Category Archives: Debt

no way we can go on like now with 56 trillion dollars of overall debt

Toxic Loans Around the World Weigh on Global Growth

Posted on March 11, 2020 by

Preface.  Obviously endless growth on a finite planet is impossible.  Clearly the main “benefit” of debt is being able to rape and pillage the planet immediately.  The accumulating debt can never be paid off, because energy is required to grow … Continue reading →

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Many signs of peak oil and decline

Posted on February 16, 2020 by

Preface.  Recently the IEA 2018 World Energy Outlook predicted an oil crunch could happen as soon as 2023.  Oil supermajors are expected to have 10 years of reserve life or more, Shell is down to just 8 years. Political shortages … Continue reading →

Posted in Debt, How Much Left, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 7 Comments

One of the biggest risks to the world’s financial system is the $3 trillion of debt owed by oil and gas firms

Posted on May 24, 2018 by

[ Yet another “crash coming soon” post, if it hasn’t happened already (I scheduled this article and others to appear a year or more later, since crashes always take longer to happen than you expect. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bond Market, Crash Coming Soon, Debt, Oil & Gas Fracked | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Pensions face bankruptcy in the future

Posted on October 28, 2016 by

2016-4-10. US faces disastrous $3.4 trillion pension funding hole. Collective deficit of retirement plans is three times larger than official figures. Financial Times. The US public pension system has developed a $3.4 trillion funding hole that will pile pressure on … Continue reading →

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James Howard Kunstler posts

Posted on November 14, 2015 by

[ As I re-read Kunstler posts I will add more excerpts and/or links.  I encourage you to read these brilliant posts in their entirety at http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/ for their wonderful humor, language, and the full logical chain of discourse, which excerpts … Continue reading →

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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1

Posted on October 31, 2015 by

Book review by Alice Friedemann at energyskeptic of “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment”, by Pedro Prieto and Charles A.S. Hall. 2013. Springer. Conclusion: the EROI of solar photovoltaic is only 2.45, very low despite Spain’s ideal sunny … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Charles A. S. Hall, Debt, Electric Grid, Energy, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Pedro Prieto, Photovoltaic Solar, Solar, Solar EROI | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Would Tesla, SolarCity or SpaceX exist without $4.9 billion in government subsidies?

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

[ Tesla has made no new battery breakthroughs. Batteries aren’t much better today than they were 200 years ago.  All Tesla did was build a better battery management system (BMS) by stringing tiny batteries together — thousands of them.  But … Continue reading →

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Gail Tverberg The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

Tverberg, G. March 9, 2015. The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem. ourfiniteworld.com For a long time, there has been a belief that the decline in oil supply will come by way of high oil prices. Demand … Continue reading →

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Signs of Peakiness, oil companies are running out of cash

Posted on August 29, 2014 by

Andrew Nikiforuk, August 29, 2014. A big summer story you missed: Soaring oil debt. The Tyee.  Over 100 of the world’s largest energy companies are running out of cash. Photo of Keystone pipeline in Nebraska by Shannon Ramos. Creative Commons … Continue reading →

Posted in Debt, Energy Markets, Peak Oil | 1 Comment

Student loan crisis widens gap between rich and the rest

Posted on May 23, 2014 by

Student loan crisis widens gap between rich and the rest. Bill Zimmerman.   February 21, 2014.  San Francisco Chronicle. Growing concern about wealth and income inequality overlooks a principal cause: the student loan crisis, which is much deeper than the $1.1 … Continue reading →

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