The title of this blog is taken from here. Mouse over the dialog box.
Anyhow. What's been going on? Well, it's been a pretty tame year so far. I've been doing pretty well in all my classes, though I had a rocky bit where I confused my sociology with my anthropology. I might register for a Russian class, but that would put me at 20 credits, and you need special permission to go over 18. And maybe you have to pay... I'll ask about that tomorrow at some point. I've been organizing a croquet tournament through the athletic department (which is why it's spelled with a q: they want me to offer flat and all-terrain varieties). People are supposed to register by the 21st; so far I've had one person register, so I'm going to be publicizing the thing a lot this week.
-I've been reading a ton of bookage. I read the monumental and incredible and necessary Endgame by Derrick Jensen. Then I read The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg; it's about peak oil. The next one I'm reading is Njál's Saga, an Icelandic saga, because for English we just read Beowulf and I was kind of in a saga mood. After that I'm going to start reading about Plains Indians, to see how they lived. I know about what happened to the Natives after Europe came on boats, but I know much less than I'd like to about what they did before all that. So I'm going to start reading extensively on Natives. There's like several square yards about them in the library, so I've got plenty to choose from.
-Tenzing is doing fine, and currently relaxing in my sleeve; I fed him at Aaron's Bible study thing on Wednesday and some of the people from it watched and said it was pretty cool. I found a great climbing tree, probably the best I've ever known, on the lawn (we call it a beach, because we don't get real beaches) in front of this year's dorm. I can climb up some 35 or 40 feet on it, above the JRC roof - sometime I'll have to get a tape measure or a clinometer and measure it. I'm waiting for a train to go by in the daytime so I can climb up in the tree and take this awesome shot I have lined up, of the train going by far beneath, and some students waiting for it at the sidewalk crossing. Once I get the shot, I'll post it here. Generally, then, everything's pretty good here, except that I've run out of ginger snaps.
-But it looks like things are doing less well in the world at large. This is old news integrated with the new, but combined take a look at the picture it creates. Bear Stearns collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed. Lehman Brothers collapsed. Merrill Lynch collapsed. AIG may be collapsing. Washington Mutual has been acting funny. All right? And then, there's Hurricane Ike, which just temporarily disabled our oil supplies. Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all announced that they'll probably need a (nother) federal bailout in the future. In Nigeria, MEND has bombed pipelines. All sorts of crazy stuff is going down. The Wall Street Journal has compared this to the Great Depression. But, when we hit the Great Depression, discovery of oil was still rising rapidly. Our discovery of oil peaked in 1960; our extraction of oil is peaking right now. So this new economic paradigm we're going into - and that's not an exaggeration; CNBC for one is saying it - is going to be a whole lot harder to burn our way out of when we don't have enough oil. It looks like something very big is happening. But what do you all think?
7 comments.
I think this looks like Rome burning in a nutshell, but I've been branded a pessimist for saying so.
It's all Conservative fun and games until the shit hits the fan and then it's time to put on the socailism hat while the top 1/4 of 1% goes off and licks it's wounds. It's ok though, we can just continue to cut taxes and "grow our way out" of this mess.
The federal reserve and the national treasury just got bent over to the tune of 85 Billion, and since they(republicans) claim to pay all of the taxes anyway, of course they will accept all of the blame, right? Just keep cutting taxes, because I ain't gonna pay no more taxes!!! Y'all are stealin' my money.
Next we may hear from rapid inflation, and currency devaluation. Everyone will be in bail me out line. Ford, GM, Chrysler, Wall Street, Airlines, etc.......welcome to the nanny state.
Sound like south american politics? Who the hell do we think we are? Venezuala?
Watch for the coup de etat.... the surge worked right?
Dave
Zounds...
I mean....
zoinks! Scoob...I think we better get outta here!
But you know I like the way Velma ALWAYS figures out who is behind the mask.
Mom
Now comes a complete blank check bailout of Wall street via the federal government. If this doesn't smell like 1929 I don't know what does. Everyone pay attention in the next election. How can anyone possibly propose tax cuts in an enviornment like this. Everyone who reads this blog is now in charge of bailing out his/her retirement or 401k. Most of america will just whine for a tax cut and push it onto their kids and grand-kids. This is like a huge bill that nobody will pay. Then, the grand patriarch comes in and with bellicose cocksure, grabs the check and saunters off. Except the grand patriarch doesn't have a pot to piss in, puts it on his 39'th visa card and gives the mailing address for the bill to YOUR kids.
The congressional bailout will likely top 2 trillion dollars and that is just for starters. Now THAT is some deficit spending.
Dave
I think you're only mistaken at one point. You're assuming that the future generations (of which I guess I'm a member) will agree to pay it. I'm not so sure that's a foregone conclusion. Especially once the oil wells start looking dry and the tumorous hierarchy the oil created gets to wobbling.
By the way, Mom, I love ya, but I have to say that may have been the most inane comment ever left here. Well, except for this one.
The debt and future obligations we are piling up will never get paid. The only real solution is that things like social security and medicaid will just become insolvent on the mainstreet level, and they will just cease to exist.
Greener pastures will begin to lure away much of the talent in america. A brain drain will ensue, as it did in Colombia.
Rich world will continue to make it wherever it may migrate.
You might enjoy reading the economist. It's the closest thing I have found to truly fair and balanced journalism. They don't sugarcoat it, or color it red or blue. It's written from a real global perspective and always follows the money trail. Look for the money and the politics will follow.
I've already seen estimates for over a trillion on the bailout. Two trillion equals 15% of GDP. That's just the congressional front end IOU's. I hope it works, if the world doesn't believe we can pull it off, the whole globe is gonna see 1929!
You are right about oil too. Most people in the US don't realize that if we drilled for and recovered all of the oil that we think is out there, we still will NEVER approach the level of domestic production when it peaked in the US. This is all by the oil industries own omission. Domestic drilling is a long, costly, and in the enditis a very small band-aid to a problem that has already outpaced such a frivilous solution.
But, hey that isn't what voters want. Drill here, cut my taxes, and turn on TMZ baby!!!
Dave
Dave
Ginkies, I think we are all screwed.
Velma
I recommend you read more than the economist. It is a "Bear" rag. And I do mean RAG.
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