Chris Martenson
"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds who the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated that it wants to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.
This week's Straight Talk contributor is James Howard Kunstler, author and social critic. His better-known works include The Long Emergency, in which he argues that declining oil production will result in the decline of modern industrialized society and compel Americans to return to smaller-scale, localized, semi-agrarian communities; World Made By Hand, and its sequel, The Witch of Hebron, all published by The Atlantic Monthly Press. He writes a weekly blog is also a leading proponent of the movement known as "New Urbanism."
1. When will the average US citizen wake up to the perils of Peak Oil?
JHK: When a crisis comparable to the 1973 OPEC embargo — with lines at the filling stations and hefty price-hikes — whaps them upside the head.
Straight Talk with James Howard Kunstler: “The World is Going to Get Rounder and Bigger Again”
"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds who the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated that it wants to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering. The comments and opinions expressed by our guests are their own.
This week's Straight Talk contributor is James Howard Kunstler, author and social critic. His better-known works include The Long Emergency, in which he argues that declining oil production will result in the decline of modern industrialized society and compel Americans to return to smaller-scale, localized, semi-agrarian communities; World Made By Hand, and its sequel, The Witch of Hebron, all published by The Atlantic Monthly Press. He writes a weekly blog is also a leading proponent of the movement known as "New Urbanism."
1. When will the average US citizen wake up to the perils of Peak Oil?
JHK: When a crisis comparable to the 1973 OPEC embargo — with lines at the filling stations and hefty price-hikes — whaps them upside the head.
Chris was recently interviewed by Max Keiser for his On The Edge program. The videos of this discussion were released over the weekend and are available for viewing below.
The interview starts with a look at the extreme debt levels of OECD nations and the probable (and painful) repercussions they will have for the global economy. Chris spends time explaining the contradiction of how, even though we’re now ‘technically’ experiencing deflation as this debt is being unwound, prices are rising – due to growing loss of faith in the underlying fiat currencies.
Chris on Max Keiser: Peak Oil Is About to Collide with Our Debt Crisis
Chris was recently interviewed by Max Keiser for his On The Edge program. The videos of this discussion were released over the weekend and are available for viewing below.
The interview starts with a look at the extreme debt levels of OECD nations and the probable (and painful) repercussions they will have for the global economy. Chris spends time explaining the contradiction of how, even though we’re now ‘technically’ experiencing deflation as this debt is being unwound, prices are rising – due to growing loss of faith in the underlying fiat currencies.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Executive Summary
- The US is one failed auction away from economic meltdown.
- OECD countries are not aligned on what battle they’re fighting.
- ‘Emergency’ measures governments are now taking will become permanent.
- Currency devaluation & higher prices are inevitable.
- Time to prepare is running out. Use the time you have wisely.
- Chris gives specifics of his personal preparations for use as a guide.
Part I
If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.
Part II
To quickly review Part I, the US has embarked on a very dangerous strategy of trying to print its way to prosperity, and various countries have, in exceptionally strong terms, indicated severe displeasure with the move. Essentially, they’ve determined that the US is trying to export its difficulties to them, and this is not appreciated.
So what do we make of this, and what might happen next?
I’ll be honest with you here: I have been redoubling my efforts at personal preparation over the past few weeks (and they were already on set to “high” over the past six months). I now see a very high possibility that a fiscal and/or associated dollar crisis could happen in the next 12 months. How high? Right now it looks like 50/50 to me; it’s a coin flip (or Russian roulette with three in the cylinder, if you prefer).
All that would be required to set match to dry tinder would be a single failed Treasury auction. You may consider this unlikely due to the presence of the Fed backstopping all new government borrowing, and that’s certainly a valid consideration, but the wildcard here is that the Fed is merely backstopping all the new Treasury issuances. As I indicated in part one, above, while the US might be floating roughly $1.2 – $1.5 trillion in new Treasuries in 2011, there’s another $3 trillion or so of ‘rollovers’ that have to go off without a hitch as well.
Alert: QE II Has Lit The Fuse
PREVIEWThursday, November 11, 2010
Executive Summary
- The US is one failed auction away from economic meltdown.
- OECD countries are not aligned on what battle they’re fighting.
- ‘Emergency’ measures governments are now taking will become permanent.
- Currency devaluation & higher prices are inevitable.
- Time to prepare is running out. Use the time you have wisely.
- Chris gives specifics of his personal preparations for use as a guide.
Part I
If you have not yet read Part I of this report, please click here to read it first.
Part II
To quickly review Part I, the US has embarked on a very dangerous strategy of trying to print its way to prosperity, and various countries have, in exceptionally strong terms, indicated severe displeasure with the move. Essentially, they’ve determined that the US is trying to export its difficulties to them, and this is not appreciated.
So what do we make of this, and what might happen next?
I’ll be honest with you here: I have been redoubling my efforts at personal preparation over the past few weeks (and they were already on set to “high” over the past six months). I now see a very high possibility that a fiscal and/or associated dollar crisis could happen in the next 12 months. How high? Right now it looks like 50/50 to me; it’s a coin flip (or Russian roulette with three in the cylinder, if you prefer).
