This sounds like the fall-out of a Nuked Society. That those not harmed by the initial blast are suffering severe consequneces from the effects of radioative fall-out.

First, we have a society in contraction, true. The causes of which are many. Loads of them from repeated past mistakes. Over-building, Greedy Bankers and Politicians, High Cost of Gasoline/Oil.

All makes for a disasterous end, I would agree. However, it is not the end of the line. And any good General would tell you to re-trench. That is to say, step back take a look at what has been going on, rethink our position and then either move forward or stay put, for the next level of the game.

And it is a game to most who play it. My thoughts are this on the banking matter – I have never seen an industry so intent on putting itself out of business other than the financiers of the world, it’s ludicrous. Is their greed so immense that they forget their good judgment?

And while politicians have the power to stop this financial suicide mission along the way, they don’t; because, they too become greedy and look for whatever gold parachutes they can get.

Builders on the other hand are going to build – they will build theirselves into oblivion, if you let them. Another business model on the verge of stupidity. Carmakers ditto. They will produce heaps of scrap metal until they are blue in the face. Never once considering the fact that the people to buy, are not there.

For years I walked around in wonder, asking myself who in the world is going to buy all this?

On the matter of oil and gasoline – look we lived in caves for christ sake. We are not going to run out of ways to heat our food, nor power our electricity, clean our water or our air, nor are we going to go without powered transportation. It was ingenuity that brought us out of the caves, it will be this same genius that will take us through this passage of time.

The revolution will not be mobs of people on the streets yeilding any conceivable weapon, but mobs of people working their asses off to complete the next level of the game. What will bring us through this is new industry and independence of foreign oil. The financial industry must be regulated to the extent they are more than nothing less than mere criminals; politicians can not look the other way anymore, either.

The late great John F. Kennedy asked the question, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country? Make note of this: Make it perfectly clear, we will not stand for this type of happenstance any longer. OUR FUTURE MUST BE A SECURE ONE! Anyone tethering on the brink of anything less than this, will not be tolerated and eliminated from the game.

I said this before “any politician who takes a bribe, whether it be for money or a job position once they leave government, should be placed in the soup kitchen, in the penitentiary”. And this should be a clear statement by the American Public. So clear, that we show our intolerance at the polls. The slightest indication of an indifference to the Public Trust should be met with the most powerful of all messages – JAIL TIME!

Leaving you with this message: Butanol is a form of alcohol that can be made from just about anything. It is made currently as an industrial solvent. It is more environmentally friendly than gasoline. It is more compatible with automobiles and requires only one pump to distribute it, that is the grade of butanol can be set at 99 octane and that’s it. Butanol production is an industry long overdue to be developed and brought into existence.

It will spawn other industries like yard waste collection and facilities or general waste collection and recycling; compost or fertilizer production, charcoal production, etc.

And these are the things to ponder, not the end of the world.

Nick

The sad thing about our fiat money system is that it would have been possible for government to “print” just enough to meet constitutional functions and that would have meant no taxes, save the current invisible tax of currency inflation. Now the people in charge have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. If people had voted more libertarians in ten years ago, the current fiasco wouldn’t be happening since, for years, most have been warning about the dangers inherent in having the Federal Reserve, a cartel of banks, “safeguarding” the currency. Without the prior “easy” money policies the Chinese as manufacturing powerhouse would have risen more slowly and naturally, and all the various economic bubbles would have been avoided. Bad banks that got too wacky with engineering innovative “financial technology” (now there’s a good one) would have gone bust here and there. But there would be no systen=mic failure, and people would have re-developed the traditional mistrust of banks. The business cycle of boom and bust would have gone on, weeding out bad allocation of capital. Looks like the Keynesians have finally eliminated the gyrations of the business cycle, unfortuneately it is now stuck in the down position.

Evidently, people won’t vote for anyone who is not first screened by the mass news media. And they only cover Keynesians. Which they cover lavishly. Every time one makes a face at the other, it is a news story. A candidate could spend a billion on political ads and not achive a fraction of the free publicity given to “annointed” candidates. I like Obama’s personality better than McCain but I voted for Bob Barr, what might be called a “moderate” Libertarian. Like Ron Paul he has been previously elected to US Congress. So the argument of a wasted vote for LP candidates because they are “unelectable” isn’t valid. People have been conditioned to think that they can get something for nothing and Keynesian economics seemed to do that. It seemed to work for a while like the proverbial penny in the fuse box. Old screw-in fuses could be bypassed by putting a penny under the blown fuse and screwing it back in. This would keep the lights on at extreme risk of fire since there would no longer be anything to prevent a short-circuit from getting out of control.

Well, things are now out of control. We’ll have to wait and see how bad the fire is going to be.

