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 For the Record
By: perceptions_now
Yesterday (3:48 pm) Yahoo! Profile:
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Australian Senate: Peak Oil motion defeated 31:6
Notice of motion
I move that the Senate:
a) Notes that:
i. Neither the former Howard government nor the Rudd government implemented the first recommendation of the 2007 Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee report into Australia's future oil supply and alternative transport fuels, namely, that Geoscience Australia, ABARE and Treasury reassess both the official estimates of future oil supply and the 'early peak' arguments and report to the Government on the probabilities and risks involved, comparing early mitigation scenarios with business as usual.
(b) Calls on the government to immediately develop a national plan to respond to the challenge of peak oil and Australia's dependence on imported foreign oil.
The Motion was defeated 31:6 with the five Greens Senators supporting the motion and presumably South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon as the sixth supporting vote.
The major parties are not just ignorant of 'peak oil'. They are, with clarity of purpose, voting against any attempt to respond or even investigate further.
Link -
http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/5977
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Have a look at the information recently posted at -
http://au.messages.yahoo.com/news/politics/559385/
and then tell me, which Liberal or Labor Politician, is worth 2 knobs of goat sh!t? |
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By: h.diew
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| There certainly are lot of followers of Malthusian philosophy on this website. As we approach winter here in Northern Europe, I would have thought we would have been more prone to gloom than you who are approaching summer and live in one of the sunniest climates on Earth. The contrary is the case however, if this website is any gauge our collective mood in Germany is far more ebulient and positive than yours. It appears one needs more than sunshine and a relatively intact economy to feel happy. |
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By: perceptions_now
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Conclusion
All the research I have done for this paper has convinced me that the human race is now out of time. We are staring at hard limits on our activities and numbers, imposed by energy constraints and ecological damage. There is no time left to mitigate the situation, and no way to bargain or engineer our way out of it. It is what it is, and neither Mother Nature nor the Laws of Physics are open to negotiation.
We have come to this point so suddenly that most of us have not yet realized it. While it may take another twenty years for the full effects to sink in, the first impacts from oil depletion (the net oil export crisis) will be felt within five years. Given the size of our civilization and the extent to which we rely on energy in all its myriad forms, five years is far too short a time to accomplish any of the unraveling or re-engineering it would take to back away from the precipice. At this point we are committed to going over the edge into a major population reduction.
We need to start now to put systems, structures and attitudes in place that will help them cope with the difficulties, find happiness where it exists and thrive as best they can. We need to develop new ways of seeing the world, new ways of seeing each other, new values and ethics.
Link -
http://www.countercurrents.org/chefurka201109.htm
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There may be some areas of disagreement, but I believe this article is fairly close to one possible reality. |
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By: perceptions_now
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Effects of Ecological Damage
There are two ecological concepts that are the keys to understanding humanity's situation on our planet today. The first is Carrying Capacity, the second is Overshoot.
Carrying Capacity - The carrying capacity of an environment is established by the quantity of resources available to the population that inhabits it. The usual limiting resource is assumed to be the food supply.
Sustainability - A sustainable process or state is one that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. A sustainable process or state must not threaten, directly or indirectly, the viability of any of the org an isms affected by it. Given these definitions it is intuitively obvious that the current level of human activity is not sustainable. The fact that it has been possible at all is mainly because of the use of fossil fuel, a non-renewable resource. That use is by definition unsustainable, and Peak Oil is graphic evidence of that fact.
Overshoot - Populations in serious overshoot always decline. This is seen in wine vats when the yeast cells die after consuming all the sugar from the grapes and bathing themselves in their own poisonous alcoholic wastes. Another example is the death of the oceans, where 90% of all large fish species are now at risk, and most fish species will be at risk within 40 years. As our supply of energy (and especially that one-time gift of fossil fuels) begins to decline, this mask will be gradually peeled away to reveal the true extent of our ecological depredations. As we have to rely more and more on the unassisted bounty of nature, the consequences of our actions will begin to affect us all. It is impossible to say with certainty how deep into overshoot humanity is at the moment. Some calculations point to an overshoot of 25%, others hint that it may be much greater than that.
