Gas is gonna go through the roof.....

[HempKat]

The day the dollar isn't the world reserve currency...is the day America will die. I don't see it happening...all that military spending wasn't just to show off you know. We CAN kick ANYONE'S ass...big time. Anyone who thinks we "lost" Vietnam, or will lose in the middle east is dreaming. We voluntarily decided to cut our losses...we COULD have literally destroyed Vietnam or the middle east. It's the collateral damage we try to avoid that makes it LOOK like we lost. It's like Mike Tyson not continuing fighting the "woman's boxing champion" to her eventual death...

You're living in a dream world. Yes, you're right, America could kick ass virtually wherever it wanted if it decided not to worry about collateral damage. The problem with that though is we're not the only ones with that ability. Between the USA, Russia and China alone there is enough military might to destroy everyone in the world a couple of dozen times over. Thing is, you only need to kill everyone once, then it's game over, everyone loses. The world might have been like you imagined in the 50's and 60's but now a days America can't go wherever it wants and do whatever it wants and not be held accountable. Further it's that type of arrogance that has created most of our Foreign Affair issues. America is no longer the powerful avenging angel that saved the world from a great evil. No longer can we ride on the coattails of that accomplishment. To many we have become the new great evil, a nation full of glutons squandering a disporportionate share of the world's resources.

 

[cashmunny]

America can't go wherever it wants and do whatever it wants and not be held accountable. Further it's that type of arrogance that has created most of our Foreign Affair issues. America is no longer the powerful avenging angel that saved the world from a great evil. No longer can we ride on the coattails of that accomplishment. To many we have become the new great evil, a nation full of glutons squandering a disporportionate share of the world's resources.

Quoted for truth, OUCH!!!

 

[zenoonez]

You're living in a dream world. Yes, you're right, America could kick ass virtually wherever it wanted if it decided not to worry about collateral damage. The problem with that though is we're not the only ones with that ability. Between the USA, Russia and China alone there is enough military might to destroy everyone in the world a couple of dozen times over. Thing is, you only need to kill everyone once, then it's game over, everyone loses. The world might have been like you imagined in the 50's and 60's but now a days America can't go wherever it wants and do whatever it wants and not be held accountable. Further it's that type of arrogance that has created most of our Foreign Affair issues. America is no longer the powerful avenging angel that saved the world from a great evil. No longer can we ride on the coattails of that accomplishment. To many we have become the new great evil, a nation full of glutons squandering a disporportionate share of the world's resources.

True. We should stop sending aid oversees and simply use that wealth to further enrich America and our people with free education or an actual healthcare system or sink it into research or NASA. If the world wants a savior let them convince us to come to their aid like they did with WWII.

 

[SpasticGramps]

War is a racket. A game of financial conquest and empire. No where is this better seen than in the drug war. Perpetual war is a cancer.

Extrapolate.

 

[Greensub]

It's NOT an expenditure...it's just going deeper into debt. EVERY dollar not gained through taxation stays as debt. Nothing is given to the company...they just don't have to pay anything. so it stays a debt to the government.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes.html

The most egregious example is General Electric ( GE - news - people ). Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/expenditures/budget.cfm

The tax expenditure budget comprises the estimated revenue losses attributable to various exclusions, exemptions, deductions, nonrefundable credits, deferrals, and preferential rates in the tax code. These provisions reduce the income tax liabilities of individuals or businesses that undertake certain types of activities. For instance, people who donate to charities often deduct their donations on their tax returns and thus reduce their income tax. The tax expenditure budget estimates the aggregate cost of this and other provisions. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires that the budget include estimates for tax expenditures, but only for those provisions that affect the federal income taxes of individuals and corporations. The government could, but does not, formulate tax expenditure budgets for Social Security and other taxes.

If you're "dirt poor" now...you don't stand a chance. Inflation WILL eat you alive! But the government will bail you out...as the debt reaches $15 trillion +.

not sure of your point here. Seems combative though.

