ENERGETIC LIMITS TO GROWTH

[EstimatedProphet]

Imagine having a motor scooter with a five-gallon tank, but the nearest gas
station is six gallons away. You can not fill your tank with trips to the
gas station because you burn more than you can bring back -- it's
impossible for you to cover your overhead (the size of your bankroll and
the price of the gas are irrelevant). You might as well put your scooter up
on blocks because you are "out of gas" -- forever.

CENTRAL BANKERS CAN NOT PRINT ENERGY! If a country must spend more-than-one
unit of energy to produce enough goods and services to buy one unit of
energy, it will be impossible to cover the overhead (e.g., Zimbabwe). At
that point, every country's economic machine is "out of gas" -- money and
common stocks worthless -- forever.

See ENERGETIC LIMITS TO GROWTH, by Jay Hanson, ENERGY Magazine, Spring,
1999; http://www.dieoff.com/page175.htm

"Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police." -- Orwell,
1984

[gristy]

1. But the energy essentially costs the same amount for everyone.

The loss of America's manufacturing base notwithstanding, as long as a country or corporation is adding value to that energy, they can always sell it for more than they bought it for.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. If we're an energy producer, that's one thing

But we're not. If we need 1 1/2x worth of energy to produce 1x of goods, we're screwed.