None of this can go on forever. The Fed can’t print money forever. The U.S. can’t borrow huge fractions of GDP forever. Austerity is coming. The only question in my mind now is whether we’ll have a currency collapse and hyperinflation first.This dour outlook seems to contradict our current official national fiscal policy of "Lalalalalalala! I can't hear you!"
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32 comments:
Oh, good. I was worried we didn't have a fiscal policy.
So you're saying that I should go out and buy that revolver I've been wanting now.
And a couple of pallet loads of Fruity Oaty Bars.
Revolvers and Oaty Bars are a MUCH better store of wealth than that green crap in our wallets.
Ayup. We're pretty well right fucked.
Whether hyper- or "merely" Jimmy Carter-era-inflation, might's well buy it now--it ain't gonna get no cheaper--except maybe on the used-critter market.
We can see it coming, we can't get out of the way, and no matter which track it takes, the train will run us over. The only thing left to decide is whether to cry, laugh or quote scripture while we wait. (I didn't include "get stupid drunk and eat popcorn" because I assume that one's a given, regardless.)
It's not a train, it's a TSUNAMI!
I said "train" on purpose. WAY too soon.
My wife thought I was nuts for having a supply of food staples stashed in the basement.
She doesn't think I'm nuts anymore... at least, not about that.
wv:copheab
What we might have to do when the authorities come looking for "hoarders".
Be the first on your block to own an iPad 2.
My wife doesn't think I'm nuts anymore about the ammo, but she would think I was nuts to buy an iPad of either historical-type.
Yeah well...
you know what? Austerity'll do US good. Your per capita oil consumption is staggering. Same goes for waste production..
Though, the rest of the world'll be screwed for a while, as US debt spending on consumer crap is quite a big part of world market.
Außenseiter,
"Your per capita oil consumption is staggering. Same goes for waste production.."
That's what the hobo said this morning, trying to guilt me into tossing some coins in his cup...
Oooh - my favorite illogical thought! Yeah well... you know what? Austerity'll do US good. Your per capita oil consumption is staggering. Same goes for waste production..
Often stated as something approximately like, "the US uses 25 % of the world's energy and has 5% of the population", in attempt to makes us look like greedy pigs. A quick check on Wiki shows with 2010 IMF numbers that the US produces 23.5% of the world's GDP. 25% of the energy to produce 23.5% of the GDP doesn't make us look quite so piggish, though.
Außenseiter,
"Your per capita oil consumption is staggering. Same goes for waste production.."
but our per capita Jew burning over the last century is below the European average.
Oooh - my favorite illogical thought!
D'oh. Look at other developed countries energy consumption per capita. Way lower than in the US.
Your cars are gas guzzlers while maybe a a lot of EU drives TDI cars that gets better MPG than hybrids (like Prius). Or comparable anyway, without the need for any batteries.
For a country that fucking invented nuclear power you still produce the bulk of your power from coal and other fossil fuels. That's pathetic in a major way. (even while you have far more places where to put nuclear waste, no to mention world's best and best funded nuclear scientists)
It's been obvious to everyone involved that oil production won't go upwards much, and will start to decline a decade from now. Your own DoE commissioned a report on that and then buried the results. Saudi Arabia to whom everyone looks to increase exports whenever prices rise won't be able to do so.
http://commoditiesreporter.com/alternative-energy/wikileaks-saudi-oil-lies-exposed/
Combine that with Chinese demand and you can bet times'll get very, very interesting.
German GDP per capita is 41K $.
US GDP per capita is 46K $--
German energy consumption is ~4800 kgoe, US is ~7700 kgoe. So, how come US uses 40% more energy to produce equal amount of GDP?
Außenseiter,
Here's a quarter, call someone who cares.
PS: Okay, let's say the world is due to slide into some godawful Mad Max death spiral in the next five years...
Where would I want to ride it out? Indiana or Slovakia? Hmmmm... Let me think on that...
Okay, made my decision.
Care to meet me in twenty years to pay up? We'll do it someplace that still has an international airport. Bratislava will probably have a hard time getting the donkey carts off the weed-grown ex-Soviet airstrip, so you can pay me off at Weir-Cook.
So Tam, are you defending our US energy policies? I'd say your last post was mostly reflex since only an idiot would think so. I'd say Außenseiter was more correct than not.
The more I travel and live overseas the harder it gets to defend a lot of US policy so I usually change the subject. I've found that"eat shit and die" usually works in polite society. If I'm not in polite society that expression can also be fun.
Yes, we use more energy. We also have a population of 330 million and many of our states are larger than most European countries. And we produce more. Most Americans don't drive 10 mpg vehicles and leave all the lights on all the time.
-Außenseiter-Same goes for waste production.
You say that like its a bad thing. No, you don't understand. Here, waste is Big Bidness, capitalist style.
WV-ingly-yes I speaks it.
The US military is responsible for 100% of the personal freedom that exists in the world. We ought to get more than 25% of the oil for that alone.
"German energy consumption is ~4800 kgoe, US is ~7700 kgoe. So, how come US uses 40% more energy to produce equal amount of GDP?"
Because our energy sources aren't as efficient as your human ovens?
loren,
"So Tam, are you defending our US energy policies?"
Which part of the Constitution delegates fed.gov the power to have any kind of "energy policy" at all?
@Joseph
That is per capita energy use. Germans use far less to produce equal amounts of GDP.
As to producing more, why then Germany, for example has a trade surplus while the US doesn't. And it's not that Germans live spartan lifestyles....
Where would I want to ride it out? Indiana or Slovakia? Hmmmm... Let me think on that...
Well, we have more social cohesion overall, cities that you don't have to own and fuel a car to live in.. dense railroad network..
The hippies are unarmed in Broad Ripple, as opposed to most of former yugoslavia ...
If I'm going to wear that face colander, I want unarmed victims, dammit.
"...we have more social cohesion overall..."
My ass. Even Chancellor Merkel has come to realize "Multi-Culti" is a FAILURE.
Try that BS with someone who hasn't lived among your people for a decade or so...
Oh and the "dense railroad network" is falling on it's ass now that DB isn't subsidized to the point that it was.
Nukes? We'd have all kinds of nuke plants if it weren't for the lefties blocking them; the illogic of the "We want to be more like Europe - EXCEPT for nuke plants" is wie so typische for the left...
"Which part of the Constitution delegates fed.gov the power to have any kind of "energy policy" at all?"
Tam,
Must have been the part that gave us all the other social engineering policies of the last 80 years. Your know, the inferred part.
"Which part of the Constitution delegates fed.gov the power to have any kind of "energy policy" at all?"
The Commerce Clause, of course! ;-)
Is there anything it can't do?
"That is per capita energy use. Germans use far less to produce equal amounts of GDP."
I strongly suspect you don't once you control for population density and country size issues. Or at least, not in any meaningful statistical manner.
even given generally higher European population density, if you evaluated Europe as a group and included the European part of Russia, I suspect your numbers would come out considerably different.
that would be a more reasonable comparison size-wise than simply cherry-picking the compressed industrial heart of Europe, who's position as such has been gained with some degree of tacit consent and planning with the rest of Europe, vs. the whole of the US.
if you want to use Germany as your yardstick, I would be more impressed with comparisons between Germany and The Best and The Worst region of the US in that regard, such as Germany vs. US Northeast/California or Germany vs. US Prairie States (mere examples, I don't know for sure which areas are what offhand)
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