Probably should have posted this at the nest, but...
"Bill Clinton, who was what passed for a liberal at the time, actually managed to improve the country's debt status, a status that apparently threatened the Republicans who quickly turned it around under George W. Bush, who had practiced for presidential failure by failing in the oil industry and other professions."
Oh, and I Ran was a given. Easy to see if you play computer strategy games.
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Yep, You're on Your Own
Aren't you sorry you didn't prepare when you had the chance?
Okay, so you had the opportunity and you blew it. If you're reading this website, there's a good chance we've already peaked and you're wondering how to deal with it.
What's the it we have to deal with? Well, we prepared this website before things had actually fallen apart so that this information would be available when they had. But we knew it was likely that one or more important areas affecting our lives were about to "peak". Chances are, by the time you read this, most or all of them did.
Peak Economy
The economy, for example. Almost everyone knew, or at least sensed, that it was built on a house of cards, so it shouldn't have been too surprising when it peaked and started going downhill. Real fast. The financial markets, including stocks and bonds (yes, they both went down). Employment. Automobile sales. Everything sales. The only thing that didn't go down was savings, because almost no one had any to begin with.
Peak Oil
And why did the economy peak? Because everything propping it up was about to peak. Oil, for example. Worldwide oil production was at or near peak, meaning the planet—yes, even Saudi Arabia—would be producing less and less oil at a time when more and more was needed.
Oil was essential to everything on the planet—transportation, heating, agriculture, electricity, manufacturing, plastics. The planetary society demanded increasing amounts every day, particularly the industrialized societies (led by the "the American Way of Life is non-negotiable" United States) and the industrializing countries, such as India and China with their combined 2.2 billion people.
If you'd like to know more about Peak Oil, not that it matters since everything has already fallen apart, just visit the Peak Oil metadirectory Dry Dipstick.
Peak Housing Bubble
More than likely, by now the housing bubble has peaked, too. Particularly on the East and West coasts of the United States where it was most severe, and most dramatically in California, Las Vegas and Florida, where prices rose to obscene heights, supported by then-cheap oil.
You might be one who had believed the real estate experts when they said there was no such thing as a "housing bubble" and that your home's value was safe because in the long run real estate always increases in value. (As economist John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead")
People in Texas believed that about real estate, too. In 1985. Then in 1986 the Texas housing bubble burst. Families unable to sell or avoid foreclosure simply left their house keys on the kitchen counter and walked away from their homes.
Texans weren't as surprised this time. Most everyone else was.
Peak National Debt
Despite wishful thinking in Congress and the White House, it was clear that the federal debt had to hit an upper limit at some point, and that that point wasn't far away. The trade deficit, particularly with China as Americans funneled their money through Wal-Mart to Chinese companies, undermined the economy as much as the war in Iraq and the lowering of taxes for Bush's super-rich supporters.
You might have even believed the government when they said not to worry about the massive, impossible-to-repay debt. After all, would the government lie to its own people? Still asking that question?
Peak Dollar
The U.S. dollar had already peaked some time earlier, as was clear by the rise in the value of the euro compared to the dollar. Two things kept the dollar's value from being even lower. Re-investment into U.S. treasury bills with money from the trade imbalance by China and Japan (which gave the United States the money to keep buying from those countries and going further into debt); and the fact that the sale of oil worldwide was priced in dollars.
The petrodollar, however, was not to last. One of the major reasons that the U.S. had attacked Iraq in 2003 was that Saddam Hussein had begun pricing Iraq's oil in euros rather than dollars. (One of the first acts of the American occupation of Iraq was to switch Iraqi oil sales back to dollars.) When the Iranians began selling their oil for petroeuros in March 2006 (one of the main reasons the Bush administration wanted to attack them)—and the Chinese and others decided they could not longer afford to prop up the dollar— that currency started its rapid collapse. You're living with the result.
Peak Empire
After World War II, the United States became the uncontested leader of, not just the "free world", but the entire world. It had the most powerful military force, the biggest and healthiest economy, huge natural resources, the world's leading academic and research centers, a manufacturing base second to none, and the conviction that Americans could do anything—and that nothing America did could ever be wrong.
Alas, its time as king of the mountain was brief, peaking roughly from 1950 to 1965, going into an accelerating decline in 1980, and ending up in freefall at the end of the 20th century.
As Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond says in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and in a talk he gave, all societies reach a peak and collapse, and, indeed, "every society commits suicide". The U.S. ascension as ruler of the world had been breathtakingly rapid. Its collapse was equally impressive.
It started with Lyndon Johnson and his escalation of the war in Vietnam. Richard Nixon continued to screw things up in that same country, and by 1980 the U.S. desperately needed a competent, visionary leader. Instead the country got Ronald Reagan, whose vision looked backwards to a fantasy 1910, who engaged in a number of minor military misadventures and through remarkably corrupt incompetence managed to turn the United States from a creditor nation into a debtor nation. It was all downhill from there.
