Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
U.S. economy losing its global dominance
Shobhana Chandra and Matthew Benjamin, International Herald Tribune
Europe, Japan and emerging economies around the world are weaning themselves from dependence on the American consumer, and economists say it is just in time.
Demand in the U.S. economy is slowing as the housing market falters, a development that the International Monetary Fund on Sept. 14 called a key risk to global expansion.
If so, it is a risk that the biggest exporting nations are better prepared to weather now than five years ago.
(25 Sept 2006)
America is living beyond its means
Larry Elliott, The Guardian
China and India will be calling the shots when the US is no longer top dollar
—
It’s 2056. After a coup in Saudi Arabia, the new government announces it is cutting off supplies of its dwindling stock of oil to the United States. The White House responds by sending in the troops, but is forced to withdraw after Beijing says it will only continue shoring up the dollar if the military action is called off.
Marking the 100th anniversary of Suez, the Americans have no choice but to comply. Fanciful? Ludicrous? Certainly, that would have been the reaction of the traders on Wall Street who last week sent the Dow Jones industrial average to within a whisker of its all-time high. But even if the US can avoid a hard landing in the short term, as equity dealers believe it can, the medium and long-term risks to the economy remain.
(2 Oct 2006)
These kind of long term outlooks seem remarkably tame in light of peak oil. -AF
US housing bubble: Economy in denial
Axel Merk, Asia Times
Every day, another economist claims that the impact of the slowdown in housing on the US economy has been overstated; a few months ago, many still disputed that there even was a housing bubble. There has been a housing bubble, the bubble has only started to deflate, and it may have very negative long-term implications for the US economy as well as the US dollar.
Almost every day, a high-profile company directly or indirectly targeting the US consumer warns that its outlook is bleak. Let it be Yahoo warning about advertising revenues; let it be Dell’s warning that its eternal rebate programs cannot push sales any more; or let it be the automakers that sell many of their brands at prices below last year’s level, yet are still unable to boost volume. All these incidents are linked to the US consumer; and US consumer spending, in turn, is very closely linked to the health of the housing market. It also comes as no surprise that so far this year, the US dollar has fallen significantly versus a basket of currencies.
(27 Sept 2006)
An interesting graph from Wikipedia: Robert Shiller‘s plot of U.S. home prices, population, building costs, and bond yields, from Irrational Exuberance, 2d ed.
The diminished dividends of war
Jim Lobe, Asia Times
With the US intelligence community agreed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made the United States less safe from terrorist threats, President George W Bush appears to be facing a growing revolt among top military commanders who say their ground forces are stretched close to breaking point.
According to Monday’s Los Angeles Times, the US Army’s top officer, General Peter Schoomaker, has called for a nearly 50% increase in spending, to nearly US$140 billion, in 2008 to cope with the situation in Iraq and maintain minimal readiness for emergencies.
To convey his seriousness, Schoomaker reportedly withheld the army’s scheduled budget request last month in what the Times called an “unprecedented … protest” against previous rejections by the White House of funding increases.
(27 Sept 2006)
Is The Army At The Breaking Point?
David Martin, CBS News
The Army is stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months — the second such move since August.
(25 Sept 2006)
Related stories from the UK:
- Iraq situation is dire, Straw admits
- Take UK troops out of Iraq, senior military told ministers
- Iraq policy has led to Blair’s downfall, says top British UN official
-AF
Why Bush Will Nuke Iran
Craig Paul Roberts, Baltimore Chronicle
The neoconservative Bush administration will attack Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, because it is the only way the neocons believe they can rescue their goal of US (and Israeli) hegemony in the Middle East.
The US has lost the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Generals in both war theaters are stating their need for more troops. But there are no troops to send.
Bush has tried to pawn Afghanistan off on NATO, but Europe does not see any point in sacrificing its blood and money for the sake of American hegemony.
(26 Sept 2006)
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
America’s Decline Gives Bush Putin-Envy
Mark Ames, The eXile, PUB
Nothing could make America’s decline as a global power more embarrassing for the national psyche than the fact that Russia is on the rise — and USA’s patriotic press going bezerk in the process.
(29 Sept 2006)
Matt Savinar’s 29 September breaking news headlines are well worth reading – many more excellent links along these lines.