Interest rates MUST go back down...we CAN'T service debt at high interest rates. They'll figure out some way to keep them down...or, it's REALLY the beginning of the end.

Interest rates don't HAVE to do anything...It would be nice if they did, I won't count on it though (I'll stop responding to this part here... I'm not even sure what I'm arguing about)

 

[cashmunny]

Long term interest rates are set by virtue of supply and demand pressures on US Treasuries in the open market. The Federal reserve influences long term interest rates on Treasuries in the open market by buying and selling them. In order to reduce or hold down interest rates they buy treasuries. However to do so they have to create money out of thin air since they have no revenue stream to speak of that would finance purchases on this scale. This has the potential to be inflationary since again money is being created out of thin air, literally billions of dollars appear on the Feds balance sheet with a keystroke, and then those billions of dollars go out into the marketplace as payment for US Treasury notes; government IOUs. The inflationary aspect of money creation like this is balanced by the deflationary forces which are destroying money. When your home loses value, that is deflation. When you take a pay cut at work that is deflation. When stock prices crater that is deflation. In all those scenarios money is being destroyed. And all those scenarios have been in full bloom over the past two years. So printing money as some people put it, is not inflationary at the moment since it is occurring within a severely deflationary environment.

Now the tricky part is this: Even though the Federal reserve is creating money out of thin air, that does not mean that the Federal debt that they are buying with newly created dollars goes away or that the Federal government is not obligated to pay it back. This is not a situation where the Federal government is printing money to pay itself. The Federal reserve is a quasi-private entity that is lending money to the US Treasury at the going rates. They have the unique power to create that money out of thin air, but it is NOT a situation where the government is printing money and paying itself with it like Zimbabwe. All those Treasuries that the Fed is buying right now to keep interest rates low to stimulate the economy will have to be sold back into the open market eventually. Which will raise interest rates. And even if the Federal reserve keeps those Treasuries on their books for the duration of the note, the Federal government has to pay back the principal with interest and they do so with real tax dollars, dollars that are not created from thin air but rather paid by you and I with our taxes. The Treasury does not have the power to create money, only the Federal reserve does and it is a quasi private entity, a private banking cabal that has friends in high places would be one way to put it.

The nightmare scenario is this: What happens if all that money creation and all that debt issuance does not stimulate the economy? Then you have a situation where Federal tax revenues are shrinking or at least not growing, more and more of Federal tax revenues will be going to pay interest, and less and less will go towards things like Grandma's Social Security and Medicare. In that situation spending has to be cut or taxes have to be raised (both of which hurt the economy). Borrowing more will not help.

What will probably happen is that the Federal reserve will allow inflation to creep up a little more than is justifiable. If inflation starts running at 4 percent, but the US Treasury borrowed using 10 year notes issued at 2.5 percent, guess what, those bonds have a negative real rate of return. They are losing money. That hurts bondholders of course. And bond buyers aren't stupid, they get one whiff that this is happening and interest rates will go up to compensate. But the interest rate on debt that is already issued can't change. It's a fixed rate. So the US Treasury will have borrowed at a low rate and paid back the debt in inflation devalued dollars. It's a beautiful thing to be the world's reserve currency.

Inflation hurts everyone though, it diminishes purchasing power. It's like a hidden tax increase. The nice thing about it is plausible deniability. It's a tax increase that no politician can be blamed for. And that is why this is the most likely scenario.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Austerity like a mofo.

 

[igrowone]

seems like a reasonable point to stir the pot(so to speak)
we have an energy source that dwarfs all the fossil fuels combined, good old nuclear power
there are much better reactor designs that have been developed, they leave the old light water reactors in the dust
light water's can pull out about 2% of the available energy from existing nuclear fuels, newer designs(such as molten salt, check wiki if interested) can extract 98
large increases in operational safety, and nuclear waste reduction(effective reduction)
it's a question of will, check out china's plan on building nuke sites, they're not waiting for the end of fossil fuels

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Yeah, China has plans for hundreds (yikes) of nuke plants.

