Ohhh dear, this isn't good news. If this is what happens with a shortfall in oil supply of a few percent, I dread to think about what happens when the supply starts dropping by 5% per annum. We need renewables and fast. The peak oil theorists predicted the severe financial crash accompanying peak oil, what continues to frustrate me is the obvious inability of the capitalist market system to think more than 5 seconds ahead. Markets react rather than planning ahead, this, in my view, is their biggest flaw

expat girl wrote:

Ohhh dear, this isn't good news. If this is what happens with a shortfall in oil supply of a few percent, I dread to think about what happens when the supply starts dropping by 5% per annum. We need renewables and fast. The peak oil theorists predicted the severe financial crash accompanying peak oil, what continues to frustrate me is the obvious inability of the capitalist market system to think more than 5 seconds ahead. Markets react rather than planning ahead, this, in my view, is their biggest flaw

I've been thinking about this lately - is it the fundamental issue with free market capitalism that it is a mechanism which cannot deal with time in general or in this case that it has no inbuilt mechanism to deal healthily with the interaction of human systems and (finite) nature?

Auditor #9 wrote:

expat girl wrote:

Ohhh dear, this isn't good news. If this is what happens with a shortfall in oil supply of a few percent, I dread to think about what happens when the supply starts dropping by 5% per annum. We need renewables and fast. The peak oil theorists predicted the severe financial crash accompanying peak oil, what continues to frustrate me is the obvious inability of the capitalist market system to think more than 5 seconds ahead. Markets react rather than planning ahead, this, in my view, is their biggest flaw

I've been thinking about this lately - is it the fundamental issue with free market capitalism that it is a mechanism which cannot deal with time in general or in this case that it has no inbuilt mechanism to deal healthily with the interaction of human systems and (finite) nature?

I think the desire to make more money than is necessary to happily survive, is not compatible with living on the planet. Maybe there's a good reason why greed is one of the 7 deadly sins !!

expat girl wrote:

Ohhh dear, this isn't good news. If this is what happens with a shortfall in oil supply of a few percent, I dread to think about what happens when the supply starts dropping by 5% per annum. We need renewables and fast. The peak oil theorists predicted the severe financial crash accompanying peak oil, what continues to frustrate me is the obvious inability of the capitalist market system to think more than 5 seconds ahead. Markets react rather than planning ahead, this, in my view, is their biggest flaw

Utter rubbish, the stock exchange falls in anticipation of profit reductions years ahead. Look at the ISEQ for example, it has fallen well in advance of the profitability troubles Irish plcs have encountered.

Currencies also rise and fall months ahead of Central Bank decisions, current account news, economic releases and so on.

Prices of oil are rising rapidly in sympathy with what you speak of, ie 5% falls in supply per annum. The market is adjusting to this future reality.

In all this, equity, currency and commodity markets are thinking more than 5 seconds into the future and are a leading indicator of future reality. They assign prices to these realities and are a very efficient means of doing it.

I have more faith in market mechanisms than some government bureaucracy.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Prices of oil are rising rapidly in sympathy with what you speak of, ie 5% falls in supply per annum. The market is adjusting to this future reality..

The price of oil rises every time somebody puts the words War and Gulf in the same sentence.

Lestat wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Prices of oil are rising rapidly in sympathy with what you speak of, ie 5% falls in supply per annum. The market is adjusting to this future reality..

The price of oil rises every time somebody puts the words War and Gulf in the same sentence.

True, but isolated incidents like that happen in every market. Over the long run, the market puts a good price on things.