James Howard Kunstler: The Coming Economy Of "Less"

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Author and commentator James Howard Kunstler returns as our podcast guest this week for an update on where we are in The Long Emergency timeline.

In this wide-raging discussion ranging from the pervasiveness of propaganda in today's media to the risk of nuclear war, Kunstler also re-news his warnings of a current secular economic slowdown.

After too many years of market interventions, magical thinking, racketeering, and bleeding the 99% dry, he warns that our culture and economic system will soon reach a snapping point:

The important story is what happens in the financial sector and how it effects the economy in the next twelve to eighteen months. As we know, the financial system is the most abstract and fragile of all the systems that we depend on because the other systems can't run without it. The trucks won't make the food deliveries to the supermarkets unless the finance system works. The gasoline won't get to the pumps at the stations.

Nothing's going to move if the financial system cracks up. People no longer trust each other to transact, to get paid. And so they stop transacting.

We're talking about a falling standard of living and getting used to an economy of "less". It sounds kind of Ebenezer Scrooge-ish to suggest that people may have to do with less rather than more, because more has always been the expectation in our lifetime. But that's probably a fact. And as I've said more than once, reality has mandates of its own. Circumstances are going to inform us about how this economy is emerging and where we need to go with it. And we can either pay attention or just sit there with our fingers in our ears. 

What we're talking about here is the armature of our culture and economy that people hang their lives on. And that armature is crumbling. There are fewer things that people can hang a life on in a meaningful way, or a way that even ensures that they can have a little bit of security looking into even a short-term future.

For example, I had a day yesterday that felt like national Murphy's Law Day. I got a screw in a tire. The screw was in a place where, under New York State law, they're not allowed to fix the tire if the screw is near the outside of tread. So I had to buy a brand-new tire. And then I was going to take the trash to the dump in my old pickup truck, which I keep around for that purpose. But the battery was dead. So I had to go down to the auto parts store and buy a new battery, and bring it home and put it in.

Now, I'm among the lucky people in this land who can actually buy a new tire and buy a car battery. But probably some enormous percentage of the population, like 78% or 84% -- I'm not quite sure what it is -- they don’t have enough money to buy a new car battery if their car dies on some god forsaken freeway shoulder 38 miles from home. Imagine how crazy-making that is. I can easily, because I was a truly starving bohemia until well into my 40s, struggling just to pay the light bill while writing book after book. So I know what it's like to live day after day in that kind of financial anxiety.

I imagine that the financial anxiety out there right now is just so extreme that there's a whole mass of people who are being pushed to the limits of their sanity.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with James Howard Kunstler (57m:11s).

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://peakprosperity.com/james-howard-kunstler-the-coming-economy-of-less/

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When Chris brings up the fact that we are one of the most propagandized country in the world, James willing believes that there is little organized conspiracy behind it. The CIA has paid journalist’s on the all major newspapers and Bush changed the law saying that they can’t be paid any longer, at least up front. The military industrial complex has accelerated it’s control over our country since the early 60’s and hopefully peaked with the loss of HRC for presidency. Our brainwashes citizens belief that we are the world’s policeman is the world’s biggest lie. Marine General Smedley Bulter opinion that “War is a Racket” hasn’t changed a bit and just has got worse. When will James end his delusion, the plan by the one percent (I’m sure it’s smaller than that) to take even more centralized control of us is obvious to those that choose (verify it) to believe it.