Figure 16: World Population with Declining Energy and Carrying Capacity, 1965 to 2100 |
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By: perceptions_now
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The Effect of Energy Decline on Population
As I said in the introduction, human population growth has been enabled by the growth in our energy supply.
The Historical and Current Situation - According to an analysis of historical human energy use published by Western Oregon University, while per our capita food energy consumption has remained relatively constant (within a range of 3:1 over most of human history), the energy we each use for the rest of our activities has grown almost thirty times from our early agricultural days to the consumption we now see in developed countries. The world's population has increased by a similar amount in that time, from 200 million in 1 CE to 6.6 billion today.
There is of course a great disparity in global energy consumption. The combined populations of China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (2.7 billion) today use an average of just 0.8 toe per person per year, compared to the global average of 1.7 and the American consumption of about 8.0.
Long-Term and Aggregate Effects - Over 4.5 billion of the world's 6.6 billion occupants live in countries that have per capita energy consumptions under 2.0 toe per year. As energy supplies decline, these countries are at risk of vast increases in mortality as they are out-bid in the global energy marketplace and their populations begin to fall below the minimum energy level required for sustaining life.
Short Term and Regional Effects. The net oil export crisis may well be the defining geopolitical event of the next decade.
The Population Model - The population model is based mainly on the long-term aggregate effects of energy decline. The mechan is mms of the population decline it projects are not specified. However, it is likely that they will include such things as major regional food shortages, a spread of diseases due to a loss of urban medical and sanitation services and an increase in deaths due to exposure to heat and cold.
Figure 14: World Population with Declining Ene ... |
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By: perceptions_now
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| Figure 13 has all the energy curves added together to show the overall shape of total world energy consumption. This graph aggregates all the rises, peaks and declines to give a sense of the complete energy picture out to 2100. The graph shows a strong peak in about 2020, with a steepening decline out to 2100. The main reason for the decline is the loss of oil, gas, and (to a lesser extent) coal. Unfortunately, the loss of the enormous contribution of fossil fuels means that the total amount of energy available to humanity by the end of the century may be less than one fifth of the amount we use now, and less than one sixth the amount we will use at our energy peak a decade or so from now. This shortfall contains an ominous message for our future |
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By: perceptions_now
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Hydro
If coal is the ugly stepsister, hydro is one of the fairy godmothers of the energy story. Environmentally speaking it's relatively clean, if perhaps not quite as clean as once thought. The technology is well understood, universally available and not too technically demanding (at least compared to nuclear power). Dams and generators last a long time.
It has its share of problems, though they tend to be quite localized. Destruction of habitat due to flooding, the release of CO2 and methane from flooded vegetation, and the disruption of river flows are the primary issues. In terms of further development the main obstacle is that in many places the best hydro sites are already being used. Nevertheless, it is an attractive energy source. Figure 8: Projected Hydro Production
Renewable Energy
While I do not subscribe to the pessimistic notion that renewables will make little significant contribution, it's equally unrealistic to expect that they will achieve a dominant position in the energy marketplace. This is primarily because of their late start relative to the imminent decline of oil, gas and nuclear power, as well as their continued economic disadvantage relative to coal. Figure 11: Global Renewable Energy Production, 1965 to 2100
Figure 12 shows all the above curves on a single graph. This gives a sense of the relative timing of the various production peaks, as well as showing the contribution of each energy source relative to the others over time.
As you can see, fossil fuels are by far the most important contributors to the world's current energy mix, but all three are in rapid decline by the second half of the century. Hydro and renewables are making respectable contributions by mid-century, while nuclear power plays a constant role. By the end of the century, oil and natural gas have dropped out of the picture almost entirely, while the dominant players are hydro, renewable sources , coal and nuclear power, in that order. |
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By: perceptions_now
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Nuclear
Two realizations form the basis for my model of nuclear power. The first is that since reactors have a finite lifespan averaging around 40 years, a lot of the world's reactors are rapidly approaching the end of their useful life. The second is that the replacement rate inferred from the UIC planning table is only about three to four reactors per year for at least the next ten years, and probably the next twenty.
