I recommend the following books from Amazon:
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Life After the Oil Crash
Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You
Editor's Note: It's worth noting that #1) the U.N. has indicatedthe "liquid capital" from the heroin boom is being used to bailout the big banks (Source) and #2) Obama's "surge" into heroin-rich Afghanistan is happening just as the Anglo-American bubblef-ck eonomy is desperate for highly liquid sources of capital:
Ranger Stephen Couter, 21, from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, has a similarattitude after being laid off as an apprentice electrician last year. "I waslooking for work but could not find anything,” he said. Asked why becominga soldier appealed, he said: "The prospect of money coming in, instead ofsitting around doing nothing." The military is no easy escape from therecession, however. Recruits must endure 26 weeks of exercise, crack-ofdawn starts and mock operations in Yorkshire. One third of those whoqualify will be in Afghanistan within three months of passing out . . .Editor's Note: we're discussing this at the LATOC Forum:
Jim Sinclair of jsmineset.com, a legendary gold trader, reported that someof his contacts have told him that, when they request to withdraw their100 ounce. bars from the Comex depositories, they have not received theproper indicted bars. They received a bar, but not one with the correctserial number or weight. Why not? One possibility is that an honest mistakewas made. The high demand recently has apparently kept the depositoryworkers very busy. Wall Street veterans recall that delivery errors werechronic in the days of paper share certificates. Another possibility is thatthe bar indicated on the warehouse receipt does not actually exist . . .Editor's Note: we're discussing this at the LATOC Forum:
With oil in short supply, industrial production plummets, the economy stalls,there is a financial crisis because of bad debts, followed by a commercialcrisis because of falling demand and lack of credit, followed by politicalcollapse caused by dwindling government revenues, followed by socialcollapse as unemployment rises and crime becomes rampant. After a whileof this, the idea of you and your friends going out to the oil field andpumping some more oil starts to seem rather odd, and so oil productionheads to zero. The global oil peak is different from all the little localizedpeaks in that the planet as a whole cannot import its way out of an oilshortage, resulting in a global economic collapse. The economic collapsewill, in turn, cause global oil production to crash even faster . . .Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a songworth listening to in over two decades. He had done almost nothing butspin his wheels, hop around the globe from one place to another atenormous expense, and make himself available for award ceremonies tostoke his ego (and give advertisers a reason to promote some televisedaward show). He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished bymoonbeams of attention, famous for saying that he loved his worshipperswhen the truth was he merely sucked the life out of them. In his lastyears, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit wayback in the last century. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot.The lengthy recession has proved discouraging for the swelling ranks ofunemployed Americans, and forced U.S. states obligated to pay themjobless benefits to pile debt on their already strained budgets. Fifteenstates have depleted their unemployment insurance funds so far, forcingthem to borrow from the U.S. Treasury. Fifteen states have depleted theirunemployment insurance funds so far, forcing them to borrow from theU.S. Treasury. A record 30 of the country's 50 states are expected to borrow up to $17 billion by next year . . . The state-run unemploymentinsurance programs are financed with payroll taxes paid by employers oneach worker. But the funds' tax revenues are falling at the same time asbenefit demands are rising. Nine million Americans are receiving joblessbenefits, triple the number who got checks at the beginning of the year.As the recession rumbles on, the number of Americans claiming welfare(cash assistance aimed mostly at poor mothers of dependent children)appears at last to be rising. A survey by the National Conference of StateLegislatures found increases in 23 of the 30 largest states in the past year.The welfare caseload rose by more than 20% in Oregon and South Carolina,and by more than 10% in California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and Ohio.Michigan's generous jobless benefits and strict eligibility rules have kept thewelfare rolls down despite the state's 14.1% unemployment rate, thehighest in the country. But a surge in jobless workers reaching the time limit for unemployment benefits in coming months could change that. Amajor test for the state's welfare system could come by January, whennearly one in seven unemployed workers will have exhausted their joblessbenefits. Many of the more than 680,000 unemployed workers in the stateare collecting jobless benefits, which last for as long as 79 weeks.Up to this point, the U.S. government has been very successful in dupingmarket sheep (i.e. the "experts") through publishing totally fraudulentmonthly jobs reports. With the U.S. economy losing roughly 2 million jobseach month, thegovernment claimed that less than 400,000 jobs were lostin May. The fact that the unemployment rate continues soaring highereach month, that “mass lay-offs” are at record levels, and with stategovernments across the U.S. slashing spending to meet budget shortfalls(slashing jobs) conclusively demonstrates "official" government reports have absolutely no connection to reality. Even if this rate of decline is nowlinear (falling at the same rate each month), this does not imply "stability".Jobs are being lost in the U.S. at least as fast as during the Depression - ifnot faster. To suggest that this implies “moderation” is simply stupidity,from people who have absolutely no understanding of basic arithmetic.The Obama foreclosure-prevention plan was "built around the subprimecrisis model, not the unemployment