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Page added on October 10, 2015
The Last Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin
Another Petro-State Throws In The Towel – The Last Nail In The Petrodollar coffin
Source: Norwegian Ministry of Finance, Bawerk.net
According to the proposed budget submitted by the current ‘blue-blue’ government the Norwegian deficit will reach another record high in 2016. Mainland taxes are expected to bring in 1,008 billion NOKs, while expenditures are estimated at 1,215 billion NOKs. In other words, 2016 will be another year of record mainland deficit which need to be covered by the offshore sector and its 6,900 bn NOK sovereign wealth fund (SWF).
While record mainland deficits covered by the petroleum sector is nothing new in Norwegian budget history, on the contrary it is closer to the norm, the 2016 budget did raise some eyebrows. The other side of the ledger, the net inflow to the SWF from activities in the North Sea will, again according to budget, be lower than the required amount to cover the deficit. This has never happened before and is testimony of the sea change occurring in the world of petrodollar recycling. Interestingly enough, the need to liquidate SWF holdings is helping to create further deflation in the Eurodollar system in a self-reinforcing loop.
As Eurodollar liquidity dries up and consequently pushes up the price of actual dollar (note, Eurodollars are international claims to domestic US dollars but for which no such dollars actual exists) the problem for petro-states compounds. One way this manifest itself is through international purchasing power of prior savings. A SWF as the Norwegian was created through a surplus of exports over imports meaning it can only be utilized through future imports over exports. When the Norwegians look at their wealth expressed in Norwegian kroner it all looks fine, but expressed in dollars the SWF has shrunk considerably in size. Thus, the surfeit imports expected by the Norwegian populace cannot be met. Norway rode high on a wave of liquidity which pushed up commodity currencies, leading Norwegians to consume more imported goods today, without realizing they were tapping into the principal of their future. When the tide turns the gross misconception is revealed.
Source: Norwegian Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Norway, Bawerk.net
The Government claims it is all fine though. The current down-cycle will, according to them, end early 2016 so despite a 2 percentage point reduction in corporate- and personal income tax, mainland tax revenues are expected to increase 1.9 per cent. That is obviously a pipedream, just as the expected 17.9 per cent increase in interest and dividend income which will make sure the SWF continue to grow at a healthy pace despite the massive mainland deficit.
Assuming oil prices remain low, mainland tax revenue will plummet as they are very much a function of what goes on offshore, while expenditure will rise as they do in all welfare states during a down cycle.
If we are right, a global recession is imminent, meaning the expected increase in dividend income will never materialize.
In other words, the drawdown of the SWF will exceed its inflow even after adding financial income flows. The last remnant of the petro-dollar will thus die in 2016.
For a country 100 per cent dependent on continued leverage in the Eurodollar system the absolutely best case scenario is for the US economy to grow just slowly enough for international monetary policy to again realign; reducing the value of the USD through continued ZIRP in the US.
Robust growth in the US will prompt Yellen to hike, spiking the dollar (as Eurodollar claims scramble for actual dollars) while paradoxically a recession in the US will lead to the exact same outcome. The goldilocks scenario of 1-2 per cent growth is the best that the Norwegian government can hope for. It will minimize the gap between the lies and propaganda spewed out by the Ministry of Finance and reality.
42 Comments on "The Last Nail In The Petrodollar Coffin"
Rodster on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 10:46 am
And what will replace it? The Yuan Petrodollar, pleeease, spare me. Every time someone predicts a date that something will happen and then doesn’t, an angel farts in heaven.
The Petrodollar is ingrained into the monetary system we use including the Chinese. And if anyone thinks the Chinese will be better stewards/agents than the US, look no further than at their “Shadow banking System, $30 trillion of QE, ghost cities, ghost factories, bridges to nowhere and roads to nowhere”.
The only way the Petrodollar dies is if the ENTIRE SYSTEM COLLAPSES and everything STOPS around the world.