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Caution is very warranted in this area. JHC frustrates me in this area too, but the “conspiracy under every stone” crowd frustrates me even more. This is one of the reasons I respect Chris so much; he walks the line very well. But, still, I note an unwillingness to give his opinion on certain topics, vaccinations being a notable example? That’s not judgement, far from it, I wouldn’t have the audacity. The point I’m trying to make is that we all draw our lines, I’m not a fan of JHC’s location, but I respect his perspective a great deal. Navigating this mess is a massive challenge for all. And a painful one! Loosely related and excellent article…

https://www.ecosophia.net/a-rhetorical-education/

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Would like to see more discussion about why a handful of mega-billionaires (such as Koch bros., Sheldon Adelson, CEOs of oil and defense companies) are using their money/power in a self serving manner that is causing so much harm to the majority of people and the planet overall.
These people already have far more money than they could ever possibly spend, especially considering most are 60, 70, or 80+ yrs of age. It’s one thing to live a hedonistic, even selfish lifestyle w your riches, but another to use your riches to rig the system to gain more wealth (and power).
This handful of incredibly rich sociopaths are in a better position than anyone to take on the biggest problems the country/world faces, yet choose to game the system for their own benefit at the expense of everyone else?

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I like the big tent philosophy. If someone comes here with an expertise to share, I like hearing it. They don’t have to agree with all of my beliefs to provide an interesting perspective.
What does Wolf Richter think about 9/11? UFOs? Vaccines? JFK assassination? Organic foods? Operation Northwoods? I don’t honestly care. At some point, filtering out people because they don’t check all the right boxes will end up dramatically limiting the variety of people who can come here and contribute.
I know you weren’t specifically saying “we should filter people out” - I’m just suggesting we be tolerant of differences, that’s all.
Big tent.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/03/12/ufo-encounter-new-footage-shows-u-s-navy-pilots-apparent-sighting-alien-craft-near-east-coast/415951002/

Newly declassified video and audio show U.S. Navy pilots apparently encountering a UFO — with no wings and no tail — as they flew their Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet along the East Coast in 2015.

Why do we think the Pentagon is declassifying these videos now? Discuss! :)
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Remember the division among the European countries in the the run up to the Iraq War on whether to back this military campaign or to oppose it, remember how Donald Rumsfeld played on these divisions with his distinction between Old Europe (headed by Germany and France) and New Europe (the newly liberated East European countries)? Where we thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of European divisions, somewhat unexpectedly these divisions resurfaced in a new form in which the East European countries showed their undisputed loyalty to the USA, where some of the traditional Nato allies were voicing their doubts and their calls for reconsideration.
Well, this division is still very much a part of the European political and strategical situation. Of course both Chris and James are perfectly right in pointing out the stupidity of the official European stance on the coup d’etat in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia and the outright military provocations of Nato all along the European border to Russia. After all, some of us here Europe are able to see that too, and there is no doubt that in some segments of the European societies the frustrations towards USA are building. USA is seen to deliberately stirring up tensions and divisions amongst neighbors. And USA apparently wants to sabotage the supply of natural gas from Russia to Europe (and from the Middle East to Europe).
As an alternative pathway regarding its energy supply, the USA is offering the European countries to buy LNG from the American fracking business, an offer that everyone at Peak Prosperity knows is just outright fraudulent and unrealistic. Very tellingly, this past November Poland struck a five year deal with American LNG-suppliers, which should liberate Poland from any dependency on natural gas from Russia. Ironically, when the hard winter hit the American north east, USA had to import LNG from Russia in an amount that matched what was being shipped off to Poland.
USA is persistently stirring up tensions and divisions in Europe for its own political and strategic objectives, and (some of) the East European countries apparently still revel in the status as special friends and partners to the US. This loyalty of the East European countries to outside forces is what have let Russia and Germany to develop a direct energy supply line in the form of the Nord Stream 2 Project. The track of this pipeline is projected to pass right by the small Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, and as a dane myself I picked up on a somewhat peculiar public meeting on Bornholm held by the Danish Ministry of Energy. The peculiar thing about this meeting was, that the attendance of a whole array of Polish officials outnumbered the Danish citizens attending. And the Polish representatives were so eager to pose questions and state all sorts of criticism of the project that they in effect took over the meeting, and half of the attending Danish citizens left before the meeting was over.
Also very tellingly, a contemporary statement from the then Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard read: ”In my view, whether Denmark in the end shall vote yes or no [to the Nord Stream 2 Project] depends largely on whether we can unite the EU [member states]”. So one way of explaining the obvious stupidity of the European countries is to factor in just how far the leading countries are prepared to go in the effort to keep the Union together.

