Follow our steps to prepare for a world after peak oil, such as how to store & filter water
Michael Hudson and Pierre Rinfret: The Myth of Alan Greenspan (adam)
He was famous for telling the economic truth, even when those in power did not want to hear it. And he was outspoken, too much so for the pampered princes of politics and the media. He himself was often naive I think, in believing that the truth would prevail even among those who were determined not to see it because it conflicted with their interests, and that those to whom he had been loyal would repay him in kind. He was 'set up' to take a loss in his run for governor of NY. But that was just politics and he had made quite a few enemies, especially amongst the emerging neo-conservatives who took control of his beloved Republican Party.
Charles Lane is Exhibit A: Dishonesty in Media when addressing Economics (Jaime)
Bill Black's Recipe for Bankers to become Billionaires: 1. Grow massively, 2. By making very poor quality loans at high rates of interest, 3. Use extreme leverage (high corporate debt), and 4. Set aside virtually no loss reserves for the massive losses that will be coming. If you do these four things, you are mathematically guaranteed to report record short-term income. Akerlof and Romer referred to it as a sure thing - it is guaranteed.
In Libya, the Captors Have Become the Captive (jdargis)
I heard this story in early April from Naji Najjar himself. He was still being held captive by the militia, living with 11 other men who had killed and tortured for Qaddafi, in a large room with a single barred window and mattresses piled on the floor. The rebels had attached a white metal plate onto the door and a couple of big bolts, to make it look more like a prison. Najjar’s old PPR pipe and falga, a wooden stick used to raise prisoners’ legs in order to beat them on the soles of the feet, rested on a table upstairs. They had gotten some use in the first months of his confinement, when former victims and their relatives came to the base to deliver revenge beatings.
Postal Service Holds Back On Closings (jdargis)
The agency had originally targeted rural post offices because they are expensive to run and generate little revenue. Some of the smallest rural post offices earned an average of $15,000 annually, but cost $114,000 to operate, the Postal Service said.
Chris Martenson: Peak Oil Will Change Life As You Know It & So Will the Coming Collapse (adam)
Here’s my new interview with researcher and author of ‘The Crash Course’ Chris Martenson. Buckle up, Chris has the data that he believes proves that ‘peak oil’ is a fact – and that any way you cut it, our lives are about to change forever as the days of cheap liquid fuel are nearly over. Chris also covers the coming collapse and the need to continue stacking physical.
Norwegian Crude Oil Reserves and Production as of 12/31/2011 (ScubaRoo)
These new developments are expected to add up to 350 kb/d of additional oil production, reaching a peak in 2016. This is by itself impressive given the location of the discoveries (offshore, water depth), their size and the total efforts required to bring these to fruition. These 21 developments have been estimated to hold total recoverable reserves of 1 Gb crude oil, 140 Gcm (Gcm = Bcm: Billion cubic meters) of natural gas, around 23 Mb condensates and around 164 Mb NGLs.
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@PeakProsperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."
Headlines:
(Note: Cross-posted to the Student Loans: Gateway to Debt Slavery thread.)
Don't know if this was shared before, but another study came out of Rutgers University earlier this month:
Amongst the findings:
Chasing the American Dream: Recent College Graduates and the Great Recession (May 2012)
http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/content/Chasing_American_Dream_Report.pdf
Highly recommend sharing with people you know in high school or college who are contemplating what to study in college. I used to know a girl who chose to major in history despite all my entreaties to the contrary. Well, she's got her degree a few months back - but she's still working a dead-end retail job.
Poet
billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2012/05/retired-couples-need-240000-just-to.html
The story:
Fidelity Investments has released its annual projection on health care costs for retirees and calculated that a couple retiring now will need $240,000 to get through their remaining decades. That's an increase from last year's projection of $230,000.
And my reaction:
Let's see, the average couple is going to need nearly a quarter of a million dollars to cover their health care costs in retirement, and yet half of all American adults have no retirement savings of any kind, let alone for health care.
This will not end well.
I am pretty certain that estimate of $240,000 is just to pay for Medicare premiums and what Medicare doesn't cover... Without Medicare, the number is likely much higher.
It's interesting when you think about it. A lot of old people are against "Obamacare" but they are for Medicare. Yet both are socialist programs that confiscates resources from some, and distributes them to others.