Gorgeous SouthEast Asian on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 11:23 am
Another idiot american commented above mine.
ghung on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 11:37 am
Central banks worldwide stand fast, waiting for the others to blink first. Any significant movement in interest rates will likely trigger a reversal in the multi-trillion dollar highly leveraged carry trade; the great unwinding of all major globally traded currencies. This factor is often overlooked when evaluating the 2008 crash. An article I read last year:
“The dollar is soaring. The U.S. stock market is making new highs. U.S. T-bond yields are declining, causing T-bond prices to rise while all the experts say they are too overvalued. European government bonds actually yield less than U.S. Treasuries, which makes no sense because the U.S. bonds are considered much safer. Many analysts confess that they are mystified.
What is the driving force for these moves? The “carry trade.”
What is the carry trade? It’s the borrowing of a currency in a low interest rate country, converting it to a currency in a higher interest rate country and investing it in the highest rated bonds of that country. The big trading outfits do this with leverage of 100 or 300 to one. This causes important moves in the financial markets, made possible by the trillions of dollars of central bank money creation.
The monetary stimulus in Japan is aimed to produce a cheaper yen, and thus a stronger dollar. That causes the U.S. bond market to rise, bond yields to decline, commodity prices to plunge, and precious metals prices to decline. If you are in any of these investments, you must know what drives their prices.
Here is how the “yen carry trade,” a favorite currency for the trade, basically works now:
Hedge funds and other very big traders borrow the yen at very, very low interest rates now approaching zero. The yen are converted to dollars, which are invested in U.S. Treasuries at a much higher yield than the interest cost for the borrowed yen. That creates a “positive carry” because of the differential in interest rates.
The buying drives up U.S. bond prices. The traders accrue big profits, when done with high leverage, assuming the yen value doesn’t rise.
Additional profits are made when a) The dollar rises vs. the yen as the BOJ intends, b) U.S. Treasuries rise in price (as is happening).
Triple Profits: A leverage 100:1 means that a 1% rise in the value of the dollar vs. yen doubles the value of the equity investment. An additional profit is made if the U.S. T-bonds rise in price as they have done. Further profits are made from the positive carry, i.e. when the yield on the T-bonds is greater than the interest cost on the yen. That’s a “triple profit.”
So far, so good. And that’s what is happening now. Some of the profits are probably reinvested in the stock market for diversification.
The emerging markets have benefited from this as well. The currencies of the lower-interest countries like Japan or the U.S. are borrowed and invested in the much higher-yielding bonds of emerging countries. The danger is that when one of these countries has trouble paying the interest on its debt, there is a huge unwinding of this trade, hundreds of billions of dollars flow out, and an emerging market crisis produces a world-wide market crash. That’s what happened in 1997 and 1998. The emerging markets carry trade is estimated to be at least $2 trillion in size. That’s huge.
The carry trade is great for the big trading outfits, but it doesn’t help the average person. And that is why there is such great income disparity. It’s just financial engineering.
However, there is possibly another, much more important element to these trends: Russia!
When Russia basically annexed the Crimea in March of this year, I proposed in our Wellington Letter that the U.S. could easily manipulate the oil price down to levels that would significantly damage Russia’s economy.
How do you get the international oil price down? Oil is denominated in dollars. If the central bank (the Fed), in collaboration with the large financial firms manipulate the U.S. dollar upward, it increases the cost of oil around the world. That reduces consumption, which reduces the oil price. Above I described how the carry trade increases the value of the dollar. Everything works together.
Oil revenues are the greatest source of foreign currency reserves for Russia. It needs these reserves to service its international debt. If these reserves dwindle, another Russian debt crisis and possible default similar to the late 1990’s could occur. The global markets would plunge, but Russia would be hurt the most. Perhaps that would cause Putin to retreat from his apparent plan to reassemble the old Soviet Union.
Conclusion: The carry trade causes a rising U.S. dollar, rising U.S. bond prices, rising U.S. stocks, and deflation in commodity prices. Of course, an unwinding of the carry trade will cause the opposite.
