The Rainmakers (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Sept. 19, 2011 -- This much can be stated categorically about the USA these days: the more distressed our economy gets, the more delusional thinking you will encounter.

People want to assign the cause of their misery to this or that (socialism, abortion, Jews, the New World Order). People want to believe that their world is a safe place with bright prospects (climate change is a myth, we have a hundred years of shale oil). The realm of oil is especially ripe for misunderstanding, since we depend on the stuff so desperately, and the world's geology is complex indeed, and then you have to bring math and money into the picture. But it's another thing when professional propagandists take the stage and attempt to systematically mislead the public.

Such is the case with two ersatz bombshells zinging across the web-waves this past week, fired off by two of the foremost professional liars on the scene. The first comes from the oil industry's leading prostitute, Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), owned by the mammoth HIS consulting company. CERA is the main public relations shop for the oil industry. Its mission is to blow smoke up America's ass in order to keep investment dollars flowing into oil companies because oil companies prefer to use other people's money to perform their risky operations. They make a lot of money themselves, and accumulate it diligently, but they are not so foolish as to squander it on dry holes and adventures in alchemy.

So, last week Daniel Yergin came out with a blast in the Wall Street Journal affecting to debunk peak oil. His own theory is much like Irving Fisher's economic theory set out Oct. 21, 1929, that "stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Three days later, the markets crashed and the Great Depression commenced. Yergin says we've hit a permanent plateau for oil production. He is pimping for a bonanza in shale oil, tar sands, and other innovative ventures in picking "fruit" that is not hanging so low anymore. He says:

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http://worldnewstrust.com/the-rainmakers-james-howard-kunstler.html

[pscot]

1. The availability of water

will be a greater impediment than capital. It takes a lot of water to process shale; effectively boiling rocks to extract oil. Unless we want to drain the Great Lakes and the Ogallala aquifer, it just is not there.

[yurbud]

2. ironically, Yergin's THE PRIZE was how I knew every word about Iraq and Afghanistan is a lie

When you read about how pivotal oil was in history and how our government acted as errand boy for the oil barons, any talk of spreading democracy, fighting terrorism, or even securing strategic oil supplies seems like an insulting, childish lie.

Very powerful, wealthy corporations buy politicians to seize assets when negotiations don't go the way they want.

[patrice]

4. Was Yergin, then, the source of that "Iraq's oil will pay for the war" bullshit . . . ?

[yurbud]

5. No, not anymore than big oil paid us back for overthrowing Mossadegh in Iran.

Big oil makes demands, politicians obey, taxpayers pick up the tab.

[patrice]

3. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Tace.

[patrice]

7. Love this graphic! It's going into my FB file, along with this link. nt