By Brian Davey, Feasta
Certain stories recur in the history of humanity – and one of the most dramatic and traumatic is that of hubris. Hubris is a drama brought about by actions motivated by excessive pride – for example the overestimation by leaders – and the society or institutions in their charge – of their power.
By Ellen Brown, Web of Debt
The Fed is aggressively raising interest rates, although inflation is contained, private debt is already at 150% of GDP, and rising variable rates could push borrowers into insolvency. So what is driving the Fed’s push to “tighten”?
By Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World
The Federal Reserve would like to raise target interest rates because of inflation concerns and concern that asset bubbles are forming. It seems to me that raising interest rates at this time is very ill advised.
By Rune Likvern, Fractional Flow
At first glance it is hard to see how oil, interest rates and debt are connected. Two of them are human constructs while oil (fossil sunlight), a gift from Mother Nature, took tens of millions of years to process.
By Gail Tverberg, ourfiniteworld.com
There are many who believe that the use of energy is critical to the growth of the economy. In fact, I am among these people. The thing that is not as apparent is that growth in energy consumption is dependent on the growth of debt.
By Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World
Why are commodity prices, including oil prices, lagging? Ultimately, the question comes back to, “Why isn’t the world economy making very many of the end products that use these commodities?”
By Rune Likvern, Fractional Flow
What follows are the continuance of my research, discussions, observations and thoughts around the nexus of debts, interest rates and the oil price.
By Gail Tverberg, ourfiniteworld.com
The price of oil is down. How should we expect the economy to perform in 2015 and 2016?
By Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity
The world economy is slowing down and the authorities are fretting.
By Rune Likvern, Fractional Flow
How far the oil price will come down and for how long it will stay “low” is now anyone’s guess. A declining price results from weakening demand while supplies are improving.
By Gail Tverberg, ourfiniteworld.com
The standard way to make forecasts of almost anything is to look at recent trends and assume that this trend will continue, at least for the next several years.
By Gail Tverberg, ourfiniteworld.com
Academic researchers Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have become famous for their book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly and their earlier paper This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises. Their point, of course, is that the same thing happens over and over again. We can learn from past crises to solve our current problems.