The soaring dollar and strong U.S. Treasury market confirm that the carry trade is alive and well. If and when the Bank of Japan hikes interest rates in order to combat rising inflation, the carry trade will unwind, perhaps ferociously. So, watch the BOJ.
The massive money creation of the major central banks and their “ZIRP” policy (zero interest rate policy) has created such huge financial speculation using other methods as well, making big speculators very rich. And that includes the large trading operations at the Wall Street firm, the biggest global banks, and hedge funds.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2014/09/04/carry-trade-the-multi-trillion-dollar-hidden-market/
What we have is a global currency stalemate that no major economic power dares to break. But break it will, at some point.
Plantagenet on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 11:41 am
The smartest thing the Norwegians ever did was to set up a sovereign wealth fund for their oil earnings. Now they’ve got a 7 trillion NOK investment fund to generate income for Norway as the oil wealth declines.
Cheers!
onlooker on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 12:00 pm
What we have is a global currency stalemate that no major economic power dares to break. But break it will, at some point.
So true. As the bubble and cycle dynamics reach a certain level they inevitably do unwind or burst. Now though we have the added influence of the tangible realities of resource/commodity scarcity, growing organic demand, oil accessibility and affordability limits and a ever growing population all conspiring to reel in delusional exuberance. Reminds me of the quote from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan :irrational exuberance”
Davy on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 12:28 pm
Gorgeous, will you show us your tits so we can determine who is the idiot otherwise gorgeous shut your suck. Roadster nailed the topic as usual. Who could trust a system like the Chinese have. This is not bragging about the U.S. which I might add is going down too. This is about swatting down the notion of China or the Brics ever decoupling from the global system with their own parallel system. The Brics are going down along with the rest of the overpopulated ecologically nasty South Asia.
onlooker on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 12:41 pm
Absolutely, all Asia is hopelessly overpopulated. No way to get around that.
Rodster on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 2:03 pm
“Another idiot american commented above mine.”
So please tell us what makes China so GREAT. Is it that they’ve destroyed 60% of their drinking water supply? Is it they have the best toxic sulphur lakes? Is it their lime green or crimson rivers? Is the pollution that’s so bad they what to sell you a flat on the top of a skyscraper so you can see above all the smog?
Or maybe they’ve designed their financial, banking and monetary policies to mimic the West? Could it be they are bigger crooks than what we already have in the West?
GO AHEAD AND TELL US HOW GREAT CHINA REALLY IS !
BC on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 4:03 pm
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=26vO
You want a petrodollar? Well, I’ll give you a petrodollar. 🙂
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1e912316-6b88-11e5-8171-ba1968cf791a.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3oC3rINF6 (FT registration required.)
Rather than a “glut”, we have a deflationary liquidity trap as a consequence of secular stagnation and LTG, in that all the CB printing has not resulted in accelerating private lending/deposits/money supply at a sufficient velocity and acceleration to private revenues/profits, wages, and GDP to sustain growth of demand.
http://effectivedemand.typepad.com/ed/
A further rally for the price of oil hereafter will clip the change rate of growth still further at the effective cyclical demand constraint, ensuring another deflationary global recession.
BC on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 4:11 pm
China is a four-letter word (and as been for years): SELL!!! 😀
That’s what wealthy Chinese and their princelings are doing (having become millionaires and billionaires from 20 years of money supply growing at a banana republic-like compounding doubling time of 4-5 years), as well as US and Japanese supranational firms pulling FDI and repatriating US$’s via CB custodial swaps of US-denominated assets.
China is a once-in-history collapse waiting to happen, after which the emerging new generation of PLA generals in Beijing will take over in response to mass social unrest, crack heads by the tens of millions, and then turn the Middle Kingdom inward, turning rabidly anti-West, and expelling “western devils” en masse.
We “western devils” will have deserved it, as will the Chinese for opening up to the West and allowing themselves to be corrupted in the process (as has occurred every 50-60 years or so since the late 18th century).
China’s growth is done, and now comes the 1930s-like deflationary collapse and mass social unrest.
