The Status of Global Oil Production (Part 1)

By Roger Blanchard, Resilience.org

Could it be that there is a politically less appealing but a more realistic explanation for what is causing high oil prices?

What people don’t get about this inflation spike

By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee

So the truth is this: Civilization largely has used fossil fuels to destroy robust natural ecosystems and to replace them with artificial and fragile ones.

America and Russia: Stirrings in the Borderlands

By John Michael Greer, Ecosophia

To my mind, one of the main sources of collective stupidity in modern American society is our pervasive bad habit of short-term thinking. It’s embarrassingly rare for anyone in American public life to stop and say aloud, “Hold it. What’s going to happen if we keep on doing this for more than a few more years?”

Oil crunch and Eurozone crisis

By Brendan Barrett, OurWorld2.0

We are three and a half years into the Eurozone crisis that kicked off in October 2009 when Greek minister of finance George Papaconstantinou made it apparent to the outside world that his country's budget was essentially a gaping hole. The recent bailout (or bail-in where depositors and creditors have to pay their share) of the Cyprus banks is just the latest chapter in this ongoing story of recession, austerity measures, high unemployment, strikes, protests, credit rating cuts, financial reforms and leadership resignations. But what if, on top of all of this, the price of oil was to spike at over US$200 a barrel? Would that mark the end of the Eurozone?

Ten reasons why high oil prices are a problem

By Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum

A person might think from looking at news reports that our oil problems are gone, but oil prices are still high. In fact, the new “tight oil” sources of oil which are supposed to grow in supply are still expensive to extract. If we expect to have more tight oil and more oil from other unconventional sources, we need to expect to continue to have high oil prices. The new oil may help supply somewhat, but the high cost of extraction is not likely to go away.

2013: Beginning of Long-Term Recession?

By Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World

We have been hearing a lot about escaping the fiscal cliff, but our problem isn’t solved. The fixes to date have been partial and temporary. There are many painful decisions ahead. Based on what I can see, the most likely outcome is that the US economy will enter a severe recession by the end of 2013.

Commentary: What no candidate is saying about energy and the economy

By Charles Hall, Jan Mueller, ASPO-USA

This election is being framed as a choice between two different approaches to return to robust economic growth. But what if both sides are missing a critical underlying factor in our economic troubles?