Bill Clinton, who was what passed for a liberal at the time, actually managed to improve the country's debt status, a status that apparently threatened the Republicans who quickly turned it around under George W. Bush, who had practiced for presidential failure by failing in the oil industry and other professions. He succeeded at destroying the economy, all remaining social safety nets, the reputation and well-being of the military, the tattered but till then still-existing prestige of the United States, and a variety of other accomplishments. He did, however, succeed in benefitting a great number of his friends and supporters who, unsurprisingly, tended to be very wealthy and very white.
As in all empires of the past, the country's leadership declined in vision, integrity and intellectual capability until the country of Washington, Adams and Jefferson finally staggered to a sad end under the rule of Bush the Befuddled, certainly the least competent and most intellectually deficient of any president in the past 100 years, if not the country's entire history. Thus do empires depart the stage.
Peak Climate Change
Permafrost melting in Canada and Siberia. Antarctic ice sheets breaking up. Hurricanes and typhoons increasing in strength and frequency. Arctic sea ice melting. The Gulf Stream "pump" weakening. Deadly heat waves killing tens of thousands. Dramatically decreased growing seasons worldwide. Island nations on the verge of extinction. In the words of that great poet, B. Dylan, "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you Mister Jones?". Actually, the only people who still say nothing's wrong are outright liars or flat-earthers in total faith-based denial.
It would be nice to be able to say that global warming and climate change have peaked, that Gulf Stream Shutdown isn't going to happen, and that things are going to settle down now. It would also be nice to say that the Easter Bunny is visiting twice this year. Sorry, but there's no peak in sight, and as you've noticed we don't have to wait for peak to suffer the negative effects.
Peak Flu
Well, maybe not flu. It could be SARS or plague or a variety of other diseases. Whatever it was—or might yet be—public health officials and epidemologists around the world had no doubt that a worldwide pandemic was going to strike. Were (are) you ready?
Building up your immune system is probably the best way to prepare. Don't count on your government—particularly the U.S. government—for help. As you may have noticed in the 2005 hurricanes, the government is neither interested in nor capable of looking after its citizens. You're on your own. So we've provided information on home treatment. It's mainly folk wisdom, but so what? What else have you got?
While you...some people...
While you were sucking as much home equity out of your home as possible so you could buy an SUV, get a second home—with boat— on the lake, or take that Caribbean cruise, some people were using their money for other things—or just saving it.
Some of those people, expecting that the price of gasoline would keep rising, bought hybrid or diesel cars; others worked out how they wouldn't need a car at all. They switched jobs, moved to towns where they wouldn't need to commute, or bought bicycles.
While you invested in real estate, they bought gold and silver. While you kept extending the limit on your credit cards, they were paying off debt.
While you bought stuff at Wal-Mart that you didn't need and that wouldn't last more than a year before falling apart, they bought tools and materials that would last for years and help them be more self-sufficient.
While you bought food at upscale markets, they planted their own backyard gardens, or worked with neighbors to create community gardens. Or both.
While you made regular visits to fast-food outlets, they supported local family farms, and made arrangements for ongoing delivery of fresh, healthy food.
You thought the idea of "peaks" was just hype, right? You believed it when "experts" said that "Peak Oil" was a scam perpetrated by the oil companies to raise prices. Or a scam by the Saudis to squeeze as much money as they could out of the West.
You believed Arnold Schwarzenegger when he said the "hydrogen economy" would save us all. And the Wall Street Journal when it said that market forces would take care of everything.
You believed housing prices would go up forever, the stock market would look after you (ignoring uncomfortable memories of the dot.com crash), we'd always have plenty of gas, heating oil, and electricity, and the American colossus would stride the world forever.
So—you screwed up.
So, of course, did the Bush administration, which eventually convinced almost everyone that they were the most corrupt and incompetent administration in this country in the past 100 years—and maybe the country's entire history. And the country wasn't helped by the greed and timidity of both houses—and both sides of the aisle—of Congress.
Few people in real authority took the problem of Peak Oil seriously. Or the federal debt. Or the trade deficit. Or the housing bubble. Or climate change.
Maybe you really did know better. And you were one of those few who really were concerned. But you were also one of those millions of people who were so busy working two or three jobs just to make ends meet that you didn't have time to prepare for anything more than the next day. Sorry, but you're screwed, too. The system didn't serve you too well, did it?
So, lots of things have peaked. The result is that we now have an economy that has crashed; a transportation infrastructure that is falling apart; not enough oil, gas, electricity and energy to support our needs, let alone our desires; critical shortages of food; and huge levels of unemployment. And did we mention the problems with our water supplies?
Not a pretty picture, is it? Oh, well. Time to get on with it. The days when we could prepare are over. Now it's time to deal with the actual problem.
This website should help.
beyondpeak.com |