Steve Challis on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 4:23 pm
BC
Unfortunately your Chinese scenario is frighteningly realistic.
In Australian English ‘China’ has five letters not four, but I know some US English words have different spelling.
Boat on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 4:45 pm
New news to defeat OIL.
http://www.cumminswestport.com/press-releases/2015/isl-g-near-zero-natural-gas-engine-certified-to-near-zero
BC on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 8:18 pm
Steve: 😀
makati1 on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 8:20 pm
Interesting how the Sinophobes like to crow that China is failing without looking at their home country’s ridiculous ‘house of cards’ position.
Asia in general is blamed/hated for: ________ Fill in the blank. You can thank your government sponsored indoctrination for that.
Yet, ONE billion Westerners consume HALF of the world’s energy/resources. As much as the other SIX billion non-Westerners in the world today.
So, drink the Koolaid and tell yourself that you are better and will be the one to survive. We all like to feel good about ourselves and our ‘exceptionalism’ don’t we?
The higher you are, the harder you fall. Step down now and avoid the rush…lol.
Apneaman on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 8:24 pm
Boat, here is more on the immigration problem your so concerned about.
Fleeing Europe and North America. Stop Millions Of Western Immigrants!
“Tens of millions of European and North American immigrants, legal and illegal, have been flooding both the cities and countryside in Asia, Latin America, and even Africa.
Western migrants are charging like bulls and the ground is shaking under their feet; they are fleeing Europe and North America in hordes. Deep down they cannot stand their own lifestyle, their own societies, but you would hardly hear them pronounce it. They are too proud and too arrogant! But, after recognizing innumerable areas of the world as suitable for their personal needs – as safe, attractive and cheap – they simply pack and go!”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fleeing-europe-and-north-america-stop-millions-of-western-immigrants/5481103
Davy on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 8:28 pm
Wow, folks, dog paw is choking on his own puke. This is what dog paw does every day on this board:
US in general is blamed/hated for: ________ Fill in the blank.
Some people can dish it out but they can’t take it. What a puss.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 9:18 pm
Just because the Chinese currency will not likely replace the American dollar and just because Asia is over populated and will collapse does not mean Americans aren’t idiots. They are not mutually exclusive. Americans are some of the fattest, laziest and stupidest people on the planet who feel democracy in Iraq is worth fighting for but who had a voter turn our less than 40% in the last federal election. Americans are some of the filthiest human specimens in all of recorded history. In short, the Retarded States of America is full of morons and the numerous posts on this blog from its citizens are evidence of this.
BC on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 9:34 pm
Truth: Americans are some of the fattest, laziest and stupidest people on the planet who feel democracy in Iraq is worth fighting for but who had a voter turn our less than 40% in the last federal election. Americans are some of the filthiest human specimens in all of recorded history. In short, the Retarded States of America is full of morons and the numerous posts on this blog from its citizens are evidence of this.
http://www.anus.com/etc/misanthrope/
http://www.geekadelphia.com/2011/10/03/the-misanthropes-guide-to-life-review-giveaway/
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Rodster on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 10:55 pm
“Interesting how the Sinophobes like to crow that China is failing without looking at their home country’s ridiculous ‘house of cards’ position.”
The point is we’re all screwed when this system the central planners and banksters created. There will be NO winners. China, the US and all parts in between are fucked. So when it’s over for the Petrodollar that means nothing will replace it because it will have ll collapsed.
I realize the US is in decline but so to is the rest of the world, including China. And last, I checked they have 6 times the amount of people to feed and house.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 11:06 pm
America is a has-been. Not unlike a school yard bully who got fat, slow and weak. It’ll be interesting to see who gets payback.
