slowlyfadingaway: Life at the end of civilization?

• The Federal Express plows forward aiming for your loot. Don’t get on the boxcar.
• Slate tells us why Fed reform won’t work. Duh.
• When the end is so very nigh, which straw breaks the camel’s back?
• When trouble strikes, you’re on your own.
• The Collapse Party becoming the most honest party in government. Doubt anybody would vote for it.

• Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, says we’re in big trouble.
• Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute and energy expert says the Global Depression is here…we just don’t know it yet.
• Sobering case study of Peak Oil affecting a pump near you very soon. The Canterell oil field has gone into decline recently. Mexico is our third leading source of oil exports, and Canterell is the world’s second largest field. Life gets depressing when you find yourself tracking oil fields in other countries more than you do the NCAA tournament results.

• The conning of America, says Guardian. That’s why it’s called the eCONomy, stoopid!
• This article asks, why does Bush seem happy? Today, by the Smashing Pumpkins, is also happy.
• I’m clearly learning about our impending depression from non-American media outlets today.

Another oddly cheerful rumination of everything coming to the end. You might have heard this one as the soundtrack to CNN’s Primaries coverage recently.

One issue that seems to get conservatives understandably concerned is any threat to America’s economic or political sovereignty. As the dollar weakens, gas prices soar, immigration rages, and concern for our future continues to rise, the ideas of a NAFTA Superhighway, a North American Union, and a replacement currency called the Amero (think the Euro) enter as challenges to what it means to live within the world’s strongest economy and nation and to see that replaced by….something else. One has to wonder, though, how the project of globalization that results in the further centralization of political systems and currencies and governmental oversight can continue while that particular system — pardon the pun — runs out of gas.

The following video from CNN gives you a taste of political battles to come this election season. Whether these battles are televised is another story.

• Stocks make a rebound — Enough articles like this, and one almost believes all is OK in the world. It’s not.
• Are you on a terrorist watch list? — Apparently 1 out of 300 Americans are. Which I guess I can believe, given that 1 out of 100 of us is in jail. Glad someone is keeping track.
• Army Goes Green! Although I’m wondering if climate change will really be a concern to anybody when fuel shortages hit.
• Is Iran imminent? Political Hell Mary?

Finally, creepiest MTV video ever.

• The Death of Consumerism by Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Impending Destruction of the US Economy: Part 1 — This was written wayyyy back in July but is recommended for its clear language and the point that the economy has been in grave trouble for longer than many of us realized…we’re just now seeing the effects.
• Save the Market from Market Forces — Free Market fundamentalists read up.
• Cheap Oil Is Over: Kiss the Gas-Guzzling NASCAR Era Good-Bye by James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler is considered a “doomer” by those more optimistic about our energy future, but his influential book, The Long Emergency, written in 2005, looks more relevant with each passing day. He was easy to second guess when oil was $55 a barrel and the real estate boom was on. Now that oil has hit $110 and the economy is melting, he’s worth listening to.

Two good videos to understand what’s going on right now, and the delicious interaction of mainstream media and alarmed pundits.

First, Gerri Willis, the Personal Finance editor for CNN explains the “subprime” crisis and why it goes far beyond a little reckless lending. What I love about the video is that it clearly deconstructs the debacle that is going on and points out how much obfuscation occurs in mainstream financial analysis.
Second, Matt Simmons, perhaps the most successful energy investor and a key adviser to the Bush Administration throws cold water on the faces of the Fast Money folks in explaining how energy prices are going up and, oh, we might be running out of oil.