All that would be required to set match to dry tinder would be a single failed Treasury auction. You may consider this unlikely due to the presence of the Fed backstopping all new government borrowing, and that’s certainly a valid consideration, but the wildcard here is that the Fed is merely backstopping all the new Treasury issuances. As I indicated in part one, above, while the US might be floating roughly $1.2 – $1.5 trillion in new Treasuries in 2011, there’s another $3 trillion or so of ‘rollovers’ that have to go off without a hitch as well.
"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering.
This week's Straight Talk contributor is Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney and author of the popular book Debunking Economics and the website Steve Keen's Debtwatch. Steve's research focuses on the dynamics of debt and leads him to believe that debt-deflation is the key issue that will continue to dictate what happens in the global economy.
1. Much of your research is complex. Can you summarize some of the more important conclusions of your work in ‘layman's’ terms for us?
Steve: Sure. My work is complex in part because I reject conventional economic analysis, which has infected how ordinary people think about the world—just as the Ptolemaic view of astronomy infected people’s minds prior to the Copernican revolution. So to explain my work I have to start with where I differ from conventional “neoclassical” economists, who now are rather like Ptolemaic astronomers—who tried to understand what they see in the sky by inventing more and more “spheres” on which heavenly bodies were supposed to rotate, rather than accepting Copernicus’ far simpler model of a solar system centered on the Sun.
The key ways are that I see the economy as being credit-driven, and out of equilibrium all the time. The economy needs an expanding supply of money to grow, and in our credit-driven economy, most of that expansion is driven by rising debt.
Straight Talk with Steve Keen: It’s All About the Debt
"Straight Talk" features thinking from notable minds the PeakProsperity.com audience has indicated it wants to learn more about. Readers submit the questions they want addressed and our guests take their best crack at answering.
This week's Straight Talk contributor is Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney and author of the popular book Debunking Economics and the website Steve Keen's Debtwatch. Steve's research focuses on the dynamics of debt and leads him to believe that debt-deflation is the key issue that will continue to dictate what happens in the global economy.
1. Much of your research is complex. Can you summarize some of the more important conclusions of your work in ‘layman's’ terms for us?
Steve: Sure. My work is complex in part because I reject conventional economic analysis, which has infected how ordinary people think about the world—just as the Ptolemaic view of astronomy infected people’s minds prior to the Copernican revolution. So to explain my work I have to start with where I differ from conventional “neoclassical” economists, who now are rather like Ptolemaic astronomers—who tried to understand what they see in the sky by inventing more and more “spheres” on which heavenly bodies were supposed to rotate, rather than accepting Copernicus’ far simpler model of a solar system centered on the Sun.
The key ways are that I see the economy as being credit-driven, and out of equilibrium all the time. The economy needs an expanding supply of money to grow, and in our credit-driven economy, most of that expansion is driven by rising debt.
Earlier this week, Chris was invited to appear on Talk Radio Europe, the largest English-speaking radio station in continental Europe. A podcast of the interview has just been made available, which you can listen to by clicking here or on the image below:
The discussion focused heavily on the looming Peak Oil crisis, with a particular slant on implications for the European countries. The subject matter resonated with the host, Richie Allen, particularly because he’s now beginning to hear related sentiment echoed by a small but growing number of concerned European economists.
Chris on Talk Radio Europe: “Gigantic Mismatch” Between World Oil Consumption and Future Supply
Earlier this week, Chris was invited to appear on Talk Radio Europe, the largest English-speaking radio station in continental Europe. A podcast of the interview has just been made available, which you can listen to by clicking here or on the image below:
The discussion focused heavily on the looming Peak Oil crisis, with a particular slant on implications for the European countries. The subject matter resonated with the host, Richie Allen, particularly because he’s now beginning to hear related sentiment echoed by a small but growing number of concerned European economists.
QE II is now out of the bag, ready to alter the course of history.
There are several assessments that I’ve held over the years that have never wavered:
- Thin-air money printing. U.S. monetary and fiscal authorities (the Fed and Congress, respectively) will make every attempt to print and spend their way out of this financial predicament and will not take the path of austerity until forced to by external circumstances.
- Gold and silver are an excellent way to protect your wealth from the form of confiscation that thin-air money printing represents.
- Over the next 20 years, resource issues, especially in energy, specifically in petroleum, are going to fundamentally reshape the economic landscape. And maybe the political and social landscapes to boot.
More than two years ago now, reacting to an increase in the levels of government and Federal Reserve bailouts (The Day Everything Changed), I opined that a course had been set and that we were in all new territory that would lead to a dollar crisis someday.
This was my conclusion on September 19, 2008:
The Slippery Slope
PREVIEWQE II is now out of the bag, ready to alter the course of history.
There are several assessments that I’ve held over the years that have never wavered:
- Thin-air money printing. U.S. monetary and fiscal authorities (the Fed and Congress, respectively) will make every attempt to print and spend their way out of this financial predicament and will not take the path of austerity until forced to by external circumstances.
- Gold and silver are an excellent way to protect your wealth from the form of confiscation that thin-air money printing represents.
- Over the next 20 years, resource issues, especially in energy, specifically in petroleum, are going to fundamentally reshape the economic landscape. And maybe the political and social landscapes to boot.
More than two years ago now, reacting to an increase in the levels of government and Federal Reserve bailouts (The Day Everything Changed), I opined that a course had been set and that we were in all new territory that would lead to a dollar crisis someday.
This was my conclusion on September 19, 2008:
Total 3290 items
Community
by hgrootveldgmail-com 
The Grow Network
Learn more