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/06/thomas_friedman_read_your_chomsky_the_new_york_times_gets_putinobama_all_wrong_again/
BC on Sat, 10th Oct 2015 11:48 pm
http://www.weather.com/series/great-outdoors/video/50-lanes-of-cars-pile-up-on-beijing-highway
Gorgeous SouthEast Asian on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 12:00 am
Asia will be the last man standing, mark my word. Americans should have learned its lesson from the Vietnam war. There is something mystical about us that you idiots wouldn’ t be able to comprehend. We’re survivors, and you are idiots !!!..and Resilience is the key word…USA will be the first to go. Wanna bet your useless bottom dollar ?!
makati1 on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 12:05 am
Rodster… “And last, I checked they have 6 times the amount of people to feed and house.”
Hmm… What source of your info?
China = 1,367,485,388 (July 2015 est.)
United States = 321,368,864 (July 2015 est.)
My old time math tells me that China’s population is about 4.26 times that of China, not 6 times. Such exaggeration blows your credibility.
However, from the ability to consume standpoint, the total PPP for the Us population (~321M) is about $17.6 Trillion/year. The ability to consume for the Chinese population (~1.4B) is about the same, $17.6 Trillion/year.
So… how does that make them the ones to lose the most when the SHTF? Most of the peasants will not even notice. Same as here in the Ps. However, the majority of Americans will be in a world of hurt within 30 days because they live under delusions and in a car culture that requires things that are NOT required elsewhere.
Source of stats and info: CIA World Factbook – 2015
makati1 on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 12:09 am
BAMB! BAMB! BAMB!
America shot down by Gorgeous Southeast Asian.
LMAO
SIMON on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 3:49 am
Georgous George said
Asia will be the last man standing, mark my word. Americans should have learned its lesson from the Vietnam war. There is something mystical about us that you idiots wouldn’ t be able to comprehend. We’re survivors, and you are idiots !!!..and Resilience is the key word…USA will be the first to go. Wanna bet your useless bottom dollar ?!
Yep, a perfect example of Asian spirituality, we are humbled
Simon
Rodster on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 7:03 am
I’ll guarantee that Asia will fall apart first. In fact it’s already happening as we speak. The eCONomies of Brazil and China are already feeling the pain. Brazil is heading towards a collapse. Russia’s eCONomy is in the toilet and the Chinese eCONomy is a total fraud. But I guess Asians have to do say something to make themselves feel better about their shithole situation. Lets not forget all those wonderful Chinese who are bailing on their own country and fleeing to the US.
JuanP on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 7:42 am
Rodster, Brazil is in South America, not Asia. Wrong continent! Also, Brazil and Russia are nothing like China. Brazil and Russia have more natural resources per capita than almost any other large country in the world. China, on the other hand is an overpopulated, eroded, polluted mess. Apples and oranges, Rod!
Davy on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 8:04 am
Juan, Rod knows that he is referring to Brics. Asia is dominated by the brics so hence the Asian discussion. Asia is in clear population overshoot and ecological collapse. That is crystal clear. Asia is in consumption overshoot. They are in consumption overshoot because they are primarily export driven economies. Part of their consumption is really western consumption. They are in the poor position of being export dependent economies so as globalism fails so will their economies. Being export driven economies they have destroyed their ecosystems with cancerous development. Anyone that looks at China now and doesn’t see that is an idiot or has a dog paw agenda. Asia is in consumption overshoot also because of population overshoot. They can’t feed themselves just google the numbers. This is especially true without industrial agriculture.
We are all going to fail but Asia will fail spectacularly. The numbers are so large. I mean Asia is in a whole other league in everything especially doom. The new comment personality “Gorgeous SouthEast Asian” sounds like another sock puppet and probably dog paw’s. He is getting desperate with his agenda. The brics are failing and they were supposed to decouple and lead a parallel development walking on the ashes of a destroyed western system. What a joke…ha ha.
Anyone poking criticism with Rodster needs to realize he is one of the most vocal of anti-Americans. I admire him though because he will not be baited and caught up in the alternative narratives of the brics. He knows shit when he smells it. Dog paw wallows in shit. He loves the smell and the taste. We need more commenters like Rodster.