crisis model," said Michael Zallingen,director of homeownership services for the nonprofit Neighborhood HousingServices of Chicago. The Obama program provides financial incentives tomortgage-servicing companies and investors to reduce mortgage-relatedpayments to 31% of monthly income. But many borrowers don't havesufficient income to qualify for a loan modification under the plan. Mr. vanZalingen said roughly 45% of the more than 900 borrowers who sought helpat two recent counseling events would fall into that category even if theirinterest rate were dropped to 2% and their loan was extended to 40 years.Banks are ill equipped to handle the role of landlord for all these properties.Lawyers representing homeowners and lenders agree that lenders do notwant to invest either time or money in maintaining properties — especiallyif the property is still someone's home. Ishmael Amin of the Amin Lawgroup, which represents several major banks in California foreclosurecases, said his lender clients "have been overwhelmed, absolutely overwhelmed." In his firm's cases, 10-15% of banks generally take on roleof landlord and allow tenants to stay. But the rest result in eviction, even ifthe tenants have been paying rent and are able to continue doing so.The number of Southern Californians seeking bankruptcy protection nearlydoubled in 2008 from 2007 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court's seven-countyCalifornia Central District, by far the biggest increase in the nation. Expertsattribute the growth mainly to the mortgage meltdown, which hit theregion's adventuresome borrowers particularly hard. Add soaring creditcard debt and medical expenses, and people who never thought they'd seea bankruptcy courtroom are lining up with petitions in hand . . .Home prices in America have fallen so far that as many as one in fivehouseholds have mortgage debt greater than the value of their homes. Ina few states, borrowers are not liable for the shortfall between an unpaidloan and the resale value of the home it is secured upon. Even whereborrowers are on the hook, lenders often find it too costly to pursue unpaiddebts. So some homeowners may be tempted to default and escape theburden of negative equity. How widespread is this practice? New researchsuggests that one in four mortgage defaults are "strategic" defaults . . .. . . the recent economic crisis has been the "emperor has no clothes"moment for the dismal science. Mathematical models that claim to predicteconomic activity, the crown jewels of the profession, have proven to beof little value in explaining what happens in an economy tossed in stormyseas. These theories were declared to be as unassailable as E = mc2, buthave proven to be spectacular failures and maybe even frauds . . .Inflation is as dead as the Wicked Witch of the West in a waterfall. Theconsumer price index has actually fallen 1.3% in the past 12 months. Sowhy is everyone so worried about soaring prices? In a word: debt. Thegovernment owes the world $11.4 trillion — $37,000 for every person inthe U.S. In the next fiscal year, the government will add $1.8 trillion to thedeficit. The government could simply print more dollars to pay off ourdebts with cheap currency — a tempting but inflationary solution. "I keep saying to these [high-end] sellers, do you really have to sell rightnow?" said Michael Briggs, vice president of professional development atMcEnearney Associates, a local real estate brokerage. "It's not hopeless,but it may be more difficult to sell than anyone ever imagined, and none ofthese regions are immune." The toughest challenge is for sellers in outlyingsuburbs, he said. In Howard County, three out of 130 high-end homes forsale went under contract from mid-May to mid-June, said Briggs . . .The hangover from the last three presidential terms, but especially the lasttwo, has taken the American economy down the rabbit hole, with theinternational monetary system begging for mercy while hitched to its off-the-ralls crazy train. But the ride has stopped, and some countries yokedto America's currency, and therefore its cratering empire, don't want toget back on. Namely, Brazil, Russia, India and China, loosely termed BRICby Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who is not alone in predicting thefour countries' ascendant power, as the United States and the Eurozonefade into the 20th century. With Brazil and Russia lording over a large shareof what's left of the planet's natural gas & oil, and China and India providinga titanic labor force rivaling the intelligence, productivity andregimentationof workers anywhere outside their borders, BRIC is in thehouse, big time. ___________________________________________________________________
Peak Oil, Energy Issues:
The U.S. oil and gas industry's costs of finding resources rose 35 percentlast year amid the wild rise and fall in commodity prices, an Ernst & Youngstudy released Thursday showed. The three-year average cost per barrelof oil equivalent, excluding acquisitions of proved reserves, was $27.22. Butin 2008 that spiked to $51.96. "This validates that finding oil and gasreserves is very, very expensive," said Marcela Donadio, oil and gas sectorleader for the Americas. She noted that cost also demonstrates why somecompanies have delayed final investment decisions on costly expansions ornew projects such as those in Canada's oil sands or deep-water explorationWe have been conditioned throughout the oil age to count our supply ofenergy by the barrel. And over the first half of oil's production curve that'sbeen a fair and accurate way of doing it. But as we go through the toppingof the curve, things are going to change drastically. There are two bigfactors that will be doing this and both are little appreciated. The first isnet exports. You have to consider that, post peak, the global productiondecline rate must be modified by the rising internal consumption rate bythe growing economies of oil producing nations. A rising oil price enrichesthe producing economies and creates growing oil demand, cutting theamount of oil they put on the market for the importing nations. This hasbeen modeled by Jeffrey Brown and known as the Export Land Model (ELM).___________________________________________________________________