These two facts mean that within the next twenty years we will have retired over 300 reactors, but will have built only 60. So by 2030 we will have seen a net loss of 240 or more reactors: over half the present stock. Since these reactors are all broadly similar in size (a bit less than 1 GW on average) that means we can calculate the approximate world generating capacity at any moment in time, with reasonable accuracy out to 2030 or so. Figure 7: Global Nuclear Production, 1965 to 2100
The argument for a peak in nuclear capacity in 2010 and the subsequent drop is very similar to the logistical considerations behind Peak Oil - the big pool of reactors is about to be exhausted, and we're not building enough replacements. |
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By: perceptions_now
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Coal
Coal is the ugly stepsister of fossil fuels. It has a terrible environmental reputation. Most coal today is used to generate electricity. As economies grow, so does their demand for electricity, and if electricity is used to replace some of the energy lost due to the decline of oil and natural gas, this will put yet more upward pressure on the demand for coal. At the moment China is installing two to three new coal-fired power plants per week, and has plans to continue at this pace for at least the next decade. Just as we saw with oil and gas, coal will exhibit an energy peak and decline. One factor in this is that we have in the past concentrated on finding and using the highest grade of coal, anthracite. Much of what remains consists of lower grade bituminous and lignite. These grades of coal produce less energy when burned, and require the mining of ever more coal to get the same amount of energy. The model projects a continued rise in the use of coal out to a peak in 2025. These assumptions give the curve shown in Figure 6. Of course this use of coal carries with it the threat of increased global warming due to the continued production of CO2. Many hopeful words have been written about the possibility of alleviating this worry by implementing Carbon Capture and Storage. CCS usually involves the capture and compression of CO2 from power plant exhaust, which is then pumped into played-out gas fields for long term storage. This technology is still in the experimental stage, and there is much skepticism surrounding the security of storing such enormous quantities of CO2 in porous rock strata. |
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By: perceptions_now
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The Net Export Problem - In most countries the demand for oil is constantly increasing. This applies especially to oil exporting nations, where rising oil prices have stimulated economic growth. This additional growth has in turn resulted in a higher domestic demand for oil which is satisfied out of their surplus before it is made available for export. While the nation's oil production is increasing this does not pose much of a problem. When the exporting nation's production peaks and begins to decline however, something ominous happens: the amount of oil available for export declines at a faster rate than the production decline. This has become known as the "net oil export problem".Figure 4: World Net Oil Exports 2002 to 2013
Such changes in exports are very worrisome for importing nations. The USA, for instance, imports about two thirds of its oil requirements. If the oil export market should suddenly begin to dry up as Figure 4 suggests it could, the US would be forced to make some very hard choices. These could include accepting a drastic reduction in industrial activity, GDP and lifestyle, abandoning the international oil market and enter into long-term supply contracts with producing nations, or even military action to secure foreign oil supplies (as may have already been attempted in Iraq).
Natural Gas
The supply situation with natural gas is very similar to that of oil. While oil and gas will both exhibit a production peak, the slope of the post-peak decline for gas will be significantly steeper due to its lower viscosity. As with oil, we found and drilled the big ones first. The peak of world gas production may not occur until 2025, but two things are sure: we will have even less warning than we had for Peak Oil, and the subsequent decline rates may be shockingly high. This gives the production curve shown in Figure 5. |
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By: perceptions_now
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World Energy And Population: Trends To 2100
Introduction
During the historically recent period of global industrialization, the level of human population has been closely related to the amount of energy we have used. Over the last forty years, the per capita energy consumption has averaged about 1.5 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per person per year.
Figure 1 shows the close relationship between global energy consumption, world GDP and global population and implies that an overall increase in the energy supply has supported the increase in population.
The current global energy mix consists of oil (36%), natural gas (24%), coal (28%), nuclear (6%), hydro (6%) and renewable energy such as wind and solar (about 1%).
