The Petrodollar Era – What is the Endgame?

After World War II, a new international monetary system called Bretton Woods was created. Bretton Woods established three main things: (1) the U.S. dollar was to be an international reserve currency, (2) the U.S. dollar would be backed by gold at a price of $35 per ounce, and (3) any country could exchange dollars for […]

US Murder Machine Now Under Competent Management

Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States is now all but certain. In order to have any chance of successfully advancing his legal narrative of electoral shenanigans President Trump would have to both (A) really want to remain president and (B) have the backing of sufficiently large power structures, neither of […]

US sells oil seized from Iran to Venezuela for $40 million

The United States said Thursday that it had sold Iranian oil seized on its way to Venezuela for more than $40 million. Washington announced in August that it had confiscated 1.1 million barrels of petroleum from four tankers en route between the two countries, which are both under US sanctions. “We estimate that in excess […]

We need a Green New Deal without growth

Robert Pollin and Noam Chomsky have a new book out, Climate Crisis and the Green New Deal. It’s an important contribution to the emerging GND literature, from two thinkers I respect.  But in recent interviews, when Pollin has been asked about degrowth, he has responded with claims that are factually incorrect and, I think, intentionally […]

No Matter Who Wins

Modern elections—despite their social and political importance—have become more like sporting events than referendums around ideas. We so intensely identify with our partisan tribe, that we focus on the slogans, the rooting against the ‘other guy’ and other us-vs-them dynamics, and often lose sight of the issues, the context, and how ‘winning’ for our country […]

The world holds its breath for U.S. election outcome

A day after Americans voted in a bitterly contested election, the rest of the world was none the wiser on Wednesday, with millions of votes still to count, the race too close to call and a mounting risk of days or even weeks of legal uncertainty. A combination picture shows U.S. President Donald Trump pumping […]

The Green New Deal transition

“Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands” —    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1841 The Green New Deal (GND) and similar climate proposals envision a transition to a zero-emissions energy economy in the coming two to three decades. These are clearly ideas whose time has come: recent polls show that almost 70% of 2020 voters […]

Biden’s Plans Regarding Energy Are Simply Not Doable

Joe Biden’s climate and energy plans mandate a carbon-free generation sector by 2035. Since new nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration technologies are not economically competitive, subsidized wind and solar power would have to make up the share from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) that currently make up 62 percent of the generation […]

Chris Martenson: We Are Pawns In A Bigger Game Than We Realize

  “I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others…. Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well.”  ~ Sherlock Holmes – The Adventures of Silver Blaze Is it possible to make sense out of nonsense? So much these days is an incoherent […]

Kuntler: Going Full Orwell

Oscar Wilde observed that “life imitates art,” and there they were: the three grand poohbahs of social media, stone-facing the Senate Homeland Security Committee on their zoom screens like a trio of James Bond villains — Jack “Twitter” Dorsey, complete with sinister nose-ring and necromancer’s beard, Mark “Facebook” Zuckerberg, pasty and blank as a knish, […]

The Yellow Peril: Propaganda and the Pandemic

  The idea of the “Yellow Peril” about China was once a common way of thinking. Here I am illustrating how bad could that be from a short story by Jack London. Given the current situation, I wouldn’t bet that this kind of attitude couldn’t return, together with proposals for wiping out the Chinese population […]

Biden: “I would transition away from the oil industry”

In the final presidential debate, Joe Biden pledges to gradually transition the country from oil to renewable energy on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050. (Associated Press) Democrat Joe Biden’s remark that he would “transition” away from oil in the U.S. in favor of renewable energy drew quick attention Thursday night from President Donald […]

Not transitioning away from fossil fuels will kill the economy — and our planet. Who wants to tell right-wing media?

During last night’s final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the former vice president suggested that to combat climate change we must ultimately move away from fossil fuels. The right-wing media latched onto his plan to “transition” to a clean energy economy as proof that Biden will eliminate oil and gas jobs and […]

Mexico and the US: Whose Oil?

A quick glance back at Mexico’s history, the government acting to protect its sovereignty by nationalizing oil (President Lázaro Cárdenas, 1938), suffices to explain the symbolic role of oil in Mexico. Britain severed relations. Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, realizing the importance of Mexico in times of crisis, vowed to keep good relations. The current president […]

Fossil fuels are bridge to a carbon-free world

Pres. Trump and Joe Biden clashed vigorously over climate change and fossil fuels in the presidential debate Thursday evening. Trump defended the oil and gas industries, while Biden said he would phase out fossil fuels. In reality, validity exists in both of their positions. I firmly believe that fossil fuels will, in fact, be phased […]

Kunstler: Bleeding Out

“The difference between you and me,” Mr. Trump said to the ever more ghostly Joe Biden, fading mentally late in the action on the debate stage, “is that I’m not a politician and you are, and you’re a crooked politician.” Millions watching this spectacle might not have noticed, due to the media’s near-complete blackout of […]

The militarization of the Western Empire: How the COVID pandemic accelerated the process

  Donald Trump may not have been not such a warlike emperor as previous Western Emperors have been (and probably will be). But, even assuming that Trump is trying to avoid wars, he cannot oppose the militarization trends of the Western economy that was boosted by the COVID-19 epidemics.    History repeats itself – oh, […]

What point in growth?