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davefairtex wrote:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/03/12/ufo-encounter-new-footage-shows-u-s-navy-pilots-apparent-sighting-alien-craft-near-east-coast/415951002/

Newly declassified video and audio show U.S. Navy pilots apparently encountering a UFO — with no wings and no tail — as they flew their Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet along the East Coast in 2015.

Why do we think the Pentagon is declassifying these videos now? Discuss! :)
This feels off to me. The second one just came out and I now feel like I'm being 'leak prepped' for some larger announcement about UFOs, ETs, etc. Anybody else feel that way?
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What are our starting assumptions about this topic?

  • extra-terrestrial civilizations are virtually certain to exist
  • some will have very high tech, be curious and explore
  • that Earth is and has been visited for a very long time
  • there has been a very organized, conscious and effective effort to disparage and hide this topic.
For each of us: What is our starting point? ------------------- Oooooo! leak prepped. Good description, Chris.
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That was exactly my reaction too. When these stories actually made it to the front page of the NY Times I thought “Why in the world are they publishing this? Are they trying to gradually get us ready for something?”

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Maybe Aliens are trying to send us a message thinking we’re serious about invading Mars and screwing that place up as well. smiley

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Oh that’s an easy one!
The “Boogymen”, you know really bad guys are more elusive these days and not always as scary or in your face as TPTB would like them to be.
Enter the new, scary, high-tech, “Ellie” (extinction level type event) such as an extra-terrestrial invasion. All nations would have to pull together, of course under a one-world leadership, in order to survive.
Remember - to change the world, country, society etc…

  • Demoralize
  • Destabilize
  • Create A Crisis (implement new, procedures, laws, changes, etc) (think 911)
  • Then Re- Normalize (mission accomplished the sheep are in a new pen and chipped to boot)
Guess watching Independence Day II, is still lingering in my mind. Didn't Bush Senior talk about the benefit of an off-world threat being a catalyst to uniting the world? AKGrannyWGrit
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I haven’t had a hankering to build a giant mound of dirt in my yard (yet) that would be a welcoming landing site. Anyway, didn’t they already tell us to leave the moon?
And then there is this:

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination. ― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Live long and prosper, and stay thirsty, mis amigos.
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finite to exist…the infinite must exist as a reference…Sartre,Jean-Paul
get your mare settled and learn to live within YOUR limits,the rest will follow or…not…so

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Pipyman wrote:
Caution is very warranted in this area. JHC frustrates me in this area too, but the “conspiracy under every stone” crowd frustrates me even more. This is one of the reasons I respect Chris so much; he walks the line very well. But, still, I note an unwillingness to give his opinion on certain topics, vaccinations being a notable example? That’s not judgement, far from it, I wouldn’t have the audacity. The point I’m trying to make is that we all draw our lines, I’m not a fan of JHC’s location, but I respect his perspective a great deal. Navigating this mess is a massive challenge for all. And a painful one! Loosely related and excellent article..... https://www.ecosophia.net/a-rhetorical-education/
And mass shooting hoaxes / gov't ops? I've mentioned it a few times here, that Youtube has been on a spree deleting thousands of videos that expose the various mass shootings as hoaxes. Some of these videos are so blatant that it would be impossible for any sane person to deny that a given shooting was a complete hoax. Instead, now when you do a search for "shooting xyz fake hoax," all you get is videos on how the conspiracy theorists are bullying the victims. This has happened over the last several weeks. I saved some of the best ones and could maybe re-upload if anyone is interested, but that would be promptly deleted and may flag my user, as if it already isn't flagged since the NSA knows everything I type... Here is a perfect example that got deleted a couple weeks ago, on the pathetically executed Orlando "shooting".
If you open it in a new tab it has been replaced with a screen saying that it violated Youtube's policy on bullying and harassment. I assure you that it engaged in nothing remotely close to bullying and harassment. Note: I'm not going so far as suggesting that no one ever dies in these incidents. From what I have seen of Las Vegas, people did actually die, but I would suggest that the "government:, "Deep State", whatever you want to call it, organized it. These false flags are clear evidence that there is an active and oppressive regime controlling and fabricating "news" and narratives they want people to believe. And they are doing this for a purpose, not just for fun. It has an endgame plan, folks, and it ain't good. I'm guessing this site won't go down that rabbit hole for fear of being ostracized and labeled terrorists or something. Sure, I can understand that.
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Could aliens be the “new Russia” for the deep state to declare as an existential threat that requires trillions of dollars of military expense to protect us?

