[NTBKtrader]

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - David M. Walker sure talks like he's running for office. "This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids," the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin's historic Driskill Hotel. "We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed."

But Walker doesn't want, or need, your vote this November. He already has a job as head of the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.

Basically, that makes Walker the nation's accountant-in-chief. And the accountant-in-chief's professional opinion is that the American public needs to tell Washington it's time to steer the nation off the path to financial ruin.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061028/D8L1OC5G0.html

[grink1tt3n]

One comment from the ASPO is:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')etween now and 2012 increased OPEC spare capacity + NGL + Deep water production could drive oil prices down to $30s or 40s - Mike Rodgers

[AgentR]

This is just a plain ole assessment of what medicare, medicaid, and social security demand. One of course would be bad enough. All three together are just absolutely impossible.

Leave out peak oil, global warming, deficit spending... as far as economics go, they are big goose eggs of irrelevance.

The Demographics CAN NOT support the program as designed; and *ALL* of the possible solutions are disastrous.

Now imagine.. same problem, but tack in Peak Oil induced recessions... you'll get a "nah, can't be.." incredulous look.

Now tack on to that rapidly increasing economic damage from global warming, the panic look gets going, commenting, "no, wait, but but but.."

Now, just to incinerate the corpse where it lies, add in the lifestyle that midrange professional Americans are accustomed to. blank stare.. "Oh".

When faced with that sort of prospect, a set of conditions that every politician out there knows is so far beyond our ability to fix, that talking about it will get your political head chopped off. All you can do is close your eyes, work on making tomorrow tolerable, and just pray you and your family are long done with government service before revenues actually decline.

Tis why I say, if you're under 45, and not in the top 1%; there is no retirement. And if you are in that 1%, you'd be an idiot to retire. Which matches my observation, the top 1% folks want to work less, or do something different; but they go stir crazy about a month after the announced retirement and say f*** this.

[grink1tt3n]

It does look like quite a nasty confluence of events. I believe that, with some hardship, human ingenuity could find a way out of this energy mess.

However, there is a limit to human patience, and I fear that we'll see an overreaction as various nations make a grab for resources.

It's not an energy crisis or climate change that is the most worrying to me. It is the human reaction to those events.

We are a predictive animal; when enough people see where things are going it could get messy.

[grink1tt3n]

Here is another report from the British Treasury:

World economy 'faces ruin' from climate change

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he report, written by the former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern and commissioned by the British Treasury, seeks to overturn conventional wisdom by insisting that fighting climate change will save - not cost - governments money.

...

Britain's chief scientist, Sir David King, said the report indicated "that if we don't take global action … we will be faced with the kind of downturn that has not been seen since the Great Depression and the two world wars".

"If you look at sea level rises alone, and the impact that will have on global economies where cities are becoming inundated by flooding … this will cause the displacement of hundreds of millions of people," he said.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('grink1tt3n', 'S')ir David King, said the report indicated "that if we don't take global action … we will be faced with the kind of downturn that has not been seen since the Great Depression and the two world wars".

[Ludi]

How on earth do they think we can "fight global climate change"? Absurd. We can adapt to it (maybe), but we certainly can't "fight" it.

[bulldozer]

A few Big Cities will be flooded or under water. Manhatten. London.

This will provide a big economic stimulus to build New Iconic Cities!

Assuming all the business and activities they had encompassed was so vital in and of itself.

[Revi]

There is a solution to all of it. When you are in a hole, stop digging! We could all spend less, and use less energy. We are getting a false price signal and feel like none of it will ever run out. The hole is getting bigger and bigger, hence making it harder to climb out. Every person in the US uses 3 gallons of petroleum a day. 2 of those three come from elsewhere. Why don't we live within our means? Use only one gallon per day. We are taking out loans to pay for the other two gallons. The government borrows 1.8 billion dollars a day to keep the whole thing afloat. So that we can drive around in giant cars, or heat a swimming pool, or do any of a thousand things that would be considered ridiculously wasteful in the rest of the world. Why not less?

