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Economics

Jim Kunstler on the Bail Out and What’s Next

Jim Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, has been predicting today's financial catastrophe for a few years now so it's no surprise that his blog is loading slowly this morning. The people want to know: What's going to happen next?

What themainstream is truly missing here en masse is that another tsunami isbuilding right behind the finance fiasco, and that it will render mootthe whole reeking cargo of schemes and wishes that comprises the GreatBail-out. I am speaking of the global oil problem. In fact, theproblems in banking and money currently roaring in the center ring ofthe world circus, can be described categorically as a product of theoil problem -- since oil is the primary resource of industrialeconomies and therefore the motive force behind our ability to generate"wealth." Without reliable and ever-growing supplies of oil, there isno industrial growth, and without industrial growth things like capitalinvestment instruments lose their legitimacy. That is why theFrankenstein family of Ponzi securities was invented in the first place-- to compensate for the demise of industrial growth by creating wealthout of... nothing!

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