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The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of PEAK OIL

Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby GreyGhost » Mon 12 Nov 2007, 02:40:02

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jbeckton', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GreyGhost', '
')Yes that makes sense. Or, on a larger scale, if we have less energy available for activities like building nuclear reactors (which are "discretionary" compared to, say, eating), so we don't build them and end up needing to consume more fossil fuels.


You do understand that there is still one drop of oil left for every drop we have ever extracted right? The developed nations will be able to afford oil long after peak. Power producing projects will be one of the top priorities for oil use after food.

Peak oil will push nuclear power, not stop it.


Whether PO will push nlclear or stop it, is a question of how quickly we are able to change infrastructure from oil-based to nuclear / electric transport based; and whether we can do that change within the timeframe that PO happens. Given that the current fossil-fuel based infrastructure took about 50 years to create, it's not likely we can create a new infrastructure in less than 5-10 years the PO will be hitting us even under the more optimistic scenarios.

Therefore, PO will make it more difficult for us to use new sources of energy.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Arkwright » Mon 12 Nov 2007, 02:47:28

Asian markets dive

Japan -2,5%
S-Korea - 3,3%
Australia -1,4%
Hong Kong - 4,5%
Signapore -3%
Shanghai -4%

Black monday globally? we'll see. 8O

Edit: Dow went below 13.000 at the end of the day.
Last edited by Arkwright on Mon 12 Nov 2007, 18:26:03, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby jbeckton » Mon 12 Nov 2007, 10:33:46

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', '
')Not every drop is extracted equally...that is the point...in fact it is estimated that a large amount of oil will be left in the ground because it is too costly to extract.


Too costly is a relative term. As long as their are buyers to pay that cost, it will be extracted. The power industry will be one of the very last entities to afford oil.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby MrBill » Tue 13 Nov 2007, 11:46:01

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jbeckton', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', '
')Not every drop is extracted equally...that is the point...in fact it is estimated that a large amount of oil will be left in the ground because it is too costly to extract.


Too costly is a relative term. As long as their are buyers to pay that cost, it will be extracted. The power industry will be one of the very last entities to afford oil.


The price of crude, including the cost of turning it into a usable product like gasoline or diesel, as an input, say in manufacturing or its share of distribution costs of manufactured goods, will not rise above the value of the final product.

The sum of the parts cannot be more expensive than the final good in the long-term. Although it is true that in the short-term a company can cover its variable costs while ignoring their fixed or capital costs.

And commuters will not pay more to buy gasoline or diesel than they earn by working than simply staying at home. Again not in the long-term. They will either work closer to home, find alternative travel arrangements, or choose formal unemployment while they supplement their income at home or in the informal economy.

The power industry is no different. They cannot raise their prices over what consumers can pay even if they forgo all other discretionary spending. And so they also cannot afford to pay more for energy inputs such as heating oil than they can charge for the resulting power that is their output.

Which is somewhat a strange argument in the first place as power companies would generally use inputs such as natural gas or coal, while their use of transport fuels is more likely to be used on servicing their transmission lines or bringing in spare parts or not? Please clarify what you meant? Thanks.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Twilight » Tue 13 Nov 2007, 17:05:59

The power industry does not have to supply consumers who cannot afford what it charges. Once the inputs are more expensive than what consumers of the output can afford, it can shed consumers unable to pay. This lowers input requirements hence costs and a new profitable price point is reached. Doing this constantly, it can ride the oil decline right up to the end of reliable physical availability in sufficient quantities and quality. If this is deemed politically unacceptable, the government can pick up the difference and perform the trick in a less sensitive area. I believe there will be sufficient power demand by people able to pay deep into the decline.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby MrBill » Wed 14 Nov 2007, 06:38:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'T')he power industry does not have to supply consumers who cannot afford what it charges. Once the inputs are more expensive than what consumers of the output can afford, it can shed consumers unable to pay. This lowers input requirements hence costs and a new profitable price point is reached. Doing this constantly, it can ride the oil decline right up to the end of reliable physical availability in sufficient quantities and quality. If this is deemed politically unacceptable, the government can pick up the difference and perform the trick in a less sensitive area. I believe there will be sufficient power demand by people able to pay deep into the decline.


No, you are right, there is no point to supply power to 'a' consumer that cannot pay, but they cannot afford to charge more than 'all' consumers are able to pay.

The same way there is a peak oil, there is a peak affordability or means to pay for electricity. Beyond which is declining marginal affordability until your utility's marginal costs equal marginal revenue. Below that point you no longer can afford to supply more power.

Lowering variable costs via less through-put increases your per unit fixed costs. Lower volume can actually increase your output costs.

If petroluem is your bottleneck, and not necessary power derived from coal, nat gas or some other source, such as hydro, then a shrinking economy due to net less energy - of all descriptions - will lower the demand for power due to the inability to pay for it. Not that it is not needed.

