Tractors are just as attractive to tyrants, demagogues, and terrorists as pipelines are.
Category: economics
Rooftop solar power is actually more dangerous than Chernobyl
Rooftop solar power is actually more dangerous than Chernobyl
Oil peak
People fear to invest in coal to oil plants, for an improvement in the security of property rights in oil rich countries could cause a huge drop in the price of oil.
World wide drop in support for free market system
Pollsters report a world wide drop in support for the free market system.
voting anti capitalist
The more socialism we have, the more socialism people are apt to vote for. The Road to Serfdom.
“Brutally Honest†goes pinko
“Brutally Honest†complains that Christianity is immoral because it does not hate capitalism enough – no of course that is not what he complains. He complains Christianity is immoral, because it teaches that God gave us the world, and commanded us to be fruitful and multiply, to take dominion over the world, to fill it and subdue it. He is worried that we are going to run out of oil, and there will be no oil left for our children. …
Escalating prophecies of doom
When prophecies of doom are not working out, the first reaction is to escalate them: Ted Turner tells us: We will be eight degrees hotter in thirty or forty years, and basically none of the crops will grow, most people will have died, and the rest of use will be cannibals, civilization will have broken down. Over past millenia, global temperatures have risen and fallen several degrees. A few thousand years back, hippos and crocodiles basked in the warm waters …
Commodity derivatives: the new currencies
E-gold, which I thought would save the world, turned out to be something of a bust, with essentially zero use in real internet commerce, but “unenumerated reports†that we are seeing the financial markets going into commodity based fractional reserve monies in a big way, many trillions of dollars.  Still, you cannot pay for your we hosting or cell phone minutes with commodity based monies. These moneys are for big deals, and only big deals. The revolution begins when you …
Housing price bottom
When I say prices look like they have bottomed, I don’t mean that the prices sellers are asking may have bottomed. Asking prices are, for the most part, still way too high. But if we look at sales that are actually being made, both for houses, and for land with secure development approval, the prices are a good deal lower, the people buying are the smart money, and the people selling are the stupid money – which is a pretty …
Future Housing prices
Real mortgage interest rates are high and rising in the US, because the the future value of the US dollar is uncertain. Lenders fear the possibility of very high inflation, so demand high interest rates. This makes it difficult to buy a house. At the same time, borrowers fear deflation.  They fear they could put down a deposit, then be wiped out as the value of house falls, along with their job that previously enabled them to pay the mortgage. …