2011 An Interesting Year--A Bit Beat Up

It was a year all right. Now, from my point of view ( that would be for the two of us) things seem fair enough. We get by, we have a life, covered in part because of Medicare and part because we live close to the ground, no debts, no fancy toys, no bad habits (beer/wine are part of the food chain and essential), and most importantly we have family and friends.

But out there in the real world the Sustainable Revolution, The Great Reset, The Big Adjustment, the Long Emergency is going on and it has become disruptive and discomforting. Here is why the chicken is beat up, and admittedly it has a some American arrogance involved.

The sovereign and personal debt issue is a monster that is and will plague all nations because we are connected. There is no way Greece can pay back it's debt, nor can others and that may well include California. There will be defaults and anybody or nation sitting on that debt will be taking a dandy hair cut. The currency issues will bite.

China has huge cities unoccupied (Above), all over built and rotting amid the drifting pollution. Their economy makes no sense and will falter as energy resources constrict. Over population is so profound that every landslide or high wave kills hundreds if not thousands. Someone local just returning from China and said no matter where they travelled it seemed as though a large stadium had just let out as the masses poured through the streets---except that it went on all day. Sustainable? Oh, this is the country that is bringing 1-2 coal fired generating plant on line every week--and we are worried about global warming!

Worst part of the beat up chicken is the part I hear every day, the part from friends who tell me their recent college graduate kids can not find a job, or the 60 year old who lost a job of thirty years, or the person down the street that had to take a cut in pay and then sent their home keys to the bank and walked away. Another asked, "Why send the kid to college when lawyers can't get jobs?"
Then to, oil is a food of a sort, it feeds us. We import 12 million barrels a day but the amount of oil available on the export market has been shrinking for 5 years or better. What about poor countries competing for oil? Banks aren't loaning money because there are no "bankable projects", nothing in this country can compete with 50 cent labor abroad. Labor arbitrage, wow. Globalization has to be one of the most ill-conceived ideas the jack-ass economist ever came up with (ya, that is a preposition).

Of course, the Middle East and North Africa are REAL stable. I just remembered, there is that oil there. Someone said they want freedom and democracy but the minute they get an election they elect religious fundamentalist. That chicken is cooked---and the grill they are using holds 80% of known oil reserves.

Interestingly, there was the 130 temperature in Pakistan and droughts in Texas and Mexico where millions of cattle have perished (not in the news though, as GW is off limits). I need to stop thinking and reading because the chicken is really getting pounded even though the GOP slate of buffoons is promising huge amounts of business as usual. The word delusional comes to mind.

The list goes on, but the chicken is still up and walking---just having a bad day? I don't know what the hell the chicken will be doing if he has a cold night or even another bad year.