May 11, Austin TX: Making Sense of Financial Crisis in Era of Peak Oil

Peak Oil and the collapse of global Ponzi finance are a “perfect storm” of converging phenomena that threaten to sink our age of prosperity through wealth destruction, social discontent, and global conflict. The consequences for unprepared individuals and families could be dire. At her presentation, which will be free and open to the public, Foss will describe how our current financial system is an unsustainable credit bubble grounded in “Ponzi dynamics,” or the logic of the pyramid scheme. She warns that most people are woefully unprepared to face the consequences of the devastating deflation that is now unfolding. What makes this crisis different from past financial calamities? Foss will argue that this one has developed in the context of the fossil fuel age, which will prove to be a relatively brief period of human history. We have already seen oil reach a global production peak, and other fossil fuels are not far behind, she says. While there is still plenty of fossil fuel in the ground, production will fall, meaning that there will be less and less energy available to power the economy. Societies have gone through boom and bust cycles before – for example, Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble and the “Real” Great Depression of the 1870s – but most people in the Western world today will face this crisis without the knowledge or means to provide the basics of their own survival. Our industrial system has nearly destroyed the individual capacity for self-reliance. Those who take steps now to prepare stand a much better chance to thrive in a changing world. Young people in particular must develop new skills as the world’s populace struggles to cope with the twin threats of Peak Oil and the collapse of Ponzi finance. Foss predicts that the era of cheap and abundant fossil energy will come to an end in this century, and consequences as profound for modern civilization as those that were faced during the end of the Roman Empire. It is therefore critical that individuals and families take control of their own destinies and begin to prepare for “A Century of Challenges.”

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