We cannot drill our way out of this oil crisis. Since 2000, oil companies working in the U.S. have doubled the number of wells drilled per year.
Although increased drilling has added new oil to the nation's supply, it has not done so fast enough to offset the terminal decline of existing fields.
We are going to have to import more of our oil. Period.
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:08 am Post subject: 'Empire of Debt: ...' William Bonner, Addison Wiggin
This came out in Nov. 2005. Has anyone read the book? Here a review:
Bonner and Wiggin(BW)present a great deal of old,well known information ,in their "new" book about the current budget deficit (huge tax cuts ,combined with large increases in government spending,leading to massive increases in the national debt),trade deficit,and current account deficit problems, that should be common knowledge to any informed citizen in America who has,for instance,read a) any of the literature disseminated by the Concord Coalition,b)read any of the books written by Ross Perot during the 1992 presidential campaign,or c)read any of the books written by Peter Peterson(for instance,"Runing on Empty...",July,2004).The problem started in the mid-1960's with the liberal Kennedy -Johnson tax cuts,which were combined with increased spending to fight the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty.The problem was exacerbated when Presidents Reagan and George H.W.Bush bought into the libertarian-supplyside nonsense that massive income tax cuts would lead to such tremendous increases in Government tax revenue that the end result would be a balanced budget and a decreased national debt.These fantasy policies led to an increase in the national debt of 3.5 trillion dollars and 12 consecutive budget deficits.The problem has again been severely exacerbated by President George W Bush.The same supplyside-libertarian policy of massive tax cuts combined with huge increases in spending have added 2 trillion to the national debt.Peterson's book has already covered this fiscal mess.BW offer a libertarian type of solution(the United States should go back to a gold standard and individual investors should start buying up all the gold that they can get their hands on.)A better solution is the conservative approach used by President D.Eisenhower that led to 8 consecutive balanced budgets and a zero increase in the national debt.It is also the approach used by Ronald Reagan in 1968 when he was the governor of the state of California.Its implementation would require some combination of tax increases and cuts in spending.Unfortunately,the American voter is given a choice between a non-conservative Republican party ,that combines deep tax cuts with massive spending increases financed by huge increases in borrowed money,i.e.,from abroad(the trade deficit and the current accounts deficit),as well as from home(the national debt),and a Democratic Party that supports increased taxation and increased spending.America had its chance in 1992 to solve the problem with mild repercussions.Thirteen years later the repercussions will be severe.BW add nothing new in this book.
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 Posts: 2114 Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 9:49 am Post subject: Re: Empire of Debt
Maybe it should be called Empire of Phony Debt. The US has defaulted on it's liabilities before and will most certainly do so again. The last default was in 1971 when the US reneged on it's promise to redeem gold for dollars. Although that is often described as the "collapse" of the Brentton Woods agreement, it is still a default. It's like me calling up the bank that holds my car loan and telling them that I can no longer pay in original dollars, but will be more than happy to send photocopies of dollar bills.
I've come to the conclusion that we aren't digging deep enough. We should be looking into how and why the US is allowed to get away with defaulting. The reason I keep coming up with is simple: lack of world judicial oversight. In what court do you sue the US department of the Treasury? Is there some international court that you can file a lawsuit to recover your property from the US government? If there is such a court, can you file a lien and levy. Could you execute such a levy on the US government?
I'm a landlord and know all about dealing with deadbeats. If your deadbeat has valuable property and you have a money judgment against him, you can levy and seize that property to be sold to pay the debt.
I think the answer is that it's good to have the world’s largest and most advanced military. If you think about it, that's where it all starts. You make a claim on land and if you can defend it and it becomes yours eventually. Everything stems from there. If you are defaulted on by the big kid on the block, you go along with whatever solution he comes up with. If the solutions are constantly inequitable, you conspire with other kids to overthrow his reign. However, if he consistently comes up with equitable solutions, you go along with it because it's easier to roll with it than to try to unseat him. Besides, the guy who might replace him might be worse!
If we really had a true world government, all member countries would be forced to abide by their agreements or face the consequences. Contrary to a lot of conspiracy buffs, there is no world government. Truth still speaks from the barrel of a gun.
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