[shortonoil]

Fascinating shortonoil, first I heard of a "Belt Line Bandit'?

There are hundreds of them all around DC. They are generally pretty small high tech firms that work by contract for the government. Without them there would be no government. A lot of it, is of course, for the military, and they are extremely secretive. Some of these folks I have knew for ten years before I even found out who they worked for! They are the heart of the US government's tech ability, and without them it would be back to Conestoga wagons pretty quickly. The tech capabilities of the US government does not come from academia, it comes from the Bandits.

[Tanada]

I have always known then a 'Beltway Bandits' the businesses and lobbying types who live around the Washington D.C. expressway routes and peddle influence in Congress.

[noobtube]

tube - "If the American economy needs $10/bbl oil to continue, and it sells for $15/bbl, watch the American way of life disappear before your eyes." Sorry but you lost me there. If the US economy needed $10/bbl oil back when it was selling for $90+/bbl and our "way of life" didn't disappear then why might it disappear at $30/bbl?

+1

I keep asking this (slightly different words -- same concept). I never get what I consider to be CLOSE to a satisfactory answer.

Meanwhile in the US, where the economy is growing, unemployment is shrinking, and wages are growing, the idea that people "can't afford oil products" when, for example, real estate and rental prices are solidly increasing because demand exceeds supply and where hordes of Americans are buying new cars and lots of large gas guzzling SUV's and trucks -- the idea that people "can't afford" gasoline at roughly $1.59 a gallon is silly on its face.

I'm not hear to change your mind. Obviously it doesn't affect what I am doing.

Having said that...

who says the economy is growing? How can it be "growing" and unemployment shrinking and wages rising when stores are closing or firing workers (WalMart, Sears, RadioShack, etc.)?

And, to use real estate as a barometer for economic health leads you right down the road to 2008.

The rich are supporting the housing sector. That is where all the price increases originate.

The average person cannot afford these prices without life-long debt. It is the Chinese trying to spend all their American dollars that are driving house prices (like Canada). American houses are too expensive for Americans. Chinese are buying houses in Detroit. Now, that's crazy!

Sure Americans are "buying" cars because they get that low-cost lease or mortgage-like loan. And, once again, it is the Chinese who are making the American auto companies their profits as the Chinese try to dump their American dollars.

Collapsed gasoline/oil prices are a sign that the whole world is contracting/shrinking. It is the signal that we have reached the end of growth (or are very very close).

[onlooker]

Yeah good point Noo, all this debt is allowing BAU to be maintained. But guess what all so much debt can be accumulated. Then what?

[Subjectivist]

Yeah good point Noo, all this debt is allowing BAU to be maintained. But guess what all so much debt can be accumulated. Then what?

Some day we will find out, hopefully not any time soon.

[shortonoil]

I have always known then a 'Beltway Bandits' the businesses and lobbying types who live around the Washington D.C. expressway routes and peddle influence in Congress.

They are the only ones that anyone knows about. They are a very small part of the whole government, private firms constellation that circles DC. The tech firms are embedded in the Security State apparatus so deeply that anyone who comes into contact with them, in any way, becomes the subject of investigation. Play a game of golf with one of their employees, and there is an entire dossier put together on you. These are the people that run the world's GPS system, monitor the US ICBM launch codes, and security systems. Who do you think builds, and maintains the government's spy satellite network?