Energy Component Models
Oil
Oil fields follow a size distribution consisting of a very few large fields and a great many smaller ones. This distribution is illustrated by the fact that 60% of the world's oil supply is extracted from only 1% of the world's active oil fields. As one of these very large fields plays out it can require the development of hundreds of small fields to replace its production.
Timing - I have confirmed this to my own satisfaction by examining the pattern of oil production and oil prices over the last three years. I discovered in the process that crude oil production peaked in May 2005 and has shown no growth since then despite a doubling in price and a dramatic surge in exploration activity.
Decline Rate - The United States, for instance, has been in decline since 1971 and has lost two thirds of its capacity since then, for a decline rate of about 3% per year. The giant Cantarell field in Mexico is losing production at rates approaching 20% per year. The WEAP model increases from a decline rate of 1% per year in 2015 to a constant rate of 5% per year after 2040. Even such a relatively conservative decline model gives astonishing results over the course of the century, as shown in Figure |
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By: perceptions_now
16/11/2009
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"Gold Finger - A New Take On Operation Grand Slam With A Tungsten Twist"
Here's what I now understand really happened:
The amount of "salted tungsten" gold bars in question was allegedly between 5,600 and 5,700 - 400 oz - good delivery bars [roughly 60 metric tonnes].
This was apparently all highly orchestrated by an extremely well financed criminal operation.
Within mere hours of this scam being identified - Chinese officials had many of the perpetrators in custody.
And here's what the Chinese allegedly uncovered:
Roughly 15 years ago - during the Clinton Administration [think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers] - between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks were allegedly manufactured by a very high-end, sophisticated refiner in the USA [more than 16 Thousand metric tonnes]. Subsequently, 640,000 of these tungsten blanks received their gold plating and WERE shipped to Ft. Knox and remain there to this day. I know folks who have copies of the original shipping docs with dates and exact weights of "tungsten" bars shipped to Ft. Knox.
The balance of this 1.3 million - 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten cache was also plated and then allegedly "sold" into the international market.
Apparently, the global market is literally "stuffed full of 400 oz salted bars".
Makes one wonder if the Indians were smart enough to assay their 200 tonne haul from the IMF?
Link -
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1258049769.php |
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By: perceptions_now
15/11/2009
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JP Morgan Invents New U.S. Employment Numbers
Clearly, the what, When, How & Where of consumption can & is manipulated, including by government & other "statistics"!
That said, no matter how things are put, how they are manipulated, what "smoke & mirrors" are applied by marketers/advertisers/ big business/ unions/politicians or those of self interest in Oil, some facts remain facts.
To that end, it would not be possible to make consumers consume as much, IF it became clear to the general public that the global economy was on a downhill slide, with no way of returning to the status quo.
Oil is a good example here, as Demand can require that the Pacific Ocean be made to be the new supply Crude Oil. But, Reality says, no matter how much desire/want or dissatisfaction we create in the general public, the Pacific Ocean will not turn into a giant pool of Oil!
In fact, it is often in the area of finite resources, where I have seen the Population and consumption per head, at today's level put into reverse, with the argument that there is actually plenty of OIL, at today's level of consumption, when it is plainly obvious that those levels of consumption will increase, over time.
Finally, my advice is to beware, there are Lies and statistics and there are damned lies & government statistics!
Article Link -
http://seekingalpha.com/article/173222-jp-morgan-i nvents-new-u-s-employment -numbers?source=commenter |
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By: perceptions_now
15/11/2009
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Is the U.S. Headed Down the Same Path as Ja pan? (Cont)
The first graph of the S & P 500 is particularly relevant!
I believe it shows a clear linkage between the "fast footwork" of changing how US Banks & finacial institutions calculate their asset values, involving the change away from Mark to Market accounting regulations in March 2009.
Prior to that the markets were heading towards obilivion, but almost immediately after, the markets began their upturn.
If this change had not been brought into being, then almost all US Financial institutions would have been declared Bankrupt, when next reporting their financial status, if they had to show the actual current market value of their assets.
The difference is that now these institutuions can & do put down whatever they think is fair value and it is accepted.