And if you do not have the transport fuel to service your transmission lines, to replace vandalized power poles torn down and sold for scrap, and to replace worn-out parts then you will see your own costs rise at the same time as your gross revenue is falling as fewer customers can afford to pay. At some point you lose critical mass.

Peak affordability goes hand in hand with peak oil in our current energy mix. Change that energy mix and you have a new equilibirum point. But take out the fuel that is currently providing 80% of your energy needs and replace it with a substitute that only contributes the remaining 20% at the moment and more than likely net energy goes down and not up.

My point lost in this discussion was that petroluem cannot cost more than consumers are able to pay if it costs more than the value of the output they are producing and/or more than they earn. That is why there is an upper limit to how high petroluem prices can climb. The point at which it no longer makes sense to pay for petroleum because none of your economic alternatives - output versus inputs - can recoup the costs.

And no, the government cannot pick-up the difference in cost, if we are in late stage hydrocarbon depletion with falling economic growth, as this assumes the government has the means to pay for the output gap. I assure you it will not. Because that assumption rests solely on the government's ability to borrow to pay for goods and services it does not itself possess. With falling economic output affecting everyone at pretty much the same time the government will have no one to borrow from as no one will be either producing an economic surplus and/or be willing to lend it to a government in return for mere interest if there is a very real likelyhood of a default. There will be instead be widespread capital hoarding - perhaps in the form of physical assets that are tradable - but out of the reach of government.

At best it can expropriate power production and then like most poorly developed countries try to inefficiently allocated it based on dictat. That almost ensures black-outs and power failures as the cash cow is milked dry and no new investment takes its place. Welcome to the day to day reality of the Third World! ; - )
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Twilight » Wed 14 Nov 2007, 14:31:57

Of course, in the endgame you describe, collapse is the only possibility that lies beyond some limit. It's game over once the oil available confers no economic benefit. Until then, we stagger on.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Revi » Wed 14 Nov 2007, 23:37:49

I think that there will be power, but just in communities who can pay for it. For example the Kennebec valley where we live will shrink down to those places near the power stations, on the rivers. A lot of the hydropower will simply leave, down to Southern Maine and Boston. It will go to the places where people can pay for it, and the lines can be guarded. Maybe it will stay up at Sugarloaf, but not out in the boonies. I am planning on not having any power. We have a pv system and solar hot water.

Things are deteriorating right on schedule. Duncan may be right, the lights may go off around 2012.

The problem is that no matter how cynical I get, it's hard to keep up with what's going on.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby roccman » Wed 14 Nov 2007, 23:49:35

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'O')f course, in the endgame you describe, collapse is the only possibility that lies beyond some limit. It's game over once the oil available confers no economic benefit. Until then, we stagger on.


An interesting thread at TOD today.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'K')iashu on November 14, 2007 - 9:44pm

I certainly agree that we're not likely to see a scenario where all that happens is that the price of oil goes to $240-$1,600/bbl and stays there for years, and industrial society either goes kaput or reinvents itself as a result. We're going other things, financial sector problems, internal and external conflicts, etc - either in parallel or as effects of the oil.

But what I wanted to do here was to mimic the experimental method - hold everything constant except for one or two variables, mess about with those two variables and see what happened. That doesn't mean that other things have no effect, it just means that this is the effect I've tried to isolate.

Remember that if you have economic contraction, that $240/bbl oil is not the same as $240 oil today. That's why I was talking about "fuel affordability" in litres. 10,000lt at $2/lt for a country with a $20,000 per capita GDP is - in this simple analysis - identical to 10,000lt at $1/lt for a country with $10,000 income.

So if we get $240 oil (10,000lt each), and our economy halves in size as a result, then while it's still $240, we can only afford half as much.

The transition to an ecotechnic society is a difficult one to imagine happening, in that it's most likely when fuel becomes less affordable, but fuel affordability dropping happens either quickly or slowly. If it happens quickly, people may assume it's temporary so not bother changing (just ask Jimmy Carter about that), and the economic decline from lack of fuel may make them not be able to afford any changes. If it happens slowly, then people gradually adjust in other ways - like invading countries with large reserves.


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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby MrBill » Thu 15 Nov 2007, 05:33:12

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'O')f course, in the endgame you describe, collapse is the only possibility that lies beyond some limit. It's game over once the oil available confers no economic benefit. Until then, we stagger on.


Refering to your comment as well as those of Revi and roccman below what I feel is that petroleum is an important part of our current energy mix. As a transport fuel it certainly is an important complement to our stationary sources of rewnewable and non-renewable power.

Remove petroleum, and eventually natural gas, and you reduce the total amount of our existing energy mix. That alone has profound implications as we all know as readily available substitutes just do not exist or are not scalable based on existing infrastructure and technologies.

