America's economic troubles

[Canadian Viking]

Railfans, I recently discovered a set of video clips called "The Crash Course" which I found very interesting. It is produced by Chris Martenson and can be seen at his website: http://www.chrismartenson.com/
On the home page of his site he says:

If you are brand new to this site, I'd like to direct your attention to The Crash Course, which represents my very best attempt to explain exactly how we got into this economic crisis. It's completely free and is my offering to everybody and anybody who wishes to view it.

You don't have to register for his site, or subscribe to his newsletter to view "The Crash Course." I found it very informative and well put together. It doesn't cover all the details of things like the stock market crash, bank bailouts, etc. but looks more at the big picture economically. I think there is some key information there and some of you will find it interesting, too.

[JayEff]

One of the late installments was in August. He only refers to the crash in the last or second to last lecture. Makes ya think. I have to laugh when I hear the talking heads discuss bank 'financial assets'. All they own is a few buildings and a whole lot of promises to pay.

He his right about peak oil. It is not a theory. It is a fact. A couple of years ago I was working in that sector. The old fields that are drying up are shallow and close to town. The new ones are way out in the muskeg or the mountains, or under the ocean or deep underground.

Tar sands are extracted either from mined material with hot water, or by injecting steam and solvent into the ground, and sucking it out with the bitumen in a gigantic straw. Either way it takes a lot of energy to heat the that water. I did not think that the ratio of energy out / total energy in would be any better than 50%.