The values being placed are generally what they hope these assets (generally Residential & Commercial R/E) may be worth, when/if things get back to normal!
In short, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EARLY MARCH 2009 & NOW, is a MASSIVE AMOUNT OF SMOKE & MIRRORS"! |
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By: perceptions_now
15/11/2009
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Is the U.S. Headed Down the Same Path as Ja pan?
It is correct to say that the US today is different to the Ja pan of 1990-2009
However, and risking the possibility of graphics overload, there are some interesting graphs at the following site -
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/11/s-ch ief-economist-confirms-im portance.html
That said and whilst there are differences, there are also some similarities. Yes, Population Aging is a common factor and Yes, Real Estate & Share Market declines are also common factors.
In terms of differences, the Ja panese were the Canary in the Mine, they were the first to experience this modern population Aging & subsequent decline, so outside intervention & assistance was possible. And, whilst they were & still are a large Global economic player, they were not like the US, the largest Global economic player, by a long, long way!
Also, the Ja panese only had to fight off the loss of one major economic driver, that being the Aging of their Population and the subsequent Population decline. In the current event, the US & the rest of the Planet, are facing similar population issues, but now there is the added dimension of losing the 2nd of the three major economic drivers, that being the loss of a Cheap & Abundant source of Energy, Fossil fuels if you will, Oil in particular.
The is no doubt a great deal of disagreement on this issue, but the Conventional Production/Extraction of Oil has effectively Peaked in 2005, as since then it has failed to keep up with Demand, Inflation & Population Growth!
Events are seldom simple repeats of history and this event is no repeat of Ja pan in the Nineties.
Whilst some of the inputs may seem similar, when viewed with historical 20-20 vision, the current event outcomes will clearly be a once in history event.
Article Link -
http://seekingalpha.com/article/173320-is-the-u-s- headed-down-the-same-path -as- ja pan?source=commente r |
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By: perceptions_now
15/11/2009
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Ja pan PM says nation should embrace migrants
Ja pan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.
Ja pan has some of the world's strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a "sensitive issue".
But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Ja pan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.
"I think Ja pan should also make itself a country attractive to people so that more and more people, including tourists, hope to visit Ja pan, hope to live and work in Ja pan," he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.
"I am not sure if I can call this 'immigration policy', but what's important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Ja pan," he said.
Ja pan has relatively few resident foreigners, although in recent years it has cautiously opened up its job market to nurses and care workers from some Southeast Asian countries.
"First, we will improve support for child-rearing by offering cash allowances for families with children," before thinking about immigration to address the country's low birth rate, the premier said.
Ja pan's population has been shrinking since 2005. Despite efforts to raise the birth rate, a woman's average number of offspring now hovers around 1.3, well below the 2.07 needed to maintain the population.
Ja pan rejected the prospect of mass immigration under the conservative government led by the Liberal Democratic Party. Hatoyama's centre-left Democratic Party of Ja pan (DPJ) ousted them in September.
Some politicians have argued that an influx of immigrants would lead to lower wages for Ja panese workers and a higher crime rate.
Link -
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM 5iVmFoMmC9CGTNe-bgP9pvt0H jFRA |
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By: perceptions_now
14/11/2009
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The Implications and Fallout of the IEA "Leaks"
After the Recession, Will the World Face an Energy Crisis?
Here's the bad news about the global recession's potentially coming to an end: the recovery could spark a massive energy crisis with increased demand for fossil fuels from China and other developing countries, tighter oil supplies and skyrocketing oil prices. And this is just in the near future. The longer-term picture looks even more daunting.
Too fearful to publicise peak oil reality
Take the 2008 edition of World Energy Outlook, the annual report on which the entire energy industry and governments depend. It included the table also published by the Guardian today, and the version I saw had shorter intervals on the horizontal axis. What it made blindingly clear was that peak oil was somewhere in 2008/9 and that production from currently producing fields was about to drop off a cliff. Fields yet to be developed and yet to be found enabled a plateau of production and it was only "non-conventional oil" which enabled a small rise. Think tar sands of Canada, think some of the most climate polluting oil extraction methods available. Think catastrophe.
