Category Archives: Corruption & Finance

Corruption concentrates wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the 99% below, and this trend has accelerated the past decades. Corrupt leaders and industries are less likely to ration food and oil as it declines, accelerating collapse. I predict that the higher the level of corruption (see corruption perceptions index at transparency.org) will make collapse faster and harsher than in less corrupt nations.  I hope future historians look at this as a factor in how nations fell during the energy crisis. Though I expect that smaller towns everywhere will do better than large cities, and where local governments are uncorrupted

Trillion of dollars of debt and unfunded liabilities

Unfunded liabilities Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff has calculated that the U.S. government is facing unfunded liabilities of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead. To name just a few: Medicare and Medicaid, social security, service treasury bonds, food stamps, … Continue reading

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Cities will go bankrupt

As the cost of energy keeps rising, and more and more “money” goes to obtaining energy, which leaves less for everything else.  And since capitalism depends on growth, but we’re on the cusp of shrinking back to the stone age, … Continue reading

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Financial Monsters — Bigger Crashes than 2008 are yet to come

by Alice Friedemann   October 12, 2007 The monsters are still there. Sure, quantitative easing fed them enough money to keep them away for a while, but cheap money can’t be doled out to bankrupt banksters and Wall Street forever.  Meanwhile … Continue reading

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David Korowicz: Tipping point near-term systemic implications of a Peak in global Oil production

[ This is the most brilliant and succinct paper I’ve ever seen that explains the interdependencies of our economic, energy, infrastructure, food, and other systems.  It is so well-written that you ought to read the entire paper, my summary can’t … Continue reading

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Corporate Welfare

Big business sets the agenda for what legislation our elected officials spend their time on at the national, state, and local levels, and even write the legislation and pass it on via lobbyists. What ever your issue is, you can … Continue reading

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Prison System – 2.2 million in jail, 5 million on parole

How  can Americans be so proud of themselves when our society has imprisoned one in a hundred people, more than any other nation on earth?  And many of them subjected to the most cruel kind of torture — isolation — … Continue reading

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Inequality goes back to the Stone Age

28 May 2012. Inequality Dates Back to Stone Age: Earliest Evidence Yet of Differential Access to Land. ScienceDaily. Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had … Continue reading

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