Chris Martenson on the Fiat Money System and Exponential Resource Depletion (12/14/11)

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The Euro hits an 11-month low after a selloff as euro officials warn their crisis solution may be tougher to commit to than thought...the US says it will top producing one dollar presidential coins in order to save money -- it has a bunch just sitting around. But how is money really created or destroyed? How is the money supply expanded, and debt financed? Is our fiat money system of exponential credit market growth sustainable or is a breakdown on the horizon? And with OPEC reaching a deal on oil producing, the US auctioning off the first offshore oil leases since Deep Horizon's spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the extension of the Kyoto protocol...do global leaders and politicians really understand what the stakes are in global economy, the environment and the energy picture? Are all three of these "E's" coming to a point where something has "gotta give?" We speak to resource specialist, retired scientist, and popular lectureer Chris Martenson, about these very issues. Chris Martenson is also author of the popular book and web series The Crash Course.

Also, at the end of our show, we talk, among other things, about Nouriel Roubini's latest gaff on twitter and his continued hostility towards gold and people who have the audacity to believe that gold is not in a bubble. Nouriel Roubini said, back in 2009, that gold was in a bubble. He has constantly been wrong, and now that gold has dropped about 200 dollars, he is rolling around like a pig in the mud.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Capital Account
• Lauren Lyster
• Demetri Kofinas
• Chris Martenson
• Crash Course
• RT
• RTAmerica
• Markets
• Finance
• Economy
• Gold
• Silver
• Oil
• Resources
• Commodities
• fiat money
• debt
• credit
• credit market debt
• exponential function
• peak oil
• peak water
• peak credit
• economic collapse
• depression
• inflation
• deflation
• nouriel roubini
• gold bubble

[optionsupdate]

Lauren the whole see through table idea does not work if you wear trousers

[MarcusCMarcellus]

Martenson is wonderful. No ideology, just good formulation of questions and attempts at solutions.

And yes, Roubini is a fraud - and a mean-spirited one at that.

[hitssquad]

@Ape65 "but even before, taxis were far more expensive"

OK. But I would suspect they weren't allowed to combine fares, which should radically reduce the cost per fare. Plus, they offer fast door-to-door service (something public transit rarely provides, and when it does it's by accident of location, rather than because of any inherent flexibility of the system), and they allow passengers to use productivity- and distraction- devices while being transported -- an advantage over the private car.

[hitssquad]

@Ape65 I forgot streets. Streets -- and bike and walking paths -- complete the neighborhood effect. People wouldn't need to drive around, though. They could just use push-scooters and bicycles. Perhaps golf-carts and NEV's (Neighborhood Electric Vehicles) could be used, but I'm not sure people would see those as necessary for such short distances.

[hitssquad]

@Ape65 A 400x400' building might potentially have a neighborhood on each floor, and the floors might be separable far enough to give a sufficient feeling of "outsideness". So, that's what I meant by private and semi-private spaces. You could have private houses sharing a semi-private neighborhood floor of a high-rise building. Include landscaping and, perhaps, gentle hills. 10 such neighborhoods at 50' height each would stack to 500'.

[hitssquad]

@Ape65 "who want nice quiet green suburban neighbourhoods"

I'm aware of that desire. In my mind, neighborhoods can potentially be stacked -- indoors. It's interesting that the advocates of O'Neill cylinders (huge spinning space habitats holding thousands of people each in spacious California-suburb-style environments), tend not to acknowledge that similar habitats could potentially also be stacked on Earth -- to indefinite heights.

Just add artificial sunlight.

[hitssquad]

@Ape65 On taxis, I forgot to mention that another key efficiency improver is the legalization of shared taxi rides. Public mass transit holds an unfair efficiency advantage over private taxi service when the latter is restricted to unshared rides.

.

"He acknowledges that NYC's system is efficient"

When Teschler referred to "the NYC system", I believe he meant the *entire* system, which would include buses -- especially since he mentioned it with Honolulu's system, which is bus only.

[Ape65]

@hitssquad Agree, and I wasn't referring to hold-outs, but rather the vast number of middle-aged middle-income people with kids who want nice quiet green suburban neighbourhoods where their kids can play in the street. It's all about street hockey ;-)

[Ape65]

@hitssquad Thanks for the reference, it may come in handy

[Ape65]

@hitssquad I couldn't find that reference, but I read the one about the energy efficiency of train-based mass transit. He acknowledges that NYC's system is efficient, and they don't have pushers.

[Ape65]

@hitssquad I agree on liberalization, but taxis don't reduce road congestion. It doesn't scale up the way commuter trains or subways do. Taxi-buses only make sense on a few limited routes (such as airport to downtown).

[Ape65]

@hitssquad I'm all for multi-use buildings, and also for liberalizing zoning laws. At it happens, Montreal (and especially Toronto and Vancouver) are in the midst of a condo construction boom, especially downtown. I think the biggest reform to be made is to allow people to have home offices and businesses, but instead of regulating use, cities would have to regulate impacts, which is more complicated.