However, if we assume that demand for power remains as before at best very inelastic, or at worse unlimited, and therefore only constrained by available supply and/or the ability to pay for it then using the same demand curve, but a lower supply curve, we see that as supply drops, but 'potential' demand remains nearly the same, that the price for all energy rises. We would expect no less.

But it is important none the less. It suggests that was once, say, renewable only accounted for 10% of our energy mix that it might automatically become 20-40% of our new energy mix or more, as the share of fossil fuels decrease. And further with improved infrastructure, delivery mechanism, reorganization and technological advances. For example, the clusters of power that Revi refers to. Or relocating centers of production to where there are reliable sources of renewable power like solar, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, wave, wind, bio-fuels, etc.

And secondly, as petroleum becomes relatively more expensive, or simply physically not available in quantity, this changes the economics in favor of previously unprofitable alternative sources of renewable energy. The price of all energy will rise as the fossil fuel component is removed from the current energy mix, and the new equilibrium between remaining supply and existing demand is reached. I think you said as much yesterday, but perhaps in different words?

That may mean that relatively speaking that wave power might indeed be twice as expensive as wind, for example, but, of course, if you lack natural gas, or coal, both might be needed. One as base energy and one as back-up or peak energy. They are not economically competitive today with nat gas or coal, but once you remove nat gas then their economics change.

Whether we burn coal or not is more of a societal choice rather than an economic one. My feeling is that in the big power down that it will be a necessary crutch during any transition period. I just hope, personally, that we choose clean coal technology and that this technology improves over-time.

However, if your next best alternative is a return to draught or manpower then the total cost of energy can rise many times before an absolute point is reached where you substitute stationary machine power with sweat and muscle.

Think about the amount of energy a chainsaw needs running on a little bio-fuel in comparison to a lumberjack using an axe. The sawmill running on stationary power versus men using a handsaw. Or the 40-hp tractor with a front-end loader and 3-point hitch doing the same amount as work as a full team of horses on a little bio-diesel versus keeping those horses (and men) fed year-round.

But as Revi mentioned, this is more likely than not to occur in clusters, and certainly will not be enough energy to run our existing infrastructure as it is now being run. Fossil fuels are simply too important of a component of that legacy.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Twilight » Thu 15 Nov 2007, 15:50:18

Yes, that makes sense, thanks. :)
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby JohnDenver » Wed 12 Dec 2007, 22:37:28

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', 'S')ome could argue the crash began in August...JP Morgan set to write down 200 Billion...consumer (read American citizen) is dead...oil peaked...

Can ya dig it?

Charles Hugh Smith

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere are a few predictions:

1. The Dow Jones Industrials will drop hundreds of points in a day, very soon, losing at least 3,000 points within the next few weeks.


5 weeks later. Dow up by 500 points.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '2'). The Shanghai stock market will lose half its value, dropping from 5,800 to under 3,000.


Shanghai at 5095.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '3'). Major banks will be declared insolvent.

4. Major lay-offs will occur as U.S. retail, auto and house sales plummet.

5. The tech high-fliers (RIMM, GOOG and AAPL) fall will precipitously


RIMM: no change. GOOG: up 75 points. AAPL: up 30 points.

So... yah, I can dig it. Yet another doomer scud belly flops into the desert. BWAHAHAHAHAHA....

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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby Fiddlerdave » Fri 14 Dec 2007, 02:09:02

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o... yah, I can dig it. Yet another doomer scud belly flops into the desert. BWAHAHAHAHAHA....
According to the experts yesterday, the Fed has come up with this new way ("term auction facility") to mint money to stave off (for a little while longer) the crash. The current estimate is to inject 45 billion/month in this fashion (increases as needed, we are sure). A true "Hail Mary" pass to the end zone. What could possibly be next as the system absorbs this largess and yet cries for more, like the plant in "The Little Shop of Horrors". Can you picture Bernanke as Seymour, stumbling around to find the next blood as the cynical and conniving ever-hungry plant/beast (banks, funds, traders) pushes for more and more extreme measures to keep it Fed? (Pun intended)

Chopping up the boat hull to feed boilers to keep the bilge pumps running only creates a different sort of calamity, one where not only our economic systems lacks function, but the dollar is truly worth less than the paper it is printed on. In any event, the good ship still ends up aground.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/disp ... /12/fed_q/
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby threadbear » Fri 14 Dec 2007, 02:26:10

J.Denver, I thought you made some good observations on the extreme doom scenarios on Peak Oil forums, but you are all wet on the economy. You're seeing the cancer stage of an "incentive" based capitalist economy slowly cannibalizing itself, with the help of expensive fuel.