Apneaman on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 9:13 am
First generation middle class or third generation middle class, it makes no difference. China and Asia has hundreds millions middle/working/factory class, soft, fat, after crash useless eater consumer citizens. The idea that there are a significant portion of permaculture farmer peasants who will simply “go back to the land” and farm by hand without massive fossil fuel inputs is a fucking joke. Much of the land and water is toxic and many of the former peasant farmers live in cinder block relocation towns on the dole in a state of meaningless depression – victims of high speed industrialization on steroids. If there is a major industrial crash or a continuation of this slide, one of the first things we may see is tons of sunlight(energy) shielding particulate fall to the earth and not be replaced. This may result in upwards of 1 degree C of additional warming within weeks. No one will be worrying about what the other guy on the other side of the world is doing then. On a happy note, war can put all that particulate back into the atmosphere in a hurry. Save the planet – bomb the Hun!
China’s middle class grew by 203 million in 10 years: report
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1835527/chinas-middle-class-grew-203-million-10-years-report
Fat China: how are policymakers tackling rising obesity? – Nothing but gov spin – same as everywhere.
“By 2012 China’s Ministry of Health estimated that as many as 300 million Chinese people are obese in a population of 1.2 billion. This total makes China the second most obese nation after the USA in numbers of overweight citizens.”
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/feb/12/chinas-body-mass-time-bomb-policymakers-tackling-rising-obesity
So many people seem so certain who will be the last man standing or who is the worst at this or that, but the truth is it’s a crap shoot in a world this complex with more variables than can be counted. What I am certain of is that apes are fucked – one way or another and it will be recorded in the intergalactic record books as a suicide. One incident could trigger a major war – think about what some zealous nationalistic kid assassinating a fat Archduke triggered.
Davy on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 9:22 am
Ape Man said “If there is a major industrial crash or a continuation of this slide, one of the first things we may see is tons of sunlight(energy) shielding particulate fall to the earth and not be replaced. This may result in upwards of 1 degree C of additional warming within weeks.”
I have read about that effect but I did not realize the short term nature of that pollutant. I wonder if the forest fires will continue to maintain some of that reflective material. It is sad when we need pollution and forest fires to protect us from pollution. Sounds like a vicious circle of death.
Apneaman on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 9:45 am
Davy, it’s not a sure thing on exactly how much the temperature would increase, but if it was at the higher end of the estimates, I think they would attempt geoengineering. It’s relatively cheap and quick. It might fuck things up even more according to many atmospheric chemists, but since when did they ever take their advice and recommendations anyway?
JuanP on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 11:14 am
Apneaman “This may result in upwards of 1 degree C of additional warming within weeks.” I’ve also read reports of a 2 degree increase in the first year from all that cleaner air. Either way that would likely set off some major methane evaporation and wildfires that would also cause additional warming which would release more methane and start more fires which would lead to more Global Warming which would lead to more methane and fires… Oops! I got lost in that self feeding frenzy!
Rodster on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 12:14 pm
Yup, I was referring to the BRICS when I mentioned Brazil, my bad.
makati1 on Sun, 11th Oct 2015 8:16 pm
Rodster, ever been to Asia? If so, when? Vietnam doesn’t count. Ancient history. I suspect you have been a victim of the same propaganda that The Missouri farmer has been ingesting … lol. If you haven’t lived here, you have no idea. Tourist doesn’t count as living here. Tourists never see the real Asia, just the ‘Westernized’ parts.
Yes, Asia has problems, mostly caused by the US, but why do Americans refuse to admit their shit stinks and is piled higher than any other country on earth? Theirs is Mount Everest and the rest the Rockys or Appalachians. Time will tell who is right, but my money/life is on Asia as the area with the best chance of survival. Not the West.
dooma on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 1:29 am
“GO AHEAD AND TELL US HOW GREAT CHINA REALLY IS !”