Preparation and Relocalization:
. . . there's the Institute of Urban Homesteading, the school Ruby foundedto teach disconnected city folk the ways of a more agrarian, self-sufficient,less-frantic lifestyle. Started in March with a small faculty, the instituteoffers classes in gardening, canning, and making wine, chocolate, cheese,yogurt, lotions, and salves — plus arts and crafts, massage and bodywork,and herbalism. She also plans to add home-improvement skills, such as installing a sink, changing a light fixture, and setting tile. So far, it has beena hit. Several of the classes — which cost between $25 and $50 dependingon one's income — filled up, and twice she had to add extra sessions tomeet demand. "It's not the next big technology," she said, pondering thesuccess of the school, which she publicized through fliers, e-mail blasts,and posts on community sites like Tribe.net. "In its simplicity, I think itgives a lot of joy. There's not a lot in our culture that supports us actuallyslowing down and enjoying those little things, but I think that's changing.The Millennial generation, or Gen Y, ranges from people in their 20s tothose still in grade school. But what they all have in common is theknowledge the recession has shattered the world they thought they knew. ____________________________________________________________
Best of the LATOC Archives:
These people were baited out here to invest in worthless land, which raisedthe overall value of local real estate. That, in turn, resulted in instantpayoffs for the developers, outrageous executive pay for bank executives,and further profits for banks from various mortgage-backed securitiesschemes. But with all the obscene, in-your-face money-making going on,the poor saps that enabled it all got their investment taken away fromthem and watched it being sold off to their future landlords at half theprice. It was a scam of proportions too massive to think about withoutregressing to some sort of primal state of vicious, random violence . . .The enormities of Wall Street today are a little like those of the FrenchAncien Régime at Versailles. If America encounters the sort of disruptionsof food and energy supplies that are brewing on the horizon, and [if]unemployment keeps arcing up its current trajectory, civil uproars couldfollow. Readers think I joke about the Hamptons going up in flames. But theantics of the bankers, hedge funders, and the CEOs are liable to attractmurderous attention as the public mood moves from sour to wrathful.____________________________________________________________
Generally Interesting Stuff I've Come Across:
Editor's Note: it is generally acknowledged that "grain banks" in early civilizations went on to become the first banks as we currently understand them. The people who were charged with managing the grain banks went on to become the first organized relgious authorities as well as the first bankers as banking and religion are both based in the idea of having faith in the future. In Sumeria, the grain-bankers decided they wanted to maximize their wealth so they switched from using barley as a means of exchange to using silver coins as silver coins did not go bad. That severed the connection between those who understood how to best manage the physical energy systems (the farmers) and those who understood how to best manipulate the symbols used to represent the physical-energy (the bankers). The bankers were convinced that, with enough manipulation of their symbols, they could revive the failing Sumerian economy but of course this notion was not grounded in an understanding of the physical energy systems that the symobls represented.. If this sort of stuff is of interest to you, check out the article "A Brief History of Money" From the Economist:
Dr Kuijt and Dr Finlayson have been excavating a site called near the Dead Sea. They have uncovered evidence that sophisticated ways of storing grain had been developed well before cereals were actually domesticated.The discoveries the two researchers describe appear to be small granaries,about three metres across and three high. They are made of mud, in somecases reinforced by stone. But, being over 11,000 years old, they predatethe domestication of cereals in the Middle East by a millennium. Instead,they seem to have been used to store wild barley and wild oats.. . . early white observers would make the same essential point: It was theinfernal, incessant playfulness of these people that made them so weird.Whites looked at North America as a howling wilderness that had to bequickly and drastically improved if its potential wealth was to be developed.Indians saw it as wealth in place, a providentially created storehouse.Food, shelter and clothing did not, of course, fall on the Indians from thesky. They worked in their fashion to get what they wanted, but generallythey did not have to labor in the imperative, unremitting way the whitesdid. In consequence they had a lot more disposable time on their hands. Afew more advanced white thinkers (Benjamin Franklin for one) found therewere certain admirable aspects to the Indian ways. For example, it wasoccasionally noted that most Indians lived as only the richest and mostpowerful whites did, which is to say, in pursuit of their pleasures. However,the mainstream view was that the native Americans were lazy louts . . .Abraham Gesner is hardly a household name, but this country-doctor-turned-geologist in Nova Scotia was the first person to figure out how totransform the raw sludge of fossil remains into kerosene and other fuels.He effectively laid the foundation for the modern petroleum industry butsteadfastly refused to take full credit for his discoveries . . . Gesner is butone of the fascinating characters Gavin Weightman brings to life in "TheIndustrial Revolutionaries," his engaging survey of the countless men andwomen who wedded technological innovation to capitalist profit or nationalist agenda, and in the process helped usher in the modern era. 
I recommend the following books from Amazon:
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LATOC readers bought the following at Amazon:
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