Well, attention for the reality behind China's growth picture is finally heating up, and I would say that's definitely a good thing. It will allow everyone to take a second look and wonder what is real and what is not. It will also allow countries like Australia and New Zealand to rethink their all-out economic dependency on China. Not to mention Mongolia; Michelle Yun had this for Bloomberg: Mongolia Mining Bets China Will Double Coal Imports Mongolia Mining Corp. is
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Flipping through the channels and browsing through the Internet, watching/reading the pundits on CNBC and Bloomberg and Fox and CNN and [insert your channel or website here]… I can’t help but think about how badly the mainstream media has failed us over the last 51 years. And not just because of the fact that 90%+ of it is owned and managed by a few megalithic corporations, but also because the journalists, reporters, analysts, columnists, editors, publishers, blog writers, etc. etc.
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National Photo Co. Fossil Fuel 1920 Washington, D.C. "Penn Oil and truck." Oil prices have been falling. This is no surprise to us here at The Automatic Earth, as our position is that the 2008 price peak will stand for a very long time, and that the rise from the 2009 low has been a counter-trend rally. Prices of many assets have been moving with the ebb and flow of confidence, and therefore of liquidity, in this era
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This is Part III of a series on our modern waste-based society, written by TAE commenter A.G. Gelbert and originally published by RE on the Doomstead Diner. The first two parts re-published on TAE (Part I and Part II) confirmed the existence of a structurally wasteful society and explained why our society had become this way (i.e. corporate greed). Part III reviews some of that discussion before taking a lengthly look at viable solutions and alternatives to the energy-intensive Waste-Based
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Ilargi: Long time TAE afficionado Skip Breakfast, whom we met in New Zealand 2 months ago, wrote a piece that I think will resonate with many of you, since trying, as many undoubtedly have done, to warn people away from foolish decisions based on equally foolish perceptions of continuing growth, economic recovery just around the corner etc., is neither an easy nor a grateful task. And especially when loved ones and close and dear friends are concerned, it can be
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Wait a minute. Last Friday, June 29th, was the last trading day of the month. It was also the last trading day of the 2nd quarter. AND it was the last trading day of the first half of 2012. Plus, in the days leading up to Friday, markets were suffereing quite badly, so the smart bet must have SEEMED to be, to be – or stay – short the market. So how many people were short exactly, and how many
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This is number nine in a series of articles documenting the principles and practice of eco-thrifty renovation written by Estwing of the ETR Blog for the Wanganui Chronicle. After writing about debt aversion and monster mortgage avoidance last Saturday morning, I was interested to hear on the radio that very afternoon about the record number of mortagee sales in New Zealand during the first quarter of the year. My heart goes out to those families losing their homes. Part of
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Picture Angela Merkel Upside Down by ciscaix for FreakingNews.com Oh come on, leave the girl alone already. First off, all those people talking about a solution for the eurozone need to finally understand there ain't no such thing. And whatever slim chance of a solution the most optimistic – delusional – among them may be so desperate to cling on to, at least they should recognize that Angela doesn't hold the keys to the city. She herself knows it:
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It’s Wednesday… the middle of yet another week… in which yet another round of European wealth extraction (bloody rape) is underway… and yet another gaggle of speculating geese prove that they have no idea what the hell they’re talking about or what the hell is going on around them… so… I’m just gonna take this opportunity to rant a little bit. When the politicians, media pundits, corporate analysts and others start squirting out their verbal diarrhea about the economy, the
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It has long been our position at The Automatic Earth that North America is collectively dreaming with regard to unconventional natural gas. While gas is undeniably there, the Energy Returned On Energy Invested (EROEI) is dramatically lower than for conventional supplies. The critical nature of EROEI has been widely ignored, but will ultimately determine what is and is not an energy source, and shale gas is going to fail the test. As we pointed out in Get Ready for the
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