I am writing this and I don’t have any media on. I wanted to get this out before I let any of today in (since most of these stories are backed up from the weekend or earlier). I expect huge losses to begin rolling in now that O is seated. Maybe give it a few weeks but they will start piling up. My guess is more than a few notable retailers will go too. And keep your eye peeled for more and more rich guy suicides. It seems that once or twice a week I see a story about a rich guy who lost a bundle and couldn’t handle it so he offs himself. This may be as good a way as any to project the future of the economy.

Here is John Micheal Greer interviewed last year by peak moment that I thought was interesting:

American taxes and labor are too expensive to build anything

This is ridiculous. If you give business assholes an opportunity to whine, they will seize on it. I don’t think there should be any corporate taxes at all, so I agree with that part of it. But I am sure you can find plenty of qualified people to build whatever you want them to build if you treat them half way decent and pay them enough to survive.

Hedge fund insiders turn into doomers

At least one insider getting ready for impending doom:

During the final months of 2008, as the financial markets imploded, talk on trading desks turned to food and water stockpiles, generators, guns, and high-speed inflatable boats. “The system really was about six hours from failing,” says Gene Lange, a manager at a midtown hedge fund, referring to the week in September when Lehman went bust and AIG had to be bailed out. “When you think about how close we were to the precipice, I don’t think it necessarily makes a guy crazy to prepare for the potential worst-case scenario.”

Preparations, in Lange’s case, include a storeroom in his basement in New Jersey stacked high with enough food, water, diapers, and other necessities to last his family six months; a biometric safe to hold his guns; and a 1985 ex-military Chevy K5 Blazer that runs on diesel and is currently being retrofitted for off-road travel. He has also entertained the idea of putting an inflatable speedboat in a storage unit on the West Side, so he could get off the island quickly, and is currently considering purchasing a remote farm where he could hunker down. “If there’s a financial-system breakdown, it could take a year to reset the system, and in that time, what’s going to happen?” asks Lange. If New York turns into a scene out of I Am Legend, he wants to be ready.

We’re Screwed, figure out how you can survive

Mexico and Pakistan are in danger

This is a 25 year forecast, I don’t think you need to go that far out for Mexico to deteriorate. Pakistan is going to be worth watching…

$200 Oil

The idea here, which I agree with is once demand comes around the price will spike again once the gluts get eaten through.

US to default on debt

A somewhat simple forum post, but kind of cool that there are people out there thinking like this.

Now what?

That’s what. Actually I say make friends with people that know something valuable, or hire them if you are rich. Otherwise try to keep possibilities open, don’t spend too much time, energy, money over-specializing in something that is frivolous.

Big 3 will need help to go electric

Never mind that the vast majority of Americans are not interested in electric cars, Detroit needs money to build them. I hope gas hits 79 cents in the spring or fall and GM finally creeps to a halt and gets sold off.

Here is an interesting quote not directly related to the main thrust of the story (emphasis added):

“There’s an inherent braking mechanism on our economy that’s tied to oil and will limit our economic growth,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache. “This is one of the reasons we’re bullish on electrification of the industry.”

Visualizing government debt

This is a cool (and very pretty) expression of government debt.

Stewart Udall’s letter to his grandchildren

I call Stewart’s generation the worst generation because they took the temporary affluence of post WWII and pissed it away on car culture and suburban expansion. Here is one of the better members of the worst generation, apologizing:

Operating on the assumption that energy would be both cheap and superabundant, I admit, led my generation to make misjudgments that have come back and now haunt and perplex your generation. We designed cities, buildings, and a national system of transportation that were inefficient and extravagant. Now, the paramount task of your generation will be to correct those mistakes with an efficient infrastructure that respects the limitations of our environment to keep up with damages we are causing.

Peak Phosphorus

Our ability to provide enough food to feed the human population is dependent on the use of artificial fertilizers, which contain nitrogen and phosphorus. While nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere, phosphorus is mined at just a handful of locations worldwide.

The natural resources are limited and are being depleted.

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