Off the Cuff: Anything Goes, But Nothing Matters

In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and James Howard Kunstler discuss:

• Engineered Interference
  • Prices have no bearing on real market forces right now
• Strange Bedfellows
  • Iraq's woes are creating all sorts of unnatural alliances
• The End of Wishful Thinking?
  • We're losing hold of our happy delusions
• The Resilient Living Learning Curve
  • Building skills often means failing a lot on the way

James Howard Kunstler returns this week to emphasize the importance of using the tranquility we enjoy now to learn how to become more self-sufficient. For many folks, these are unfamiliar life skills and are only mastered through a lot of trial-and-error. Jim's main point is that those errors are much easier to address during times of quiet than times of crisis. In this week's podcast, Jim and Chris share some of their recent setbacks and successes on the personal resiliency front.

Meanwhile, our zombie markets stumble along, kept animated by the weird science of the central planners. Both Chris and Jim agree that there's not much "new" to talk about on this front, though both are more concerned than ever about downside risk.

Of much more interest to both is the likelihood that international events may prove to be the trigger that starts events accelerating from here. The Middle East is undergoing massive changes right now, causing all sorts of new and previously-inconceivable alliances to form. The long-term repercussions are unknowable at this point given the fluidity of events, but the odds for seismic geopolitical changes —