Government debt as a percentage of GDP will reach 99% in 2019 versus 24% in 1974. The Paul Krugmans of the world will point out that Japan has a debt to GDP of 170% today and they are doing OK. What he won't point out is that they have endured a two decade long recession and started it with the benefit of huge trade surpluses and personal savings rates exceeding 10% by consumers. The U.S. has neither of these attributes. The good news is that we will never reach the $25 billion National Debt. The bad news is that the country will collapse well before 2019. As a gang of marauding starving homeless former Goldman Sachs investment bankers beat Mr. Krugman about the head with his Nobel Prize, he can try to explain to them how another trillion of stimulus would have done the trick. Every decision made by our "leaders" in the last year has been a short-term solution without worrying about future consequences. This has been the politicians' response for decades. Amazingly, the people that inhabit the halls of Washington and live in the ivory towers of academia actually believe that debt will cure a disaster created by too much debt.
Bertrand Russell
During World War II the United States was self-reliant in terms of oil -- producing almost 1.8 billion barrels per year. U.S. production rose to an all-time high of approximately 3.4 billion barrels per year in 1972. Thereafter, the drop in U.S. production began, and we are now back below the 1946-level of oil production when the population of the United States was 141 million. Today, the U.S. population exceeds 308 million. Worldwide total liquids production peaked at 86 million barrels in 2008. All of the easily extractable oil and gas in the world has been found. Additional supplies will be found deep below the ocean, in challenging arctic regions, in tar sands, and shale. It will be dramatically more expensive to extract oil from these sources.
The United States is dependent on 600 million barrels of oil from Mexico every year. By 2012 Mexico will become a net importer of oil, so 600 million barrels of oil will need to be supplanted. Iran's oil production is in decline as capital investment has been ignored for years. Russia's production has peaked. Saudi Arabia continues to lie about its ability to ramp up production. Their oil fields are 40 years old and in terminal decline. By 2012, the world will only be able to produce 80 million barrels per day. There is no doubt that demand in 2012 will be higher than today's 85 million barrels per day as China, India and other developing countries continue to grow. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population, but use 25% of the world's energy. There is no doubt that $5 a gallon or higher gasoline is in our near term future.
We have had a Department of Energy since 1979. Over this time we have become more dependent on foreign oil. No nuclear power plants or oil refineries have been built in the U.S. in 30 years. Pipelines and energy infrastructure rusts away, while we twiddle our thumbs and agonize over the health of the planet. Doing nothing is a decision. It is a decision which will have dire consequences. Ethanol, solar, and wind will not save us now. It is too late. The United States depends on oil, natural gas, and coal to supply 87% of its energy, with nuclear power providing another 7%. The beloved solar, wind and geothermal sources supply 1.5% of our energy needs. The onset of peak oil will devastate the suburban American way of life.
Source: Perot Charts
The ignored hurricane sized threats that will now morph into a dire Crisis are:
- Unsustainable budget deficits leading to a $25 trillion National Debt
- $100 trillion of unfunded future Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid liabilities
- Peak oil leading to $200 a barrel oil
Marc Faber, famed investor, acknowledges the inevitability of collapse due to the bastardization of our capitalistic system:
"It's a total and complete disaster and the crisis we had is just the appetizer to the big total breakdown of financial markets and of governments in five or 10 years time when the whole system goes bust. The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society. Unless the system is cleaned out of losses, the way communism collapsed, capitalism will collapse. The best way to deal with any economic problem is to let the market work it through."
Apocalypse or Glory
Those who believe our Crisis has passed need to study the past. It is unlikely that this Crisis comes to a climactic conclusion before 2025. As with the song American Pie, music is currently reflecting the Crisis mood that has engulfed the nation. Match Box Twenty's How Far We've Come and Green Day's Know Your Enemy reveal a foreboding about the future. A song that has risen up the charts recently captures the essence of the Crisis. The song is Uprising by the group Muse.
