By Jeff Gerritsen 11/21/2008 at 00:09

The current occupant of the White House has left the biggest mess the world has ever seen. Hear is the dilemma: the consumer economy we all knew and loved looks like its DOA. There will be pressure from from everywhere to keep it hooked up to costly credit life support.  However, I believe A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that is on life support. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. I wonder if it is the kind of thing that a nation of leisure is used to?

By Jeff Gerritsen 11/05/2008

America, celebrate, enjoy, and savor Obama's election victory.   It has been a long, hard 28 years since this country was taken over by the right wing neocon's.  We now have hope that this country will not become another corporate fascist state ruled by transnational corporations.  Senator McCain's concession speech was gracious and I hope will mark the beginning of our national healing the national wound this campaign inflicted.

(Originally written over a year ago - Nov of 2007)
As liquidity dries up, the truth is revealed!

A financial crash is not sudden, singular event.

The way the Crash of 1929 is commonly misunderstood, the market crashed on Monday, October 31, 1929 and soup lines formed Tuesday – Not so!

A financial crash is a process lasting as long as a year, punctuated by a few notable grip-and-grin market events that make it into the history books. Underlying the process is the dissolution of a fallacious belief system that developed over a period of many years. Fallacies floated on an ocean of cheap credit. As the credit dries up, facts are revealed under the x-ray vision of reality.

Multiple fallacious beliefs now show under the light of evidence for all to see. The complicity of the ratings agencies in creating the housing bubble, while notable, is a minor revelation.

Almost two years ago I moved from Boise ID to Portland OR. I left behind several good friends, and from time to time we exchange emails. A couple of days ago a friend who lives in Boise sent me email asking my opinion on the current economic conditions and their relationship with Peak Oil. Last night I wrote a reply to his question, however another local Portland OR friend suggested I post the reply in the hope that many visitors to this website would find it helpful, thought provoking, and even create an account to comment on the issues raised in my reply. So without further adieu, here it is.

> Is this the start of the real earthquake or just a pre-shock?
>
> The world-wide economy looks really unstable, but I don't
> know if energy is yet expensive enough or in short enough
> supply for this house of cards to fall just yet.
>
> Xxxxx

Current situation:
The White House is in full-panic mode. In fact, the falling stock market has the administration so worried that Bush delivered a speech Friday detailing a “stimulus package” designed to rev-up flagging consumer spending. Sheer panic is in the air. Fed chairman Bernanke’s appearance on Capital Hill on Thursday turned out to be a total bust. Bernanke was supposed to calm jittery investors with promises of rates cuts and easy credit. Instead, his gloomy predictions put the market into a tailspin sending the Dow Jone’s down 306 points by Thursday’s end. Now Bush and Co. are trying to pick up the pieces and restore confidence in Wall Street – fat chance!

So what do we really have going on in the good ol US of A? How about 26 years of disaster economic policy called “Reganomics” that has hit the implacable barrier of PEAK OIL. Will the proposed stimulus package put forth by W have any real effect? Will it ease the pain felt by so many Americans? I contend W's (and congresses stimulus plan) are nothing more than giving a “crack head” on their death bed one last massive dose of crack. The addict rouses from their near comatose state only to realize the desperation of their condition and finally fall into the waiting arms of death!

Okay, great, now that you've really depressed me, what do we do?

How about a real stimulus plan that rebuilds our country to face an energy poor future where we can thrive, experience social connectedness, and have an opportunity to be free? Okay, I'll bite, so what is it?

Well, if it isn't 2008 already. My how time flies and my spare tire gets larger - too much holiday cheer - food that is. I couldn't resist an extra chocolate chip cookie, or the fudge brownie, even that extra bowl of ice cream on top of rich homemade pecan pie!. Oh yes I did say a slice of pecan pie? Well maybe a quarter of pecan pie - another 1000 calories. There are several sayings around the holidays. One of my favorite is; "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips". Well thats the female version. I've modified it for us guys - "Over the lips, under the gums, lookout waistline, here it comes!"

Here it comes! Well that leads me to predictions for 2008. For years I've followed Jim Kunstler, liked his style of irreverent humor, and generally believe he had a firm grasp on reality. Jim has endeared me with his wit and humor, especially describing suburbia, for which I have equally as much disdain. I've take the liberty to copy Jim's predictions and distill them down to bullet points. While I like Jim's writing, the software engineer in me wants things in a neat and orderly fashion.

I've become pretty much a "doomer" type of person. I don't hold out much hope for the USA's status quo to continue functioning in any sane and rational manner. While the ultimate end of these events hold promise, return to a hunter / gather type society, the transition period will be nothing less than pure hell to endure. We in the USA have had a party at the worlds economic and our planets remaining crude oil expense. It's been one hell of a ride. I've become addicted to this lifestyle like anyone else. However as the drunk must sober up, we must rid ourselves of our addiction to the American way of life - a suburban drive in utopia, complete with fast food and open heart surgery. Our planet wont support it anymore. So without further adieu here it is....

27 Dec 2007
Real Reason Behind Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment being sent to house Judiciary committee!

Remember last month, November 6th 2007, when Kucinich's Articles Of Impeachment were introduced as a privileged resolution (H Res 333 - now called H Res 799)? Do you remember some rather spectacular "goings on" that day? Well it survived an attempt to table (kill) it. Ultimately it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee headed by John Conyers. It seems the Main Stream Media didn't fully cover the events of that day.

Hum..., lets see here, as I was listening to a rebroadcast of the Randi Rhodes show, Randi was in "rapped attention", well she was literally "freaking out" to the C-Span coverage as events unfolded. The vote started out like any other house resolution vote. 20 minuets into the vote H Res 333 was going down to defeat. Then all of a sudden, Randi went ballistic. Randi couldn't believe her eyes as she watched C-Span on the monitor - the republicans were changing their vote. Then Democrats who voted against H Res 333, not to be embarrassed by fellow republicans, changed their votes in favor of H Res 333.

This was "real" drama unfolding before ...