The Pnebleu Blog

So, this has been an interesting ride for the last few months.  We had a woman versus a black man on the Democratic side of the fence and a Mormon versus a maverick on the Republican side.  Then, it narrowed down to McCain and Obama.  After the selection of the vice presidential candidates, a new energy and vigor was introduced to the 2008 race.  Female Governor Palin was a surprising choice on the part of McCain  and Obama’s lack of selecting Hillary Clinton shocked many.  With less than a month to the vote, things are getting intense.

The economy has been up and down.  The Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ have all fall a great deal in the last few weeks.  Many people believe the government should bail out the failing companies to “save” the economy.  I don’t think it will be enough.  We have based our economy on credit, and credit must be paid back.  Stricter lending policies must be brought back.  People not able to pay back a loan should not get it.  That may be harsh, but these are obviously hard times.  The national deficit is out of control.  We must stop spending money, and keep taxes low.  The government shouldn’t spend money it doesn’t have.  Raising taxes in an unstable economic climate would be disastrous.  It would slow the economic recovery further.

The next four years are going to be historic.  Either a female VP or a black President will lead the country through the worst ecomonic conditions in a very long time.  I do not doubt that we will recover, but it will take time and wise leadership.

It is pretty well understood that there is a finite amount of oil left in the ground. The rate we are pumping it out continues to grow as more markets open up in developing nations. Most likely within my lifetime the impacts of a decreasing and harder to reach supply will have severe consequences on the world economy. As the price of traditional energy increases, so does everything that uses it, crashing the economy.

When oil is gone we are going to have to move to other high density energy sources or face human disasters the world has never seen. Wars, famine, disease, and the breakdown of today’s society. Clean coal and nuclear energy are the most easily expandable sources of energy within the small time frame we have left. Cars will have to be moved to electricity to plug into these sources. Alternative energy will continue to be researched, but I don’t see them replacing oil as the dominate source of everyone’s energy.

Within the next few decades, increasing petroleum prices will wreck havoc on our economy and individual lives. I’m not sure we will be able to survive as we are now. Populations are probably going to decrease, as food costs are going to go up. People will leave the cities because they can’t afford to be there, and more land will revert back to farms. What ever happens, the end of oil will be painful.