Link -
http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/implications-an d-fallout-iea-leaks/31343
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The author of this article knows what he is talking about and no just about Peak Oil!
The above is only a small portion, I reccommend the full read! |
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By: perceptions_now
14/11/2009
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The Mighty US$
US$ Index (basket of Currencies: @ 75.24
http://www.goldseek.com/quotes/charts/usdollar/usd ollarindex24hour.php
Euro - US$: @ 1.4903
AUD$ - US$: @ .9330
AUD$ - GBP: @ 0.5595
AUD$ - Euro: @ 0.6261
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/currencies/fxc.ht ml
Gold - @ US$1,116.70
Oil - @ US$76.35
DOW - 10,270 (UP 73 today)
All Ords - 4723 (down 36 today)
http://www.bloomberg.com/?b=0
THERE was movement at the FED, for the word had passed around, That the US$ was an old Regret and its value had long since passed away |
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By: perceptions_now
14/11/2009
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Iberiabank Buys Two U.S. Banks as Failure Toll Climbs to 123
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Iberiabank Corp., the Louisiana- based lender that exited a federal government assistance program this year, purchased two banks as the U.S. economy's expansion fails to halt financial-firm collapses.
Iberiabank added about $2.5 billion in deposits and more than 30 branches by acquiring Florida-based lenders Orion Bank and Century Bank, the company said today in a statement. The growth in southern Florida will boost earnings in coming years, Iberiabank said.
Banks are failing at the fastest pace in 17 years even as the U.S. economy shows signs of pulling out of the recession. The world's largest economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, the first gain in more than a year, according to the Commerce Department. The number of failed banks reached 179 in 1992.
The three failures cost the FDIC's deposit-insurance fund more than $980 million.
Link -
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=aieAS8mV5eoU&pos=6
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What was the net cost to the US economy, by way of taxpayer subsidy, to arrive at a GDP increase? |
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By: perceptions_now
12/11/2009
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S&P's Chief Economist Confirms the Importance of Age Demographics
As I have previously noted, Ja pan's population is rapidly aging, and the U.S. age pyramid - while not as bad - is not nearly as young as that of Brazil or India's
The first of the postwar baby boom cohort, born 1946-1964, will turn 55 years in 2001. In just three decades, an extraordinary change in the age structure of the United States is anticipated. By 2030, one in five persons (20% of the U.S. population) will be aged 65 or older, increasing from the present ratio of one in nine persons (12.8%). The number of persons in the 65 and older age group will more than double, increasing from the current 34 million persons to 70 million persons.
An aging U.S. population means less productive workers, less big-spending consumers, and more dependent elders.
The following chart shows that Ja pan has the worst demographics of all, with a staggering percentage of elderly who need to be taken care of by the young.
The chief economist for Standard and Poor's is now confirming the importance of national demographics:
But I don't think [a lost decade in the U.S. is] as likely over here. For one thing, one of the problems in Ja pan was the demographics. And we don't have the problem of a declining population to deal with, although the labor force is going to slow down considerably as soon as the baby boomers retire.
In other words, America's age demographics aren't as bad as Ja pan's, but they aren't helping, either.
Link -
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/11/s-ch ief-economist-confirms-im portance.html
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Have a good look at all the graphs, but particularly figure 4, the Baby Boomer bulge started, in reality, around 2005. |
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By: perceptions_now
12/11/2009
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Australian Employers Unexpectedly Hire 24,500; Currency Jumps
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Australian employers unexpectedly added workers in October, pushing the nation's currency to its highest level this year on speculation the central bank will raise interest rates for a record third straight month.
The number of people employed rose 24,500 from September, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The median estimate of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a decline of 10,000. The jobless rose to 5.8 percent from 5.7 percent.
Link -
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=aERkEtu4hndU&pos=1
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/aust ralian-unemployment-rate- 58-in-oct-20091112-ib0g.h tml
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Effectively the Employment "Participation Rate" held up this month, instead of falling, as it must do in the longer term, as more & more Baby Boomers retire.
