The Instability Express | James Howard Kunstler

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Nov. 17, 2014

The mentally-challenged kibitzers “out there” — in the hills and hollows of the commentary universe, cable news, the blogosphere, and the pathetic vestige of newspaperdom — are all jumping up and down in a rapture over cheap gasoline prices.

Overlay on this picture the fairy tale of coming U.S. energy independence, stir in the approach of winter in the North Dakota shale oil fields, put an early November polar vortex cherry on top, and you have quite a recipe for smashed expectations.

Plummeting oil prices are a symptom of terrible mounting instabilities in the world. After years of stagnation, complacency, and official pretense, the linked matrix of systems we depend on for running our techno-industrial society is shaking itself to pieces. American officials either don’t understand what they’re seeing, or don’t want you to know what they see. The tensions between energy, money, and economy have entered a new phase of destructive unwind.

The global economy has caught the equivalent of financial Ebola: deflation, which is the recognition that debts can’t be repaid, obligations can’t be met, and contracts won’t be honored. Credit evaporates and actual business declines steeply as a result of all those things. Who wants to send a cargo ship of aluminum ore to Guangzhou if nobody shows up at the dock with a certified check to pay for it? Financial Ebola means that the connective tissues of trade start to dissolve, and pretty soon blood starts dribbling out of national economies.

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http://worldnewstrust.com/the-instability-express-james-howard-kunstler

[greatlaurel]

1. An interesting analysis of the drop in fuel prices. It is very good for regular folks short term.

Last edited Sun Nov 23, 2014, 06:46 PM - Edit history (1)

The long term implications are not pleasant.

Thanks for posting.

[Tace]

2. greatlaurel, Thanks To You

Thanks for the comment. Kunstler can come off bitter and kinda' kooky sometimes, but I always check in with his weekly blog. --Tace