Thursday, February 11, 2010

US< Europe Will All Default on Their Debt; Osama's Son Warns Worse May Be Coming

From Jenna Orkin

Headlines
EXCLUSIVE: Osama's Son Warns Worse May Be Coming
Euro PLUMMETING On Bailout Confirmation
US, Europe Will All Default On Their Debt: Marc Faber
CNBC Anchors Freak Out After Marc Faber Says US Will Default (from Rice Farmer)
TARP Watchdog: Don't Be Fooled By The Calm, Banks Will Be Rocked By 2011's $300 Billion Commercial Real Estate Time Bomb
Niall Ferguson Safe haven? US debt is about as much of a safe haven today as Pearl Harbor was in 1941
Cyber War Game: US To Be Hit By Massive Cyber Attack on February 16 (from Jon Noel) Hackers declare cyber war on Australia
Empty Office Buildings Threaten Economy
European Economic Ripple Hits South Korea As Germans Push Delay Of Massive Ship Orders

Peak Oil
Oil exploration costs rocket as risks rise
IEA raises global oil demand forecast
Colombian gas exports to Venezuela collapse in January
2 US Firms Wash Hands of Tar Sands
Peak oil warnings turn up in the strangest places
WSJ: Next Crisis, Prepare for Peak Oil (from Jon Noel)How To Deal With Peak Oil
Peak Oil Solution: The Simmons Plan - Forbes.com
Know Thine Enemy: New Invention Using Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods Could Unlock U.S. Oil Reserves Three Times Larger Than Saudi Arabia's

Economy
Roubini: The Greece Bailout Isn't Enough, Ultimately Europe Is So Screwed That It Will Need The IMF (from Rice Farmer)
Look who will get slammed in a Greek collapse
Morgan Stanley: Here's proof that debtflation is coming
Depression 2010 - Western Fiat-Money Finished? (from Rice Farmer)
Foreclosures Plummet In January, But Another Surge Could Be Right Around The Corner
The Dumping Begins: Chinese Reserve Managers Notified That Any Non-USG Guaranteed Securities Must Be Divested (from Rice Farmer)
U.S. Stocks Drop as Europe's Plan to Address Greece Crisis Lacks Specifics
Obama Says He's `Fierce' Advocate of Business, Rejecting Corporate Critics
Jobless Suffer as U.S. Corporate Cash Hoard Climbs 78% to $1.19 Trillion
Jobless Claims in U.S. Decline More Than Forecast as Recovery Cuts Firings
Citigroup Plans "Crisis Derivatives"
Housing Headed For Another Leg Down; Stabilization Misunderstood
The Housing Market Is A Battle Between Housing Fundamentals And Government
Bachmann: 'Wean Everybody Off' Social Security And Medicare (from Rice Farmer)
Intervention, And Fundamentals Are Winning Again
Soros: Globalize Regulation Or Lose Global Markets
Spreading blight of ghost town UK
Retire at 68? Three-quarters of us will be too ill to work
Report claims nation's health is so poor that bid to raise retirement age could be stopped dead in its tracks.
Vietnamese Hoarding U.S. Dollars As Dong Crashes Post-Emergency Devaluation
Dow to Dip Near 8300-8400 Soon: Chief Investor
Here Is Exactly How Warren Buffett's Chinese Auto Company BYD Copied Competitor Designs Piece By Piece

Drugs
Valium 'works like heroin'
The Failed War on Drugs in Latin America
Could Decriminalization Be the Answer?
'The Military Is Not Suited to Pursue Criminals'

Yemen/War/Intelligence
MI5 facing crisis of credibility

Court ruling shatters spies' culture of secrecy
Read the secret torture evidence

Scramble for the Island of Bliss - Socotra
What Does the US Really Face in Yemen?
Yemen to Let US Set Up Airbase On Its Soil
!n 2009, Russia Was To Establish Base in Socotra
Ex-Texas congressman Charlie Wilson dies

Environment
Amazon River Water Being Stolen and Bottled Abroad (from Rice Farmer)
Spring arriving 11 days early

Who Says This Blog Is a Downer?
Lap Dancing Stripppers Help Clothe Haitians With Fund Raiser

10 comments:

Unknown said...

RE: Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods Could Unlock U.S. Oil Reserves

“It's further proof that available oil remains more a function of technology rather than physical limitation.”

These are the guys with the Valdez, the guys who wasted Ecuador's pristine jungle, and the people laying waste to Alberta -- and you want to give them spent nuke fuel rods to play with?

If motoring is so important to "our way of life", let's just harvest the oil from 6 out of 7 billion people, using
thermal depolymerization
.