Short term, it is likely the RBA will continue to increase interest rates, possibly including December? The AU$ having risen today to around 93.5 in expectation of future interest rate increases.
As shown in the following except the US Unemployment is continuing to rise, whilst the Employment/Participation rate continues to fall.
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The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm
payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in con-
struction, manufacturing, and retail trade.
Link-
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm |
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By: perceptions_now
12/11/2009
12:30 pm Yahoo! Profile:
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Found in Translation
FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets.
Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington's highest levels-sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fabulist, but Edmonds's account is full of dates, places, and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli, Pakistani, and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in the upper echelons of the State and Defense Departments. Her charges could be easily confirmed or dismissed if classified government documents were made available to investigators.
But Congress has refused to act, and the Justice Department has shrouded Edmonds's case in the state-secrets privilege, a rarely used measure so sweeping that it precludes even a closed hearing attended only by officials with top-secret security clearances. According to the Department of Justice, such an investigation "could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the United States."
But two weeks later, Edmonds was fired; her home computer was seized; her family in Turkey was visited by police and threatened with arrest if they did not submit to questioning about an unspecified "intelligence matter."
Link -
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/jan/28/00012/ /
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Interesting read!
Another whistleblower?
Another example of the truth being stranger than fiction? |
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By: jaymarcel
12/11/2009
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| How about the gov take it over & we lose the current banking system altogether, then perhaps their lending criteria might be tighter & the greed/risk element removed that is used to keep the shareholders happy. |
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By: almurrie1@y7mail.com
12/11/2009
7:52 am Yahoo! Profile:
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Hi Fire
You have not understood me. I did not say banks would have no interest, just that there would be no Reserve Bank SETTING interest rates. And lending money into existence with a premium for the fat banks would be gone. The government would do this and GIVE it to the people, WITHOUT an interest noose. A far more equitable way of sharing the mineral wealth of the country. All those who can't afford to buy shares would now benefit.
The banks would still charge interest and give it on deposits, except that a lot of people would see the benefit of spending like you say and would only save if bank interest was over 3%. I did not say banks can't charge interest, competitiveness would set the rate, instead of it being imposed by a Reserve Bank. And banks would be required to source funds from deposits (like credit unions) so as to not be caught up by external money markets as they now are. The multiplier effect would still be there. Greed has driven the system up to now, with less and less allowed to be kept in reserve, so as to multiply even more. A simple govt guarantee could be held to stop any runs on banks, after all they are the ones who would now be producing the cash, so all would be safe.
Otherwise we will go back to the spiralling uncontrolled lending that puts huge debt onto everyone. Living within means is exactly what we would have to do, slow down the development to something sustainable.
Also the govt. would keep some of the printed money, so taxes could be reduced or eliminated. Wouldn't the Reserve Banks of the world hate that! Everyone would then demand the same all around the world.
A country like Australia with gold and mineral reserves backing the currency could easily do this, others not so easily. And it would take rigour to NOT print too much, and initiate Zimbabwe style run away inflation.
At least the people through their elected representatives would be running things instead of overseas controlled cartels of banks.
Al |
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By: firefly_au
11/11/2009
10:44 pm Yahoo! Profile:
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Hi Al:)
That's an interesting idea! I am not sure that it would help anything though. So let me try to get a full understanding of your idea....
Please explain to me - how would the banks stay in business and loan the money to businesses and individuals unless they could charge interest? For that matter why would anyone either save or loan the money out unless it could earn interest?
In a 3% inflation environment without interest that was higher than this net TAX then saving would be a disadvantage spending it all immediately would be the go...
How would anything get done that required a huge investment and some borrowed capital if nobody saved? If the interest situation remained the same anyway, how would removing the Reserve banks help?
Also how would retail banking work without some sort of fractional reserve banking and the resultant multiplier effect? We could not risk allowing them to loan out all the money on deposit and we could not insist that they loaned out none of it as it would earn nothing.
Once again if this were to occur we would be back to the spend it all scenario! So what is the alternative to fractional reserve banking that would eliminate the short comings of our current banking system?
Thanks in advance Al
BYE :) |
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