Well they have about the same amount of social freedoms as the US (hello NSA)
And you can go to school without being pumped full of lead. Or a movie. Or the gym. They have a very long life expectancy even though they are behind in medical care. Because they actually value their elderly instead of “warehousing” them in dodgy retirement homes Fat chicks are a rare site unlike the states. They buy their oil instead of invading countries and taking it. The country is not full of people who think that there is a guy in the sky who made the planet in 6 days And they are the only empire to rise again. PLUS new laws don’t get stuck in the house for ever in the most notorious partisan political system in the world
GregT on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 1:43 am
“Either way that would likely set off some major methane evaporation and wildfires that would also cause additional warming which would release more methane and start more fires which would lead to more Global Warming which would lead to more methane and fires…”
Runaway Climate Change Juan. Coming to a planet near all of us, soon.
dooma on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 1:44 am
The US Petro dollar is still safe as long as the US can afford it’s obscene military budget.
Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi wanted to move away from using greenbacks for oil and they were illegally invaded, hunted down and killed in their own countries against all UN conventions.
We will probably never see the end of the Petro dollar because the US will use the “bomb” AGAIN before it implodes into civil unrest based on ethnic lines.
dooma on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 1:53 am
“Rodster, ever been to Asia? If so, when? Vietnam doesn’t count. Ancient history. I suspect you have been a victim of the same propaganda that The Missouri farmer has been ingesting … lol. If you haven’t lived here, you have no idea. Tourist doesn’t count as living here. Tourists never see the real Asia, just the ‘Westernized’ parts.
Yes, Asia has problems, mostly caused by the US, but why do Americans refuse to admit their shit stinks and is piled higher than any other country on earth? Theirs is Mount Everest and the rest the Rockys or Appalachians. Time will tell who is right, but my money/life is on Asia as the area with the best chance of survival. Not the West.”
Come on Mak, most Americans (not all) will never leave the US. And that includes a fair share of their senators. Plenty think that Africa is a country and they cannot name many countries on a globe as been shown by many a reporter.
GregT on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 4:27 am
“GO AHEAD AND TELL US HOW GREAT CHINA REALLY IS !”
The Chinese have a written history going back over 4000 years. That would be 3750 years pre-industrial revolution. (fossil fuels)
North Americans (present, not indigenous) have a history that goes back for ~400 years, or 150 years pre-industrial revolution.
Around 90% of North Americans are completely dependant on the cities, modern industrial society, consumerism, and oil.
In China, around 40% of their population has embraced capitalistic consumerism, and have migrated to the cities.
Considering the fact that we stand to lose capitalism, consumerism, oil, and modern industrial society, I would say that the Chinese culture has much better odds of making it through the bottleneck, than our lack of culture will here in North America.
I’m kind of fed up with the anti American finger pointing. Quite frankly it’s become beyond childish. I stand by my observations with no nationalism, pride or propaganda, to sway my views. The Chinese have a much better chance of holding together the systems that they have had in place for millennia, than we do of holding together a system that is completely reliant on the very things that we are about to lose. No country is going to make it through this unscathed, but our current political, socio, and economic systems here in North America, will not survive.
GregT on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 4:57 am
Also, having recently moved from Vancouver BC, where anglo-Canadians have been in the minority now for the better part of a decade, I will take Americans over Asians any day of the week.
Davy on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 5:17 am
Hey, Cowboys, I am getting under dog paw’s fur. Ye Ha, (music) “get along little doggies it is your miss fortune and none of my own”. Lookie here: dog paw said – “I suspect you have been a victim of the same propaganda that The Missouri farmer has been ingesting … lol.
Davy on Mon, 12th Oct 2015 5:24 am
Dooma said: Come on Mak, most Americans (not all) will never leave the US. And that includes a fair share of their senators. Plenty think that Africa is a country and they cannot name many countries on a globe as been shown by many a reporter.
Dooma, just so I know, what dumb ass country are you from? If you don’t tell me then you are admitting your dumbass fellow citizens are little better. You dumbass anti-Americans are just that “dumb ass”. Anyone who plays the blame and complain game has an agenda and usually that agenda is because of a self-esteem issue. You have self-esteem issues?
Dooma, much of what you said is true no doubt because dumb ass is contagious.