In a capitalist society, economic growth is all important.  Why?  Because the underlying force in all societies is the growth of population.  With rare exceptions, mankind has not found a solution to stopping population growth.  (Think of China, which tried to encourage its people to have only one child.  This did not work).  If population […]

Kunstler: Tomorrow, Come Here Tomorrow….

The Coen Brothers must be writing Nancy Pelosi’s script now, a kind of Macbeth update set in a swampy Potomac lowland at Halloween time: Madam Speaker rides her fabled scepter up in the night sky, around the capitol dome, across the moon’s laughing face, to the White House, trailing vapors of hatred and malice as […]

Kamala Harris Gets a Fracking Education

Kamala Harris in Wednesday’s debate declared that Joe Biden’s Administration would make the U.S. “carbon neutral” by 2035—a more ambitious goal than even California has set—while at the same time disavowing plans to ban fracking for natural gas. We look forward to Mr. Biden explaining this apparent contradiction in the next debate, if there is […]

Why The Elections Aren’t Moving Oil Prices

The U.S. elections are less than a month away, and the oil market cannot seem to make up its mind whether it prefers a Biden or Trump presidency. Democratic candidate Joe Biden is ostensibly bearish for the oil markets since he has not only pledged to steer the U.S. to a net-zero carbon emissions status […]

Oil’s demise will be more gradual than many imagine: Daniel Yergin on his new book — podcast

The rise of fracking technology changed America’s position in the world because it went from a country that imported most of its oil to a country that produces energy. In his latest book, “The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations,” Daniel Yergin, a pulitzer prize-winning analyst tracks the ramifications of this shift. […]

Facing liquidity crisis, Iraq presses for more emergency borrowing

The Iraqi government is expected to send a controversial new emergency finance bill to parliament this week in a last-ditch attempt to pay its bills in the absence of a 2020 budget, amidst a financial crisis, pandemic, and bloated public sector workforce. The proposed law is supposed to act as a stop-gap measure after the […]

Saudi Arabia Pegs Budget to Oil Staying Around $50 Until 2023

Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry seems to think that oil prices will stay around $50 a barrel for at least the next three years. That’s according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s analysis of the kingdom’s pre-budget statement released on Sept. 30. “Using our own estimates for the breakdown of government revenues, we calculate that the numbers […]

System Fail #3: The Ballot & The Bullet

In this episode we look at the continuing racial tensions in the United States, political violence in Kenosha and Portland, and the effect this is all having on the upcoming US election. We then shift our attention to the uprising in Belarus, and chat with Minsk-based anarchist, “Maria”.

Truth Is The First Casualty In Cold War

Governments make evidence-free claims which the mass media report uncritically, with ordinary citizens expected to either prove them wrong or shut up and believe. The burden of proof is fallaciously placed on members of the public and tiny indie media outlets with no resources to disprove the claims, instead of on massive news media outlets […]

Kunstler: Caution Low-flying Black Swans

The New York Times almost wet its panties breaking the pre-dawn news that the president has tested positive for coronavirus. By the end of day, Democrats across the land — or, at least, up and down the east and west coasts — will be gathering unto Santeria shrines, lighting MAGA hats on fire, sacrificing chickens, […]

Kunstler: Seeing Through Pea Soup

Just as Regan, the possessed tweenager in the horror movie classic, The Exorcist, vomited streams of green sludge at Father Merrin in the final hours of her extremis, so, in the final weeks of election 2020, the possessed US news media will be boofing “bombshells” against its loathed and detested adversary, the president who attempted […]

The ‘big three’ now rule the global energy market, says Daniel Yergin

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping “are cooking something up—and I think it goes beyond blinis,” says the Pulitzer Prize-winning energy expert Daniel Yergin, referring to the time when the two leaders took a break from an economic forum in Vladivostok to make the Russian pancakes. The balance of power in the […]

Gavin Newsom’s Energy Hubris Relates Directly To “Peak Oil”

On the hood of an electric car, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs an executive order requiring all … [+] new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035 after a press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, at Cal Expo in Sacramento. (Daniel Kim/The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool)   Three big […]

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