Oil and Finance?
Chris,
One of the great problems to being a big picture dilettante like myself is that I don't know enough about any one thing to answer my own questions. I do know that cheap, high intensity energy, the ultimate easily transportable, pound for pound, being oil, has driven our growth civilization for a century. The driver is no longer cheap and has reached the end of our ability to deliver it at growth dimensions, and if we somehow manage to do it, we'll likely foul our nest irepairably.
What's gonna break first, a financial system that presupposes growth to pay interest, or the energy system on which growth is predicated? Does it matter? Doesn't one break ensure the other, along with a lot of other breaks? I guess what I'm asking is whether you can envision any set of social, political, economic policies that presents a chance of a softer landing when the party falls apart? Is there a working elevator or will we all be jumping out of a 3 or 4 story window?