China just learned how to reprocess their spent fuel. This process can be used to make bombs (something Clinton tried to prevent N Korea from doing by giving them light-water reactors.) But China has had nukes for decades, I guess we're supposed to feel reassured.

Jimmy Carter banned US reprocessing as a potential snag to nuclear disarmament agreements with the former Soviets. More than 30 years later, waste continues to be temporarily stored, awaiting Yucca Mountain?

 

[headband 707]

I guess it's time to buy a scooter!!! LOL..

 

[igrowone]

Jimmy Carter banned US reprocessing as a potential snag to nuclear disarmament agreements with the former Soviets. More than 30 years later, waste continues to be temporarily stored, awaiting Yucca Mountain?

the fleet of light water reactors we have are a big waster issue
light water nuclear is basically a 60 year old technology, it sucks for efficiency and it is reflected with the large amounts of low(and high) level waste
nuclear technology made big strides in the 60's through the 80's, but 3 mile island and Chernobyl put the kibosh on deployment
thing is, in this country the nuclear industry has an excellent record of safety
want to see bad cancer rates? stop by the huge petrochemical plants of Louisiana/Texas, some very interesting cancer rates there
people's perception of risk can be very skewed

 

[headband 707]

the fleet of light water reactors we have are a big waster issue
light water nuclear is basically a 60 year old technology, it sucks for efficiency and it is reflected with the large amounts of low(and high) level waste
nuclear technology made big strides in the 60's through the 80's, but 3 mile island and Chernobyl put the kibosh on deployment
thing is, in this country the nuclear industry has an excellent record of safety
want to see bad cancer rates? stop by the huge petrochemical plants of Louisiana/Texas, some very interesting cancer rates there
people's perception of risk can be very skewed

AGREED nuclear is NOT the way to go... If for any reason the electricity gets cut off for a few months the whole world is in danger of nuclear fall out from the fridgeration unit failing. .. Man has really fucked himself looking for energy and the Sun is right there and what did we do ,,,we ignored it.. We really are tools LOL..or atleast the ppl we put incharge are.. peace out Headband707

PS.. they are now opening a tourguild to go to Chernobyl and see what happened???? LOL WTF.. and who wants to go? LOL

 

[igrowone]

AGREED nuclear is NOT the way to go... If for any reason the electricity gets cut off for a few months the whole world is in danger of nuclear fall out from the fridgeration unit failing. .. Man has really fucked himself looking for energy and the Sun is right there and what did we do ,,,we ignored it.. We really are tools LOL..or atleast the ppl we put incharge are.. peace out Headband707

PS.. they are now opening a tourguild to go to Chernobyl and see what happened???? LOL WTF.. and who wants to go? LOL

not sure what fallout from a fridgeration unit is, it's not a plausible issue with newer, safe reactor designs
sun is fine, and if the economics can be made to work, i'd have no issues with it
Chernobyl resulted from an inherently unsafe design, no containment dome, which is what every commercial reactor design in the USA has used
there are very grim realities with wind/solar - cost per unit of generation
we're building wind turbines at a brisk rate, but it's a very small percentage of total power generation
and its costs jump up very sharply when it becomes a larger percentage of the grid, it's intermittent which requires some power storage, and power storage costs an arm and a leg when used on these scales

 

[SpasticGramps]

Now would be a good time for nanotechnology to enter stage right.

Nanotechnology + Sunlight = sustainable energy

There are things we can do to ween ourselves off fossil fuels, but until that combination is widespread and at an economically feasible cost I don't see a whole lot of significant change happening.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Here's how we get green energy on a large scale as fast as possible...

...allow renewable energy industry executives to get as filthy rich as their old energy piers.

Forget sound energy policy, energy independence, sustainable energy, less pollution, less warming, yada yada.

It's all about profit. Color the green guys rich and we'll have clean energy tomorrow.

We could transform energy production and distribution right now. Yesterday. But industry hasn't figured out a way to sell user rights to sun, wind etc.