[Fishman]

This GAO report is going to be hell for the Democrats. (Yes Bush has been financially irresponsible also) Being financially irresponsible, adding programs that we can't afford has been a Democrat specialty. Cutting programs even a few percent, gradually adding a greater tax base will leave no room for additional give away programs, how will those Democrats ever get elected? Becoming more personally responsible will be a neccesity (past preachings of the Republicans)
The GAO report did comment about healthcare, we'll definitely get a socialize care plan (yes that is good from a Democrat point of view) but it won't be anything like our present system. Think British healthcare with less money, longer waits, less subspecialty care, and thank God fewer lawsuits (they jack up healthcare beyond belief)

[RonMN]

Revi said:
There is a solution to all of it. When you are in a hole, stop digging! We could all spend less, and use less energy.

I don't mean this as a bash...but I just don't see that as any help to climate change. If I cut my smoking down from 30 ciggies a day to 27...is that really gonna change the fact that ciggies are bad for me? Hell that's a 10% decrease (far more than most would be willing to cut their energy consumption) and it wouldn't do any good at all (or so minor you would have to term it "insignigicant").

(my opinion).

[Revi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', 'T')his GAO report is going to be hell for the Democrats. (Yes Bush has been financially irresponsible also) Being financially irresponsible, adding programs that we can't afford has been a Democrat specialty. Cutting programs even a few percent, gradually adding a greater tax base will leave no room for additional give away programs, how will those Democrats ever get elected? Becoming more personally responsible will be a neccesity (past preachings of the Republicans)
The GAO report did comment about healthcare, we'll definitely get a socialize care plan (yes that is good from a Democrat point of view) but it won't be anything like our present system. Think British healthcare with less money, longer waits, less subspecialty care, and thank God fewer lawsuits (they jack up healthcare beyond belief)

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', 'T')hink British healthcare with less money, longer waits, less subspecialty care, and thank God fewer lawsuits (they jack up healthcare beyond belief)

[JustinFrankl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('grink1tt3n', 'I')t does look quite a nasty confluence of events. I believe that, with some hardship, human ingenuity could find a way out of this energy mess.

[gego]

The founders of this country considered authorizing the US government to issue paper money, and rejected the idea, hence they did not authorize it in the Constitution. They thought that the Constitution gave the authority listed therein to the US government and no other authority. They specified also that no state shall make anything but gold and silver legal tender.

There was no question that the US government and the states were only to use gold and silver as money, not bills of credit (paper dollars not backed by gold or silver).

Certainly, the US government nor the states can authorize a corporation to do something they themselves cannot do, so they cannot authorize banks to issue bills of credit or make anything but gold and silver money.

The US government managed to disobey the Constitution by issuing paper money to fight the Civil War. They also managed to disobey the Constitution by authorizing the Federal Reserve Bank to issue bills of credit, and the modern equivalent, checking accounts.

Once the US government created the Federal Reserve Bank, they effectively gave themselves a credit card with a limit that they themselves can increase at will. No wonder they have bankrupt themselves as they have no real restraint on their spending. As long as they have unlimited credit, they will not stop increasing spending. If you could give yourself an unlimited credit card and just borrow cash with the card to make the payments, would you not just keep spending and borrowing to your hearts content?

The chance that any amount of citizen voting will end this scam is nil. As soon as people find out that their government "benefits" will end without a continued expansion of credit, they will surrender any and all objection. It can only end a financial debacle, and never will end in a rational systematic manner.

Human nature is what it is.

[coyote]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', '(')Yes Bush has been financially irresponsible also)

[Revi]

I'm afraid that the hard choices that were necessary to pull us out of the mess we're in would not be popular, and that even suggesting them would be political suicide. Let's see what happens after the election. Will a Democratic house arrive and start to make change happen? Or will it be business as usual until crisis comes? I hope something can be done to help us out of the hole we're in.

[Ludi]

Expect business as usual.