Peak Oil Passnotes: Market Disconnect 2

If supply and demand were in some kind of balance that just needed leaving alone, we would live in paradise. Unfortunately for neo-classical economists their narrow view of human existence – and the economic theories that emanate from it – fails to take into account people like OPEC, Gordon Brown and the American driver.

It is genuinely hard for some Europeans and the rest of the world to realize just how much Americans need their cars. I say


Some American cities see people who walk about as quite odd, or maybe even frightening. The country has a terrible public transport system and the only long distance method to get about is by plane. American society really is car-dependent and few in America question the right of an American to own and drive as many cars and miles as he or she likes.

Then we have centre-right politicians in the U.K. who see energy as a valuable source of income for the state. Men like Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair