The 2008 Economic Collapse

June 26, 2012 Hunter Wallace BRA Economics, Economy, Energy, Peak Oil 66

BRA

Here’s an excerpt from Kunstler’s new book:

“It was not a coincidence that the global financial system wobbled and crashed in mid-2008, the same moment that oil shot up to $147 a barrel. Underlying the price event was a growing recognition by buyers, users, and traders in oil that oil had reached an inflection point, which was, of course, peak oil. Among this group were airlines, chemical and plastics makers, big agriculture, trucking companies, heating oil distributors, and electric power utilities. The public might have been asleep at the wheel but these industrial-scale oil buyers ran gigantic enterprises and rising prices had been playing havoc with their business formulas for several years.

Since 2002, for instance, Delta and United Airlines had been operating in bankruptcy, until they merged, respectively, with Northwest and Continental. Japan Airlines went bankrupt in 2010. In the fall of 2011 American Airlines entered bankruptcy. They all had to worry continuously about securing large amounts of oil based jet fuel, which rose from between 10 and 20 percent of their total operating costs in the 1990s to between 30 and 50 percent in 2008. All big buyers of oil in the OECD countries also found themselves bidding increasingly into the market against China and India (Chindia!), which were seeing economic growth rates around 10 percent in recent years. Fear and greed drove the oil markets in the spring and summer of 2008, egged on by speculators, including Wall Street banks and investment firms, who took advantage of the anxious mood. In turn, oil prices ramping above $100, then $120, then $140 in July very decisively crushed economic activity. It wasn’t long before these troubles moved to the heart of the economy, with job losses mounting and mortgages going bad at a frightening rate.”

It should be interesting to find out how BRA’s economy is performing with oil collapsing in the middle of the summer driving season.

About Hunter Wallace 12380 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

16 Comments

  1. There was severe malnutrition and also actual starvation in America during the 1930’s after the feds confiscated the gold owned by the average American citizens.
    GOOGLE: Boris Borisov + American Holocaust

  4. “Point is: If you don’t hold it, don’t count on being able to get it.”

    I wholeheartedly agree. Buy Maple Leafs, Kruggerands, American Eagles etc… as they are highly liquid and trade at only a slight premium to bullion. I personally prefer Maple Leafs as they also come in 1/20, 1/10, 1/4th ounce sizes which will be much more handy for use as actual currency if and when the fractional reserve banking system collapses.

  7. they didn’t go door to door taking peoples gold. don’t turn it in and use it on the black market

  8. “dude that is all high markup items, junk sliver has a much lower markup”

    Those markups will be insignificant to the value of coins when the currency becomes worthless. Who really wants to clip slices off of one ounce coins to pay for medium priced items (a one ounce gold coin will buy a car.) The best way to own silver is in bags of uncirculated pre-1964 dimes.

  10. The point of this discussion about gold:
    Gold can be confiscated by uncle sam- it happened in 1933.
    The feds confiscated gold from american citizens– and lots of it.
    In addition, in case of massive civil disturbance, food shipments to cities, suburbs, and to towns in the country, can easily be blockaded.
    If this happens, there will be no food to be had. Your gold– whatever you manage to hide from uncle sam is not going to help you.
    You may not even be able to use it if uncle sam makes it illegal to use as a currency/means of exchange. That can very easily be done with a presidential executive order. It happened in 1933 already!
    To those Americans who live on farms and/or are self-sufficient in terms of food, that’s great. I am very happy for the Americans who are self-sufficient.
    Still, the great majority aren’t.
    My message is to those Americans who are not self-sufficient.
    Buy gold if you want . No problem. Just don’t get complacent about it. It’s good to stock up on food and other essentials as well.
    If you don’t have alot of money ( like me) stock up a little bit at a time, the best you can.
    That’s my message.
    To those interested in the topic of gold confiscation, there is alot of info online about it. It can be found with a simple engine search– google, or any other search engine.

  11. I forgot to mention and need to add. If food shipments are blockaded and there is no food to be had– you will not be able to use whatever gold coins you manage to hide from uncle sam on the “black market”. There will be no food– regular market or “black market”.
    Read Boris Borisov for a very realistic analysis of the kind of world we live in and what our government is really all about. It is a very sad read, but a very important read nonetheless.
    He can easily found online. Google:
    ” Boris Borisov + American Holocaust”
    Or, you can just google his name.

  15. Joe said: Gold is not going to do one much good when the food shipments are blockaded and there’s no food to be had .
    …..
    May want to store food and other essentials in case of massive civil disturbance while you count your gold — just in case.

    I agree. At least silver has industrial needs. Barb said GLD may be pulling a scam. GLD has been rumored to not have all the gold it is supposed to have warehoused for some time. If I was at work, I could tell you the 60 forward price of GLD based on a $1574.50 price at COMEX. GLD suffers from erosion in price that comes naturally from buying, selling, and the related fees (clearing, exchange, storage). I have been working on a little gold project for some time.

    The Trust’s estimated ordinary operating expenses are accrued daily and are reflected in the NAV of the Trust. The ordinary operating expenses of the Trust ….. if at the end of any month during such period the estimated ordinary expenses of the Trust exceed an amount equal to 0.40% per annum of the daily ANAV of the Trust for such month, the fees payable to the Sponsor and the Marketing Agent from the assets of the Trust for such month will be reduced by the amount of such excess in equal shares up to the amount of their fees.

    0.40%/100 = 250 — In 250 years GLD will be worthless ….. have no value, all the gold will have been sold to cover expenses.

    Barb, thanks for the info on LFTR technology. If he could build it as a for profit power company, I would would be willing to invest in it.

    Ann Barnhardt recommends buying scrap silver coinage in case the SHTF. Denominations don’t matter with US coinage because it is standardized weights that would be required for barter. Ingots do you no good when you only need a sack of wheat.
    http://www.providentmetals.com/coins/us-silver-coins/coin-90-silver-us-junk.html

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