Here are some stories (with pictures) that resonate with some of the themes I touch on in my book, “The Ultimate Suburban Survivalists’ Guide”
Oil Production: Post-Peak Mexico
The chart you see here includes the latest updated production, provided Friday by PEMEX. Total crude oil for the month of December comes in at 2.590 mbpd. This is a slight uptick to November’s 2.553 mbpd.
Of course, the real story in the chart is that Mexico can never, and will never, get back to its peak year of 2004. The fact that the country’s oil minister(s) has been claiming it would, over the past five years, is actually kind of sad.
Drugs brings more money to Mexico than oil
The country’s drugs cartels, which control most of the cocaine and methamphetamine smuggled into the United States, are estimated to have brought $25-$40 billion into Mexico from their global operations in 2009.
A survey of analysts by the Reuters news agency estimated that as a result the drugs trade in Mexico is likely to have made more money than was earned by the state oil monopoly, Pemex, from exports of crude - the country’s single biggest legitimate foreign currency earner.
XX Sean’s note — if this is the case, then there are a LOT of people in Mexico with a significant incentive to keep the drug trade going. I think we could be headed for a time where the drug traffickers become the government in parts of Mexico.
China Slows Pace of Buying US Debt
The United States government borrowed more money than ever before in 2009, but its largest lender — China — sharply reduced the amount it was willing to lend. The United States Treasury estimated this week that during the first 11 months of last year China raised its holdings of Treasury securities by just $62 billion. That was less than 5 percent of the money the Treasury had to raise. That raised its holdings to $790 billion, leaving it the largest foreign holder of Treasury securities — Japan is second at $757 billion and Britain a distant third at $278 billion. But China’s holdings at the end of November were lower than they were at the end of July.
XX Sean’s note — if they aren’t buying as much of our debt, ask yourself who is?
The End Game: This Time Isn’t Different
2009, the book This Time is Different - Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, by Reinhart and Rogoff, shed new light on the role of debt by compiling a database that looked at financial crises in 66 countries over a period of 800 years. The main standard in explaining more than 250 crises studied is whether debt is excessive relative to national income, even though idiosyncrasies apply in each case. They reiterate that this old rule (excessive debt) continues to apply, and this time is not different.
XX Sean’s note — Does anyone, even those wearing rose-colored glasses in the White House’s Rose Garden, think this is going to end well?
That’s why movements like Naziism start. If there ever was another nation beautifully primed for an explosion of deadly irrational politics, it’s us. And it looks to me as if that’s exactly what we’re going to get — especially now that the Supreme Court has made it possible for corporations to buy elections lock, stock, and barrel.
XX Sean’s note — a lot of news sources say this is bad news for Democrats, but corporations give plenty of money to Democrats as well as Republicans, and big unions give plenty of money, too. I think it’s bad news for anyone who isn’t a fat-pocketed special interest – and victims will include Republicans, Democrats and Independents. If your name is Exxon Mobil, you’ll be able to flat-out buy laws, and there is the potential for a seamless merger of corporate and political power. If you’re Joe Sixpack, too bad. On the bright side — and there’s always a bright side — this is good news for the stocks of media giants, who will be swimming in a deluge of special-interest advertising cash come election-time.
Desertification may have retarded global warming by as much as 20%
In an article published on Friday in the journal Science, Prof. Dan Yakir and Dr. Eyal Rotenberg of the Environmental Sciences and Energy Research Department discuss their analysis of findings from the Yatir Forest research station.
By looking at the other side of the equation, the two researchers discovered that desertification was not necessarily all bad - in fact, it may have retarded global warming by as much as 20%. The desert reflects sunlight and releases infrared radiation, which has a cooling effect. And in a world in which desertification is continuing at a rate of about six million hectares a year, that news might have a significant effect on how we estimate the rates and magnitude of climate change.
XX Sean’s note — I guess some people can find the “good news” in anything.
Related Posts
- China, Post-American World, Global Warming & … (05/12/08)
- Where in the World is Sean Brodrick? (05/21/08)
- Is This The Way The World Ends? (01/21/10)
- Dollar and Gold are Soaring as World Flees Risk (02/17/09)
- Where in the World Is Sean Brodrick? (11/14/09)
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