Author Archives: energyskeptic

Payday Loans

Posted on April 12, 2014 by

Mar 25 2014 CFPB Finds Four Out Of Five Payday Loans Are Rolled Over Or Renewed Research Shows the Majority of Payday Loans Are Made to Borrowers Caught in a Revolving Door of Debt WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Consumer … Continue reading →

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Credit Card Fraud

Posted on April 12, 2014 by

Banks fined $1.66 Billion for illegal credit card practices that ripped off over 10 million customers Bank of America will refund up to 2.9 million customers $727 million plus pay $45 million in fines for illegal credit card practices such … Continue reading →

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Who lives, who dies in a never-ending energy crisis. Book review of Nothing to Envy. Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Posted on April 6, 2014 by

Preface. Much of this post comes from Barbara Demick’s 2010 “Nothing to Envy. Ordinary lives in North Korea”.  But first I summarize why and how energy shortages led to the hardships chronicled in this book. Related Posts: North Korea collapse … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Energy Books, North Korea, Oil shock collapse | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Food Rationing

Posted on April 6, 2014 by

Many nations during war or hard times institute food rationing to make sure there’s enough for everyone and to prevent the connected few from buying up more than their share and selling food at prices several times higher Venezuela Issues … Continue reading →

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Biomass Electricity More Polluting Than Coal and Waste Incinerators

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

Trees, Trash, and Toxics: How Biomass Energy Has Become the New Coal Mary S. Booth, PhD Partnership for Policy Integrity April 2 , 2014 Executive Summary Highlights Because of a perfect storm of lax regulation and regulatory rollbacks , biomass … Continue reading →

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The Fall of AIG

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

2 articles below: March 18, 2009  The Real AIG Scandal by Eliot Spitzer slate.com It’s not the bonuses. It’s that AIG’s counterparties are getting paid back in full. Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG’s bonuses, but this simple scandal is … Continue reading →

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Unemployment

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

The Eternal Depression Oct 2009. Bill Bonner. DailyReckoning. Yesterday, we were calculating how long it would take to get the jobless number back down to ’90s levels…that is, around 5%. There are now about 131 million jobs in the United … Continue reading →

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Miscellaneous Advice

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

oildrum comment on how to spend time & assets Based on your age, we recommend on a weekly basis: hrs/week 40  job 10  building or training around self sufficiency 4  recreation 8  local group activitives And for your assets: 25%  … Continue reading →

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Education

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

Jan 14, 2008  DISARRAY  by James Howard Kunstler We’d better prepare psychologically to downscale all institutions, including government, schools and colleges, corporations, and hospitals. All the centralizing tendencies and gigantification of the past half-century will have to be reversed. Government … Continue reading →

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Transportation

Posted on April 5, 2014 by

Jan 14, 2008  DISARRAY  by James Howard Kunstler Stop all highway-building altogether. Instead, direct public money into repairing railroad rights-of-way. Put together public-private partnerships for running passenger rail between American cities and towns in between. If Amtrak is unacceptable, get … Continue reading →

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