The typical retiree will extract TEN TIMES out of Medicare what they put in - so it's not like they "earned it" and "paid for it". Other people are paying for it and this system is doomed to failure as a Ponzi scheme. That's why the system is running out of money. The Year 2008 was when the outflows started being more than the inflows, thus requiring the "trust fund" to be tapped into. Some parts of the "trust fund", like the Medicare "hospital" fund are slated to be exhausted by 2016.
So why are the very people who are dependent on socialized medicine for themselves, agaisnt socialized medicine for others? If they were truthfully against socialism, they should reject both Medicare and "Obamacare". I'd love to hear someone on Medicare, who is against "Obamacare", tell their story...
Poet
billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2012/05/retired-couples-need-240000-just-to.html
The story:
Fidelity Investments has released its annual projection on health care costs for retirees and calculated that a couple retiring now will need $240,000 to get through their remaining decades. That's an increase from last year's projection of $230,000.
And my reaction:
Let's see, the average couple is going to need nearly a quarter of a million dollars to cover their health care costs in retirement, and yet half of all American adults have no retirement savings of any kind, let alone for health care.
This will not end well.
Poet,
The govt payment method drives up the costs. Even private pay insurance will drive up the costs. When I got sick and didn't have any insurance, it was amazing how much less expensive the visit was. Instead of $150 xray, $50 lab test, $200 script, I paid the Md his $75 fee and a script cost of $15.
The Year 2008 was when the outflows started being more than the inflows, thus requiring the "trust fund" to be tapped into. Some parts of the "trust fund", like the Medicare "hospital" fund are slated to be exhausted by 2016.
Since there is not really any trust fund, they are essentially out now since the "trust fund" is just a loan from the government to itself. It has to tax or borrow to cover any draw down of the so called "trust fund".
I know the problem is that people who are currently drawing Medicare and SSN view that they paid in for so very long and believed the government lie that they were investing in their future. Unfortunately those that depend on it are just as SOL as those that gave their savings to Bernie Madoff. It sure would be nice to have those that have continued this lie sitting in jail as well. 
Before moving to Canada, I had four magic words that were guaranteed to save me at least 50% on professional medical care. One time, it saved me at least 99%!
If I had to see my regular physician, she would complete the visit, then come a bit closer, and say, "This is cash, right?" Then she'd tear up the paperwork and go to the sample closet and give me drugs. I don't know if she was defrauding her medical partners and staff in the process, but it was welcome. I typically paid $50 a visit, and had no idea what that was worth until my brother went to the same doctor, but "through the system." Six months later, he was still trying to extract the cost of the $150 visit from his insurance company.
I was flat on my back for ten weeks in 2002 -- it took that long to see a "specialist." (And they say Canadian health care is slow! I can make a call in the morning and see my doctor in the afternoon.)
When I finally saw a "specialist," she examined me, left me lying on a cold tile floor with my butt hanging out of the medical gown for nearly an hour because I couldn't sit without excruciating pain, then finally came back with a joyous look on her face, and said, "We think you're an excellent candidate for surgery!"
I then used my four magic words: "I don't have insurance."
"Well, we can try something more conservative first." She put me on pregnazone (anabolic steroid) and in less than a week, I was sitting, standing, walking, without no back pain. Whatever happened to "First, do no harm?"
So $50 worth of pills saved me perhaps $5,000 in surgery -- not to mention an additional ten weeks of disability during recovery.
Americans are so naive. They thump their chest and say "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!" claiming the best health care in the world. American health care is a FRAUD, fully available only to those with lots of money or lots of patience.
Bravo!!!
Chris, I thought that you did a pretty good job, given the amount of time available, of dispelling the abiotic oil meme offered up by the interviewer, SGT. However, from the comment section to follow it is apparent that that you didn’t win many converts.
Maybe half of the comments in response to the interview suggest a group of folks that believe that peak oil, climate change and recent economic downturns are all artificial crisis or hoaxes manufactured by the powers-that-be in order to gain greater control over people. A packaged deal, so to speak.
Towards the end of part 1 in the interview, you said that beliefs are not amenable to change based on the presentation of data.
I sure hope that this is not true.
And, at the risk of falling into a recursive loop, I find it hard to “believe” that you would continue to do what you do if you believed this to be true.
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