[Eli]

Since this is PO lets start with Cantarell, we all know it is in terminal decline putting pressure on US oil supplies.

In response the US government is paying big bucks to their friends in industrial farming to develop corn based ethanol. Even though this makes no sense.

Corn prices are going up in Mexico and is putting pressure on their economy driving up inflation link.

To make matters worse the US housing industry is going down the crapper from the bottom all the way to the top. And anyone who has driven past a construction site knows that it is impacting illegal workers the hardest.

These workers send much of their cash back into Mexico propping up the economy. That money is drying up further weakening their economy.

All those houses they built were sold to people who couldn't afford them. Who would have thought two people working at Starbucks couldn't afford a million dollar shit box in SoCal?

Now the banks are going tits up because of all the bad loans they made putting more people out of work.

The Chinese have got to be getting nervous as the US economy falters considering they own about a trillion worth of our debt.

The world economy is so tied to China right now that if they sneeze in Shanghai the world catches a cold.

[fireplaceguy]

I'm guessing you're a pessimist...

[Eli]

Well I have my moments

I am really thinking it may be time to move all my money out of stocks and into bonds or money markets.

[fireplaceguy]

How about tangibles - gold, silver, ammo and food? (Damn - if I could figure out how to put qualified money into this stuff I'd be an overnight billionaire!)

[Aaron]

Which in turn increases illegal immigration into the US, which costs billions in civil services without a new tax-base to support them.

The US government is using your tax dollars to subsidize the ethanol industry... but that's nothing compared to the tax burden associated with millions more illegal immigrants entering the country.

When we begin burning people's food for energy the real implications of peak oil becomes clear.

Keep in mind that our world produced more oil last year than ever before in history.

But not enough to keep Archer Daniels from snatching the food from the mouths of the poor to make oil.

Now imagine oil begins a serious decline in available production...

<Cue Zombies>

[Rob_0126]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', '
')...When we begin burning people's food for energy the real implications of peak oil becomes clear...

[smiley]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen we begin burning people's food for energy the real implications of peak oil becomes clear.

[username]

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. The reason why the Irish potato famine was so severe was because the poor were out-bid by England for most of their food. Simply put they couldn't afford their own food. They were left with potatoes, which are mostly genetically identical due to the crop methods used and so a single disease wiped out the whole crop. Guess where they all went?

My guess is that immigrants will be given some sort of pseudo-citizenship where they have limited rights but can do things like join the military, which is really desperate for new recruits *wink wink*. That's when the oil wars will start to pick up steam. Mexico will be obliged to help because we'll be hiring their people and keeping their poor from starving.

[Jack]

Odd, is it not, that none of the media says a word about burning food in our fuel tanks? They worry about Darfur and Ethiopia, but say nothing about an underlying cause of mass famine.

One might think the media was controlled.

I wonder - how will our cities fare when the formerly middle class must listen to their children cry from hunger...and know that there is no prospect of changing things tomorrow?

What gets interesting is what happens if we see martial law...using a military filled with foreign nationals. If they are told to slaughter the protesters, will they do so? If they are told to seal the borders...will they follow orders?

Forget the zombies. Cue Mad Max.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes, sadly, they won't mind shooting the gringos a bit.

There's also quite a rising anti-immigrant sentiment, there have been some recent round-ups, "operation return to sender" etc. Remember in the Great Depression we sent back about 2 million "mexicans", some of which were legal citizens but we still sent them back.

There will be one hell of a Nativist movement when things get bad.

[NEOPO]

awesome

[I_Like_Plants]

LOL!

A couple of years ago I was riding my bike, went out my little road onto a larger road, and almost ran smack into a facefull of Aztec warrior! Some of the Mexicans ride opposite traffic, and I still have this image of the guy's face, more noble than any of those on that map, I don't know how we managed to avoid smacking right into each other. What a tangle that would have been! Bent bikes (wheels at least) and a big heap on the road babbling in 2 different languages, maybe 3 if the guy forgot his Spanish and used his own Indian tongue......

[jboogy]

Eli - " Who would have thought two people working at Starbucks couldn't afford a million dollar shit box in socal" , I don't see how the mortgage guys could think it wouldn't come back to bite em on the ass.

Jack - "One might think the media was controlled ", hooray for deregulation and letting the free hand of the market straighten everything out. I can't remember the last time so many majorly negative things were converging on our world at once. I'm scared, I almost wish I hadn't brought two children into this world.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

[stream]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jrowl/jim.wav[/stream]

From this weeks Big Picture at FSN.

[I_Like_Plants]

I called up an equipment buyer today, who ALWAYS buys LCR meters of any type (as long as they're Agilent) and amazingly, he did not want to buy mine.

We talked and gossiped a bit, and I asked him how's biz, and he said it's awful. I asked, how awful in what time frame, and he said the worst ever, since the beginning.

Test equipment is a type of durable goods, it's like a washing machine for a household or a drill press for a business - a very telling good in how well or badly the economy is doing.