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JohnH123 wrote:
Could aliens be the "new Russia" for the deep state to declare as an existential threat that requires trillions of dollars of military expense to protect us?
I'd be very interested to see the evidence they'd come up with to make us believe in extraterrestrial aliens attacking. When radio first came out they had that Martian attacking scare that people thought was real, but was just fiction. Now they have CGI.
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Hi AKGranny
Ronald Reagan made a couple of mentions of “an alien threat to bring the world together.” Two clips here combined in this brief youtube video here:

Steven Greer and Linda Molton Howe have been talking about a false flag scenario for quite a few years.
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I find it truly disheartening that I frequently switch to Sputnik to get meaningful news.
US News sources seem to be entirely about infighting, finger pointing and name calling, not to mention endlessly dredging up 20+ year old misbehavior and reporting it as if it’s the most important going on in the nation.
Call me insensitive, but I really no longer care who patted who’s behind, in Hollywood 20 years ago.
To my mind, there are much more important things going on today that need airtime.

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I think it might be about energy.

  • the spacecraft certainly do not use gasoline as a power source
  • a power source sufficient to propel spacecraft across interstellar distances probably easily addresses the earthly fossil fuel problem.
  • given how long they’ve been around, the US government has probably already reverse-engineered the technology used to power these craft
  • for some reason - hegemony management, you can make a big bomb out of it too easily, or very cheap space travel for everyone could easily result in an extinction level event (just one mistake - or crazy person with an asteroid - and we suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs) - said power source has not been made available to the rest of the world.
    Now let’s imagine that the coming fossil fuels shortage is driving a change of heart by the government. Slow disclosure is the plan.
    I guess that’s equivalent to being leak-prepped. Going from heaping ridicule on UFO believers, to an “oh by the way the Air Force has these videos” is an inspired-by-Orwell’s-1984 type of pivot.
    Implications?
    The US Navy, Air Force, and Space Command - a massive, sunk capital investment in a planetary control machine - becomes instantly obsolete. Suicide/drones made with this tech, in the hands of (say) ISIS, would be utterly lethal. OPEC would also vanish. Command of the sea lanes - irrelevant. Anyone with a grudge and a fair amount of money could cause a great deal of trouble.
    You thought assault rifles were a problem? Now imagine cranky teens operating spacecraft. Imagine if the tech was actually pretty simple - if anyone with $100,000 could buy one. What would society look like? Instead of shooting up the school with Dad’s AR-15, instead you take Dad’s spacecraft and fly it into the school at 3000 mph.
    Maybe bigger change is coming than we realize.
    That’s the benign view. The other view is that we’re being prepped for the Big Alien False Flag Attack. Operation Northwoods Set In Space! If that were the case, though, I would have expected the videos to be released with a bit more of an alarming context around them. What we’ve seen so far is almost absurdly neutral, even ho-hum.
    As a wildcard, what if our friendly Alien visitors have informed our leaders that if the plague of mankind leaves the earth in large numbers, given how crazy we have proven to be, they’d have no choice but to drop an asteroid on our heads to nip this plague in the bud. To mix a metaphor.