Anyway, since everything may be going retro, what could be better than a hydrogen based personal Zeppelin. It’s upper skin could be coated with thin film solar and the hydrogen resevoir could run a small engine for the propeller(s). Solar would also provide a tiny amount of requisite power for the entertainment system which will be needed because it will take you a while to get where you are going. Also, you would not be disposed to travel on windy days, but we can foresee nobody being in so much of a hurry anymore. There’s also no need for the cabin to be small, just light weight. It can be roomy and comfy with an easy chair.

Think about it. No need for so many roads, and there you are, nice and safe up in the air with a nice view of the countryside. No need to concentrate on driving, which could be largely automatic, plenty of room up there, and, if you happened to bump into another balloon, you would just bounce off.

The flames you see in the Hindenburg films is actually the skin burning. The Germans came up with a protective coating and inadverdantly invented thermite by mistake which is why it kept burning like an incendaiary bomb. Hydrogen is so much lighter than air that if released, any combustion goes safely straight up and is over in a couple of seconds. Much safer than liquid fuels which tend to spread all over the ground.

The vistas you mention remind me of a 1920’s SciFi robot movie that was way ahead of its time: “Metropolis”, and let’s not forget H.G. Wells’ conceptual electric airship. Maybe their time has finally arrived.

In many ways I agree totally with what you write and think perhaps the change coming will be greater than you all envision.

Personally, I began reorganizing my life to prepare for the changes I see coming over a year ago. That said, I think your concerns of peak oil are over blown in order to promote you own agenda.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 required that the Dept. of the Interior prepare a comprehensive inventory of outer continental shelf (OCS) oil and gas resources for Congress.

The report states, for “technically recoverable oil and gas on the OCS, 2006″ total total endowment (mean estimate) is 115.43 billion barrels of oil, with a cumulative production to date of 14.12 billion barrels. And for gas, 633.62 trillion cu. ft, with a cumulative production of 153.57 trillion cu. ft. So we have used, in the last 150 years, about 12% of our OCS oil and about 24% of our OCS natural gas.
This is hardly a crisis of the epic proportions that some, including yourselves, propose.

Further, oil is not only found on the OCS but on dry land as well… and then there is all the coal we have. And then there is nuclear energy.

What we have is not a shortage of energy supplies but rather a shortage of the will to do what is needed to gain access to what is in the ground.

Seems to me that this is a classic example of the old saw that figures don’t lie but liars do figure. And in this case, the apparent end is more control over most people’s lives by an elite, like Mr. Obama, and peak oil is the means to that end. Thus your comment about land ownership. The USSR and others proved, many times, that land for food production must be privately held or else people will starve Yet you still suggest this time it will be different. That is pure BS because human nature has not and will not change and as is always the case, the attempted implementation of utopian dreams will be a nightmare. Far far worse than our current minor problems.

Regards

The federal government and state governments should care more about small local farms. Sugar subsidies should end. If the federal government and state governments subsidize farming, most of the money should go to small farms. They should be encouraging more organic farms. They should be encouraging many more farms not to use antibiotics in cows and chickens. They may want to consider encouraging deer farms. Deer farms could produce meat and leather products. They could encourage farmers to make hemp paper, hemp ropes, hemp clothing, hemp shoes, and other hemp products in our country. I would like marijuana, heroin, and cocaine to be legalized, regulated, and taxed for people who are at least 18 years old.

We should want to bring in skilled immigrants and wealthy immigrants who are able to help us solve our problems. Brain power matters for solving problems.

We should be encouraging cooperative education in our junior high schools, high schools, and colleges similar to what takes place at Northeastern University. We should be allowing students to use vouchers to attend private schools including private religious schools. “free exercise” (Amendment One) of religion would be easier for many students if they are able to use vouchers to attend religious schools. The federal government, state governments, and businesses should consider funding free education websites that use video, audio, and notes that have top teachers and top students teaching k-12 subjects, college subjects, and graduate school subjects. The teachers and students could be compensated

The federal government and state governments should care more about energy transmission, energy development, buses within cities, buses between cities, passenger rail, and freight rail.

I think it makes sense for the federal government to loan money to the automobile companies. If they do well, economic growth and per capita in many States may increase. We should be encouraging the production of electric powered cars, electric powered cars that have fuel as a backup power source, and other types of cars that reduce our need for foreign oil via more tax incentives and other things.

The federal government should consider loaning money to many manufacturing companies in our country that make products in our country. Economic growth and per capita income may increase. We may be better able to pay off our national debt that is more than 10 trillion dollars. Our companies that make products in our country may cause a lot less air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution on our planet than companies in China.

Congress should seriously consider backing our currency with gold, silver, and other commodities.

If the federal government is serious about growing the economy and creating jobs, it should stop taxing capital gains, interest from savings accounts, and dividends. Businesses will have an easier time obtaining loans and investments. People will have an easier time saving for college tuitions and retirements.

The federal government should sell a lot of the land it owns to raise capital, reduce the national debt, and do other things. Some of the money the federal government obtains from the sale of the lands should go to State governments.

I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1992 with a BA Degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics.

I ran for United States Senate from New Hampshire in 2002.

My website is http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky