Canadian economist predicts a smaller future

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, by Jeff Rubin

The short answer to the question implied by the title of this new book by former CIBC economist Jeff Rubin is that oil scarcity inevitably leads to higher transportation costs, curtailing global trade and travel. As we all learn to live local, the world is going to seem smaller.

The argument is based largely on the so-called “peak oil” theory, which in its most basic form just says that since oil is a non-renewable resource, sooner or later we are going to start running out. This drives the price of oil up — though it can still drop, temporarily, in a recession — and since the global economy runs on oil we are all going to feel the pinch.

Of course, some of us are going to feel it more than others.

The impact of global climate change is going to be felt, indeed is already being felt, more severely in the southern hemisphere and the nations of the developing world. The economic impact of peak oil on the global economy will follow the same course.

“When the developed world starts to tighten its belt, the economies of the developing world gets strangled,” Rubin writes. “As our world becomes smaller, their world becomes poorer.”

GuelphMercury.com