An economy that rests on rewarding incentive, works until it doesn't, for reasons of logistics. It has gone way beyond that in the U.S. where an over ripe economy is slowly rotting, like a bad apple, from the core, outward. The further away from the core you are, the less evident it may be. There are rewards for initiative, of all kinds, in laissez faire capitalist system, including criminal action.

This is why I am a committed left leaning libertarian. Capitalism works sometimes, and simply fails at others. The U.S. has failed.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby MrBill » Fri 14 Dec 2007, 07:48:01

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'J').Denver, I thought you made some good observations on the extreme doom scenarios on Peak Oil forums, but you are all wet on the economy. You're seeing the cancer stage of an "incentive" based capitalist economy slowly cannibalizing itself, with the help of expensive fuel.

An economy that rests on rewarding incentive, works until it doesn't, for reasons of logistics. It has gone way beyond that in the U.S. where an over ripe economy is slowly rotting, like a bad apple, from the core, outward. The further away from the core you are, the less evident it may be. There are rewards for initiative, of all kinds, in laissez faire capitalist system, including criminal action.

This is why I am a committed left leaning libertarian. Capitalism works sometimes, and simply fails at others. The U.S. has failed.


This post makes zero sense?

An economy that rests on rewarding incentive, works until it doesn't, for reasons of logistics.

We should reward disincentives? Like not working?

There are rewards for initiative, of all kinds, in laissez faire capitalist system, including criminal action.

What? We don't have laws to punish criminal actions?

This is why I am a committed left leaning libertarian.

Left-leaning libertarian? A Libertarian favors freedom and oppose government action to promote either equality or order. Is that why you moved up to Canada to take advantage of their universal medial care?

The Canada Health Act states the principles governing the health care system are symbols of the underlying Canadian values of equity and solidarity.

The U.S. has failed.

At what exactly? Largest economy in the world? Largest manufacturer in the world? It is certainly not the best country in the world, but neither is it a failed state.

Do you really believe that the USA has a laissez faire capitalist system?

What a joke! ; - )
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby threadbear » Fri 14 Dec 2007, 14:33:12

I would check your insults, Mr. Bill, because believe me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of my insults, should I care enough to take the time to return the favour.

You question my understanding of laissez faire capitalism?

What starts out as a great system, where human scale businesses are forced to compete, in an incentive based system, can easily change if it is not forced to remain competitive by govt. When the excesses of greed are further exacerbated by corporations undermining the watchdog functions of govt. you have corporations running the show, distorting the political process, and in the U.S even authoring legislation verbatim, in their favour.

We have had some of the same in Canada, with Mulroney and the Shreiber affair. So don't be daft.

People always assume that less govt is good for business. What if govt is the only body that can enforce free markets, through use of it's body of laws? Bit of a paradox, isn't it?
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby threadbear » Fri 14 Dec 2007, 14:39:12

The narrow minded see the dense forest of regulation and thicket of red tape as proof that govt. interference is always a bad thing. Corporation love this kind of govt interference, as it serves their purposes. They can survive and thrive while the red tape drives out competition. And that, kind sir, is textbook libertarian left philosophy, which criticizes oligopolic control, and the inappropriate role of govt in it's support.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby steam_cannon » Wed 26 Dec 2007, 19:50:28

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'h')ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giffen_good
Speaking of Giffen Goods...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]No bread on the shelves
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic35034.html

"Wheat prices... have doubled since the start of the year."

"U.S. wheat exporters already have sold more than 90 percent that will be exported during the whole marketing year, which ends in June 2008."!!!

In the market panics of previous years...
Will wheat priced double again next year? Following the supply trends, I'm wondering. And what happens to the economy when people spend their money on food and not products/services? Things can change fast and things have been changing fast.
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby KillTheHumans » Wed 26 Dec 2007, 21:18:56

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', 'S')ome could argue the crash began in August...JP Morgan set to write down 200 Billion...consumer (read American citizen) is dead...oil peaked...

Can ya dig it?



Hey!! Lets cry wolf a few more times between now and New Years and set a Doomer record!!
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Re: The Great Unraveling Begins - Weeks, at most away...

Postby seldom_seen » Wed 26 Dec 2007, 21:41:06

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', 'A')ccording to the experts yesterday, the Fed has come up with this new way ("term auction facility") to mint money to stave off (for a little while longer) the crash. The current estimate is to inject 45 billion/month in this fashion (increases as needed, we are sure). A true "Hail Mary" pass to the end zone. What could possibly be next as the system absorbs this largess and yet cries for more

I read of this too. Quite something. Apparently the banks don't like the "stigma" of going to the fed discount window...so they've created these auctions do dish the cash out anonymously.

Then there's the over 160 billion that the likes of countrywide, and wamu have "borrowed" from the Federal home loan banks.

Mind bending! It's hard to wrap your head around some of this stuff. One wonders if they will actually resort to real, literal helicopter drops of cash?
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