As long as profit reins from mining and pumping from the ground, old money will never admit that renewables are sustainable.

 

[HempKat]

not sure what fallout from a fridgeration unit is, it's not a plausible issue with newer, safe reactor designs
sun is fine, and if the economics can be made to work, i'd have no issues with it
Chernobyl resulted from an inherently unsafe design, no containment dome, which is what every commercial reactor design in the USA has used
there are very grim realities with wind/solar - cost per unit of generation
we're building wind turbines at a brisk rate, but it's a very small percentage of total power generation
and its costs jump up very sharply when it becomes a larger percentage of the grid, it's intermittent which requires some power storage, and power storage costs an arm and a leg when used on these scales

Isn't power storage really only an issue if you try to keep the solar or wind power generated, at the location it's generated? Doesn't the plan of making a smart grid where you can generate electricity and what you don't use immediately goes into the system (as a credit to you) for others to use, solve the problem of storage?

Hopefully innovation will fix the problems with solar and wind power. Mainly they fall short because they're inefficient and not much energy has been put into making them less so. Like solar panels, I believe on average their efficiency is about 12%. There is a company out there that has found a way to get closer to 80% efficiency but they haven't figured out yet how to actually get the energy created from the photoreactive material to where it can be used.

 

[igrowone]

Isn't power storage really only an issue if you try to keep the solar or wind power generated, at the location it's generated? Doesn't the plan of making a smart grid where you can generate electricity and what you don't use immediately goes into the system (as a credit to you) for others to use, solve the problem of storage?

Hopefully innovation will fix the problems with solar and wind power. Mainly they fall short because they're inefficient and not much energy has been put into making them less so. Like solar panels, I believe on average their efficiency is about 12%. There is a company out there that has found a way to get closer to 80% efficiency but they haven't figured out yet how to actually get the energy created from the photoreactive material to where it can be used.

currently, wind/solar interface well with the existing grid because there is so little power generated from them
just how much you can pump into a grid on a large scale is a bit of an open question
smart grid is research in progress, not a done deal, no one is completely sure just how well it will be able to integrate a large percentage of intermittent power generation sources
the devil really is in the details, because that will be a big determiner of just how cost effective the system will be

 

[headband 707]

I watched a show about ,what would happen if for whatever the reason there were no more humans on this earth and what will happen to the earth when ppl are no longer able to do what they do. One of the biggest problems first and formost is our nuclear plants all over the world.. I think they said 23 plants in the US and 14 in Canada alone and all of them are going to leak!! None of the plants are made to evert disaster!!! Once the electricity runs out were totally screwed!!!! They have NOT figured out a way to get rid of nuclear waste in all these fucking years !!! WE are as stupid about this as they come .. The more you know lol.. peace out Headband707

 

[BrainSellz]

might be a bit off topic....however it would seem that oil helps keep the earth cool since it does the same for cars and what not....so if they are depleting it and then were burning it, it would seem that were double dosing the planet, phukin her from the inside and the outside, draining her life blood, her "Will" i mean her "Oil" (the "O" can have the sound of "W", the word "One" shows this) ....that stuff is there for a reason, whether its for us or not i cant say however what i do believe is we are taking and using way to much....just a matter of time.....

 

[igrowone]

might be a bit off topic....however it would seem that oil helps keep the earth cool since it does the same for cars and what not....so if they are depleting it and then were burning it, it would seem that were double dosing the planet, phukin her from the inside and the outside, draining her life blood, her "Will" i mean her "Oil" (the "O" can have the sound of "W", the word "One" shows this) ....that stuff is there for a reason, whether its for us or not i cant say however what i do believe is we are taking and using way to much....just a matter of time.....

this is called the Gaia hypothesis(spelling?), the idea is life works on the global environment to maintain livable conditions
not widely accepted, but there are some interesting features
one is carbon has been gradually locked up over the eons as fossil fuel
the sun's luminance has been increasing over the years, it's the natural progression of this type of star
if carbon hadn't been locked up, we'd be in a much warmer climate now