The question begging itself here, of course, is how Europe intends to come up with roughly a trillion in bailout money. Sell Portugal to China? Cut Greece up into bait and catch whatever fish are left in the Mediterranean Sea? Frankly, I’m stumped. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul…
May 12th, 2010 | James Howard Kunstler | 16 comments | ContinuedArchive for James Howard Kunstler
(born 1948) is an American author, social critic, and blogger who is perhaps best known for his book The Geography of Nowhere, a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He is prominently featured in the peak oil documentary, The End of Suburbia, widely circulated on the internet. In his most recent book, The Long Emergency (2005), he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society and force Americans to live in localized, agrarian communities.
America Loves the Word “Recovery”
All this goes to show is how completely the people in charge of things in the United States have lost their minds. They seem to think this mass exercise in pretend will resurrect the great march to the Wal-Marts, to the new car showrooms, and the cul-de-sac model houses…
August 28th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 2 comments | Continued
The Long Emergency
The reason behind this mass delusion is not hard to find: it’s based on wishing, especially the wish to retain all the comforts, conveniences, luxuries, and leisure that had become normal in American life. These are now ebbing away in big gobs for most of the population…
August 5th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 2 comments | Continued
The Bottom of This Society’s Ability to Process Reality
For now, the “bottom” is in – that is, the bottom of this society’s ability to process reality. It may continue for a month or so, but events are underway that are beyond the command of personalities. We’re done “doing business” in all the ways that we’ve been used to…
May 20th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 16 comments | Continued
Begging the Question: Recovery to What?
Does it mean that American “consumers” (so-called) are awaited momentarily in the flat-screen TV sales parlors with their credit cards fanned-out like poker hands, ready for “action?” Not too likely with massive non-performance out in cardholder-land, and half the nation’s electronics inventory wending its way onto Craig’s List.
April 17th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 29 comments | Continued
Peak Oil: What’s Next
The Peak Oil story was never about running out of oil. It was about the collapse of complex systems in a world economy faced by the prospect of no further oil-fueled growth. It was something of a shock to many that the first complex system to fail would be banking, but the process is obvious: no more growth means no more ability to pay interest on credit… end of story, as Tony Soprano used to say.
March 6th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 4 comments | Continued
A Cascading Collapse of International Finance is Underway
A cascading collapse of international finance is underway. While many fixers may jump heroically into the tumbling wreckage hoping to rescue this-and-that, the outcome by Friday is liable to be an unrecognizable smoldering landscape of the G-7′s hopes and dreams. Some big questions for the week: will the Euro survive as a currency?…
October 8th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 3 comments | Continued
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Seized By U.S. Government
This weekend’s big deal was the U.S. government taking over the “government sponsored enterprises” (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that guarantee trillions of dollars in mortgages. The “guarantee” is supposedly accomplished by converting bundles of mortgages from the banks and loan companies that originate them (that make the contracts with the buyers of houses) into bonds that can be sold downstream.
September 11th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 3 comments | Continued
The U.S. Took Advantage of Russia During the Soviet Collapse
The U.S. had taken advantage of temporary confusion in Russia, during the ten-year-long post-Soviet-collapse interval, and set up a client government in Georgia…
August 20th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 5 comments | Continued
Banks Could Put an End to the American Dream
There’s a particular moment known to all Baby Boomers when Wile E. Coyote, in a rapture of over-reaching, has run past the edge of the mesa and, still licking his chops and rubbing his front paws in anticipation of fricasseed roadrunner, discovers that he is suspended in thin air by nothing more than momentum. Grin becomes chagrin. He turns a nauseating shade of green, and drops, whistling…
July 16th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 9 comments | Continued
The Iowa Floods Send America Into a Season of Hoarding
The recent Iowa floods show evidence of how the problems of weird weather (climate change) combine and ramify the problems associated with Peak Oil. In this particular case they lead to an inflection point sometime around the 2008 harvest season, which will also be our time of political harvest.
June 25th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 8 comments | Continued
American Public are Becoming a Much Poorer Society
Those were the words that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke used to describe the financial markets (and by extension the economy) these heady spring days when everybody else with a rostrum, it seems, has pronounced the so-called liquidity crisis contained. There’s a great wish for American finance to return to business-as-usual – raking in fantastic fees for innovating new modes of tradable paper…
May 29th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 3 comments | Continued
Angry Mortgagees Protesting Bear Stearns Favouritism
Last Wednesday, a bunch of peeved mortgagees protesting government favoritism in the Bear Stearns case entered the lobby of the company’s (soon-to-be-former) headquarters building in midtown Manhattan. While it might not seem like much, I view the symbolic “penetration” of this corporate stronghold as the very first sign of a much broader citizen revolt against the extraordinary protections being shown to crapped-out investment banker boyz…
April 10th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 7 comments | Continued
The Price of Oil Remains Stubbornly Above $100 a Barrel
In the deeper background of all this is the all-important oil story that nobody in politics or the media wants to pay attention to. Notice that in the fervid unloading of assets this past week, as investors dumped their positions in the commodities markets, the price of oil remained stubbornly above $100-a-barrel when it was all over on Thursday afternoon. Well, maybe they’ll ratchet down a little further this week, but the trend line will prove to continue remorselessly upward in the months ahead…
March 26th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 0 comments | Continued
Eric Janszen’s Bubble
Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published on James Howard Kunstler’s blog, here. Eric Janszen of iTulip.com has made a splash in the mainstream media with his Harper’s Magazine cover story on the “The Next Bubble.” His thesis is that a new tidal wave of investment will shortly roll toward “infrastructure and alternative energy.” By [...]
February 8th, 2008 | James Howard Kunstler | 2 comments | Continued
