Evidence of our Passing

The past two weekends Caleb and I have been engaged in a massive fencing project, rebuilding three hundred yards of woodland fence. Some of the fence line dates back twenty years and some perhaps as old as forty. Condition of the barbed wire, size of trees that have grown up in the old fence line, […]

An age of horrors — and hope

FOR A town whose first claim to fame was as a place where people went to die — it was known for years for its tuberculosis sanatoriums — the Swiss mountain town of Davos can be a surprisingly optimistic place. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which I’ve been privileged to attend for […]

What is Anarcho-Capitalism?

This week we examine the contradictory notion of “Anarcho-Capitalism” and dismantle this illogical concept by illustrating current examples of why free markets have nothing to do with freedom.

Kunstler: The Agonies of Sensible People

Much as many people-who-ought-to-know-better have been enjoying the disruptive antics of Donald Trump, surely other cohorts and coteries have endured dark nights of the soul as they witness the 2016 election spin into a perfect storm of rebellion, corruption, and idiocy. Imagine the scenes in Michael Bloomberg’s drawing room the past eight months, the agonies […]

Pentagon to increase number of US troops in Iraq

The US plans to increase the number of troops in Iraq as it seeks to “accelerate” its campaign to “crush” Islamic State in the region, the Pentagon chief said. Ash Carter met with his French partner seeking ways to bring Arab states “in the game,” too. Aside from his bilateral meeting with his counterpart and […]

How low oil prices went from blessing to curse

There was a time, and it was not so long ago, that western economies would enthusiastically welcome a sharp drop in oil prices. This no longer seems be the case. With oil prices almost halving in the last 12 months – and falling even more in the last 15 months in one of the largest […]

Iran Makes First Post-Sanctions Sale of Oil to Europe

Greece’s largest refinery Hellenic Petroleum has agreed to buy oil from the National Iranian Oil Co., marking the first sale of Iranian crude to a European country since the lifting of trade sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation. Hellenic Petroleum said late Friday that the two sides have “reached a long-term agreement,” with deliveries to start […]

The environmental consequences of cheap oil

The economic effects of plunging oil prices is a bad news/good news story. The bad news is that world stocks are taking a beating, especially those of energy companies, with crude oil selling for less than $30 a barrel. The good news is that gas is cheaper at the pump: The national average for a gallon […]

Volatility, oil and stock markets

“Down” is such a downer word. That’s why when prices fall for practically anything Wall Street wants to sell you, Wall Streeters talk about volatility instead. Volatility allows for the possibility that prices will recover soon and go to new highs. Any setback is just temporary. The market turbulence, it seems, is merely designed by […]

Iran’s Crude May Be Just another Drop in the Barrel

The world is awash in crude and overwhelming dwindling consumer demand. And just this week, the Western world responded by unleashing half a million barrels every day of Iranian oil, threatening to crush dismal commodities prices to stupefying lows. Or so many theories go. But the energy sector in 2016 is in a different world […]

A Closer Look at OPEC

Taking a closer look at OPEC. All OPEC and price data below is through December. All production data is in thousand barrels per day. Iran and Libya have had serious political disruptions in their production numbers. Simply adding them to the OPEC numbers distorts the picture. To try to figure out what has been happening […]

Oil skyrockets 23% in 48 hours, tops $32

It’s been an absolutely insane few days for crude oil, the most closely-watched commodity on the planet. Oil prices spiked 9% — the biggest daily jump since August — to close at $32.19 a barrel on Friday. It represents a dramatic rebound from Wednesday. Crude crashed to $26.19 a barrel Wednesday, the lowest level since […]

The Secret Behind The Next Global Crash

The World Economic Forum in Davos is submerged by a tsunami of denials, and even non-denial denials, stating there won’t be a follow-up to the Crash of 2008. Yet there will be. And the stage is already set for it. Selected Persian Gulf traders, and that includes Westerners working in the Gulf confirm that Saudi Arabia is […]

Oil enters irrational territory

World oil markets quietly breached an important barrier as they crashed nearly 30 percent to below $30 a barrel in the opening weeks of 2016, crossing the fuzzy line separating a rational response to fundamentals from an irrational fear where the only way forward is down, down, down. Animal spirits have taken over the futures […]

We ran out of oil in 2011. You didn’t know that?

A prediction from 1976: “We need to have, uh, a realization that we’ve got about 35 years worth of oil left in the whole world. We’re gonna run out of oil.” That scientific certainty was from candidate Jimmy Carter during the 1976 Presidential Debate. Check it out for yourself: Here is some math: 1976 – […]

Saudi Arabia’s Secret Holdings of U.S. Debt Are Suddenly a Big Deal

Hiding data is “mind-boggling,” says former Treasury official Saudi burns through $100 billion of reserves as strains emerge It’s a secret of the vast U.S. Treasury market, a holdover from an age of oil shortages and mighty petrodollars: Just how much of America’s debt does Saudi Arabia own? But now that question — unanswered since […]

Activists Deliver Plan for Just Transition to EPA Offices

Activists deliver the Our Power Plan to the EPA’s regional office in San Francisco on January 19. (Facebook/CEJA) Yesterday, activists at each of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 10 regional offices issued their own corrective on the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. Days before the end of the federal comment period, the Climate Justice Alliance’s Our […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Return of the Hydrino

For several years, I have been tracking the progress of company run by Randell Mills up in Cranbury, New Jersey that has been working to develop a new source of energy that could replace all other sources of energy currently in use. Mills, his associates, and outsider verifiers say he has discovered a lower energy […]

The Birth Of The PetroYuan

Give me that!!   It belongs to the Chinese now! h/t @FedPorn As we previously detailed,  two topics we’ve deemed critically important to a thorough understanding of both global finance and the shifting geopolitical landscape are the death of the petrodollar and the idea of yuan hegemony.  In November 2014, in “How The Petrodollar Quietly […]

“Death Knell” For Peak Oil? Not So Fast!

It is easy to understand why some folks, including the nattering nabobs of the mainstream media, might somehow mistake the current glut of oil for evidence that Peak Oil is fiction or never existed at all. This would be a tragic error but as we see in today’s Denver Post editorial (‘The Death Knell for […]

Demand is dying as technology improves

The tumble in the oil price from the $US110 a barrel it was trading at until 18 months ago down to $US30 and heading lower this week demolishes the “peak oil hypothesis” — the theory that the exploitation of the earth’s finite oil reserves is approaching the maximum output that is physically possible beyond which […]

Davos Participants Seek Out ‘Stardust’ Moments

 At the World Economic Forum here, heads of state, billionaire investors and corporate chiefs meet to discuss the state of politics and regulation, and tackle the biggest challenges facing societies globally. This year, they are sending warning signals about the state of the markets. But ask some of the men and women at Davos whether the forum […]

Dancing on the grave of “peak oil” – will it stay buried?

In my November 2007 column, Peak Oil Again?, when oil prices had reached $100 per barrel, I concluded, “Some day peak oil production will be reached, but most oil reserve estimates suggest that there are good reasons to doubt that that day is now at hand.” And that was before fracking and horizontal drilling had […]

Its going down magazine

The idea for It’s Going Down started over a year ago and developed out of conversations about the need for a high quality news site that was accessible to the public and was also a tool and resource for those already involved in revolutionary social struggles. Launched in the summer of 2015, we’re happy to […]

What news is good news for oil in 2016?

Welcome to the first version of The Oil Big Five for 2016, when we round up some of the biggest news and trends from the global oil industry and think to ourselves: Wow, things sure have changed since our first post. But then, that’s oil for you: Things are always changing, and yet some things […]

When Trucks Stop Running, So Does Civilization. Energy and the Future of Transportation.

When Trucks Stop Running, So Does Civilization. Energy and the Future of Transportation. January 16, 2016 by Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Also see: When Trucks Stop Running: Table of Contents, Preface, References at www.energyskeptic.com Virtually everything in our homes, everything in our stores, got there on a truck. Prior to that, 90 percent of those items […]

BC Govt rejects Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion

Just heard on CBC that BC Govt has formally pulled support from Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion to the west coast (through Vancouver). Northern Gataeway is now dead in the water. No to Keystone XL And now Kinder Morgan expansion looks more than shaky. theglobeandmail.com

Why the Oil Industry Should Kill Itself

Now that oil prices have settled into a long-term range of $30-50 per barrel (as described here a year ago), energy users everywhere are enjoying an annual income boost worth more than $2 trillion. The net result will almost certainly accelerate global growth, because the beneficiaries of this enormous income redistribution are mostly lower- and […]

Saudi Increasing Domestic Oil Costs

As Saudi increases domestic Costs, are we going to be seeing an ‘Arab Spring’ event in Saudi ? msn.com

Recession in Chinese Economy & Its Effect

China economy is the 2nd largest economy in the world; yes the discussion is about the world economy, not local Chinese economy, not Asian economy, but the global economy. When you talk about the global economy you have big players, take a look at the top ten players across the world. educba.com

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