"If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water."

Somalians and Cambodians are a bit skinny these days -- something about not getting regular meals. Not everyone being 175 pounds in weight, then, let’s multiply 6 billion times say, 100 pounds each. That’s six hundred billion pounds of oil. According to
this conversion site
.1 gallon of oil weighs 7.344 pounds, so …um … oh, whatever, a little less than a hundred billion gallons of oil from the useless eaters. Divided by 42 gallons in a barrel, that’s um … something like um, well more than 2 BILLION BARRELS OF OIL.

Of course, the world uses something like 30 billion barrels a year these days, but when we get rid of all those other people who are crowding up the planet, the remaining billion or so of us can enjoy “our way of life” for many years to come – without irradiating the Green River or blasting the hills of Colorado. In fact, we can get also rid of all those unsightly cell phone towers, because most of us will live within earshot of each other anyway.

The technological advance we need is trucks big enough to haul away the billions and melt them down!

Unknown said...

Ach, I messed up the math. Dividing the 100 pound people by ... um ... around 5, we get only around 400,000 barrels of oil. But remember, we can render
anything into oil
. Such as the remains of the western forest, or Rio de Janeiro, or any greasy town we don't like. We, the chosen people, can happily continue to live "our way of life" in Manhattan, St. Tropez, Davos and Cancun.

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

businessman said...

Can someone explain to me how if extracting petroleum from tar sands is so expensive, how is it that the United States imports more petroleum from Canada than it does from any other country? How is it that Canada can compete with the other major oil-producing countries when it comes to the price they charge us for our petroleum, if the other countries aren't also extracting their petroleum from tar sands?

Click Here for a Chart Showing U.S. Oil Imports from Foreign Countries

Anonymous said...

Another non-downer article...

Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable

Bard said...

OPEC Wants Certainty

http://www.petroleum-economist.com/default.asp?Page=14&PUB=279&SID=724535&ISS=25570

gamedog said...

Businessman: Canada imports most of it's oil from Saudi, then exports it as petroleum to US, more than it's own tar sands derived "crude" exports under Nafta, which I think are still uneconomical without subsidy, and still require huge amounts of NG to process it.

You'll know Canada is near crunch point when they try to re-negotiate Nafta. I think they can cut US exports under Nafta, but they have to cut an equal amount for domestic use under the agreement.

Ecosutra: I watched the coconut revolution, real inspiring stuff. I then searched youtube for more recent news, found an
Al Jazeera documentary "People & Power - Bougainville: Reopening old wounds - 17 Mar 09 - Part 1" Things ain't so inspiring now, groups have split into those who want the mine opened, and those who don't, although everyone still wants independence. Some have started gold panning with mercury.

Watching some of the older folks talk about needing the mine opened for island income was depressing, that is one place could sure use an experienced permaculture guru. Seems before they started the revolution the island was just over the tipping point, the revolution brought it back, but they're almost at that point again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esCIiYc6uZk&feature=fvsr#

RanD said...

eyeballs... careful now, you're startin' to say things like you're startin' to see what RanD's seein'... many of us are subconsciously disposed to slippin' into twaddlism...

businessman, VERY good question re the US/Canadian tar sands thing. If you happen to stumble upon the answer do let us know what it is.

Nihil Matters... Thanks ever so much for introducing us to Karl Rabeder. We love meeting people who've escaped from their boxes.

Unknown said...

Here is a google translation of a Danish newsbit regarding the Russian Nord Stream pipeline:

Finnish yes to the gas pipeline in Baltic Sea
12. February 2010 13.03

Finland has approved the construction of a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. This enables the creation of the so-called Nord Stream pipeline to begin.

An international consortium expects to begin construction of gas pipeline in April.

The pipeline will go from the Russian city of Vyborg to Greifswald in Germany via Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German waters.

Finnish approval was the last that was missing before construction can begin.

The first gas is expected to flow through the pipeline from the end of next year.

Pipeline owned to an international consortium with headquarters in Switzerland.

Link in Danish: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Udland/2010/02/12/130152.htm

businessman said...

gamedog...I had no idea Canada was exporting large quantities of petroleum to the U.S. that were originally purchased from Saudi Arabia. I'm wondering what the main reason is for this rather than having the U.S. simply get the petroleum directly from Saudi Arabia. Is it to assist with Canada meeting their obligations under NAFTA? Is it to make Americans feel that we're less dependent on oil that's being imported from the Middle East?

gamedog said...

I can't remember all the details mate, might have been something to do with refining capacity, shared pipeline costs or something, this is a good starter...

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5666

more on Canada..

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3973