a poorer country, mainly because of the banking crash, the recession that followed it and partly due to the squeeze we are now under from the changing balance of the world economy."

He argued: "Britain is no longer one of the world's price setters. We take our prices from international commodity markets driven by China and India. That is something we have got to live with and adjust to. It is painful. It is a challenge to us in government to explain it. The political class as a whole is not preparing the public for how massive the problem is." Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

UT supports #Gold as good as #USD #collapse #peakoil #2012 #Transition @planetmoney

Transition started?

Clipped from hosted.ap.org

Gold, silver coins to be legal currency in Utah

they've turned it around, and made gold as good as cash. Utah became the first state in the country this month to legalize gold and silver coins as currency. The law also will exempt the sale of the coins from state capital gains taxes.

Craig Franco hopes to cash in on it with his Utah Gold and Silver Depository, and he thinks others will soon follow. The idea is simple: Store your gold and silver coins in a vault, and Franco issues a debit-like card to make purchases backed by your holdings. Read more at hosted.ap.org

 

IMF To Be Controlled By BRIC? #dsk #collapse #2012

"debtor countries could not and should not provide the leadership because of possible conflicts of interest" - was the argument for why developing nations couldn't run the show before. Now its ignored so the EU can put its house back in order.

Clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

The IMF needs to change, whoever becomes its next chief

Whether the IMF's next head is a European woman or a man from a developing country doesn't matter – whoever it is must change the way the institution works

For more than 60 years now convention, rather than any written rules, has dictated that the appointment of heads of the Bretton Woods institutions has been controlled by the traditional global powers. The US has provided the chief of the World Bank and Europe has provided the head of the IMF. These "conventions" emerged and were entrenched during a period when these two broad groupings controlled the global economy, and polity. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

Msg to @barackobama: Legalization is the only way to CONTROL drugs #weed #marijuana #2012 #teaparty #gop #dems @maddow

Legalization is the only way for the USA and MEXICAN governments to end the drug war. Calderon and Obama need to figure that out.

Clipped from movies.netflix.com

Vietnam

Similar titles available to watch instantly High: The True Tale of American Marijuana In Instant QPlay Rate 5 stars Rate 4 stars Rate 3 stars Rate 2 stars Rate 1 star Saving... The Green Rush Add to InstantPlay Rate 5 stars Rate 4 stars Rate 3 stars Rate 2 stars Rate 1 star Saving... Read more at movies.netflix.com

 

Glimpse of History: China's Entry into Capitalism #collapse #2012 #socialism

Clearly China took some lessons away from Vietnam. Did the USA?

Clipped from www.marxists.org

China in Vietnam – An act of aggression to match its return to capitalism

First Published: In Struggle! Vol. 6, No. 31, March 13, 1979 Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.

Honourable rulers in capitalist countries around the world: If the Russian bear or any of the regimes backed by the USSR start infringing upon the development plans of your country or the competitiveness of your market, bring out the heavy artillery!’ The new Number One in China, Deng Xiaoping, wants everyone to understand this simple lesson if he has to repeat it a thousand times: “That is the only language the USSR understands.”

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided recently to give back to the industrial and merchant sections of the national bourgeoisie all of the enormous bank deposits and other assets belonging to them... and to re-institute their high salaries and give them the pay which is presently overdue.” (Les Cahiers de la Chine nouvelle, no. 62, February 2, 1979, p. 6, our translation)

China is now an expansionist power which poses a real threat to the peoples in other countries. It is now ready to pokes its head in each time a country’s policy will not be to its liking. Vietnam, allied with the social- imperialist USSR, has talked a good deal recently about China’s preparations for a big war to extend its hegemony in South East Asia.

The Chinese provocateurs should be treated for what they really are: a new bourgeoisie which is increasingly aggressive, foaming at the mouth at the prospect of controlling economically and politically larger and larger areas of Asia and the rest of the world. That is the real lesson, pure and simple that Deng and the Chinese leaders want to teach the world. Read more at www.marxists.org

 

Mexico's Economy Will Exceed Germany and UK by 2050? #peakoil #collapse @collapsenet

40 year projections are about as worthless as a used Barry Manilow 8 track.

Clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

GDP growth across the OECD

GDP growth across the OECD

GDP growth is the standard litmus test of how an economy is performing. National bodies such as the Office for National Statistics calculates it each quarter by assessing the activity in various parts of the economy. They then attempt to strip out the effects of inflation by recalculating the activity using last year's prices (this is called the 'chained volume measure', as it links the two years together to give a better picture).

GDP also ignores a lot of personal activity - hire a company to repair your house and this activity will be measured by the ONS, but do it yourself and it won't be. Additionally, it doesn't measure discrepancies within an economy, so GDP-per-capita does not distinguish between societies where there is a large gap between rich and poor, and a small one. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

Great News: US Manufacturing Wages Will Be Lower Than China's in 5 yrs @collapse #peakoil @chrislhayes @maddow

Really? The BCG study suggests that US manufacturing workers are 3x more productive than China's, that their wages are growing rapidly, and that companies are opening plants in the US because labor is so cheap.

Chinese manufacturing cant grow 17% a year for 5 yrs without ENERGY and we understand that China is facing the worst energy crisis ever.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/17/chinas-energy-crisis/?test=latestnews

So where will the US get all the natural resources and steel needed to manufacture goods? Especially with oil costing more than $120 a barrel?

Ok, here is the jobs plan from US politicians.

Oh, but wait it also says this: If the U.S. can not maintain or expand its wide productivity advantage vs. China the the projections quoted are likely to be modified to the detriment of U.S. manufacturing.

That means US Sweat Shops Likely - productivity means more hours, no unions, no healthcare, etc. USD drops and thats good for us! Yahoo.

Clipped from econintersect.com

U.S. Manufacturing is Coming Home

Econintersect (Updated May 5):  According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), manufacturing is on the increase within the the U.S.  The study concludes that the U.S. will surpass China in manufacturing production of goods sold in North America over the next four years.  The U.S. lost the world lead in manufacturing that it had held for most of the twentieth century during the weak recovery from The Great Recession.  According to data from IHS Global Insight, quoted by the Financial Times, China had 19.8% of world manufacturing output with the U.S. second at 19.4% in 2010.

A key factor in the U.S. manufacturing resurgence comes from labor productivity, which is more than 3x that of China.  With the wages in China growing at a much higher rate than in the U.S. the productivity advantage is drawing domestic production back home, especially for the "more sophisticated" producrs mentioned in the FT article.

Among the U.S. corporations mentioned by the FT which have announced plans for major investments in new U.S. manufacturing are Caterpillar, General Electric and Ford.  In the first quarter of 2011 manufacturing production in the U.S. rose by 9.1% (annual rate), making it the fastest growing segment in the U.S. economy.

On May 5, as discussed at GEI Analysis by Steven Hansen, The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) reported an unexpected drop in labor productivity growth.  Productivity is a key component of the projections for manufacturing reported in this news brief.  If the U.S. can not maintain or expand its wide productivity advantage vs. China the the projections quoted are likely to be modified to the detriment of U.S. manufacturing.

The BCG study says that Chinese manufacturing wage costs seem likely to rise 17 per cent a year in the next five years, compared with only 3 per cent a year in the US. Read more at econintersect.com

 

Presidential #EnergyPolicy Fracking Our Way to Armageddon WTF? #halliburton #collapse #peakoil #transition

Just watch this quick video and investigate fracking. About as useful as destroying the Rocky Mountains for shale oil

Clipped from www.youtube.com

My Water's On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)

The destructive hydraulic fracturing process was initially developed by Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old company. In 2005 the entire fracking industry was mysteriously allowed to be absolutely exempt from all of the regulations in the Safe Drinking Water Act through something know as the "Halliburton Loophole". Read more at www.youtube.com