Petrochemistry is to many Non-combustion energy systems as calcium is to human bone. Plastics in wind farms or tide and wave motors. Plastics as substrate for photovoltaic panels harvesting thermal energy while cooling the PV cells. Plastics for greenhouses attached to living spaces as “Arcology”

The list is truly inspiring if we rethink what we use plastics for.
And we’ve some Graduates to convince.

1. Eliminate the credit card via act of congress and allow only charge cards.

2. Forgive Student Loans

3. Eliminate 3rd World Debt

Add VAT in the amount of 10% to finance all of the above.

4. Require 25% of 401K funds to be invested in US Treasuries to reduce dependence upon foreign cash.

And that’s just a good beginning to turn around the ‘American Way’. . .

I’m sorry, whaaaaaaaaat.

The U.S. triggered collapse in oil prices worked because of the Soviet Union’s unique situation. Had the situation been different, the result would’ve been different as well.

And note how Russia has not adapted to the drop in oil prices today. Many of the same flaws that crippled the Soviet economy still bedevil the Russian economy today. Bureaucratic inertia, excessive regulation, plus a failing infrastructure and a falling population means a system ill prepared for change. If anything Russia is even more vulnerable now than back in the late 80s. Changes are coming for Russia, and they won’t be good.

The Soviet Union brought itself down. Oil politics and Cold War politics may have accelerated the process, but I think the bottom line is that the time had run out. People were fed up with the combination of economic stagnation (which had persisted since the 70′s) and the lack of freedom.

So who decided to collapse The Evil Empire Jr, or was it just an accident?

Guess the only obvious cure is to launch a war on Iran.

As for lack of freedom in the old Soviet Union, some of my colleagues back when I worked in Telecom pointed out that, even though they didn’t have a lot of political freedom, in their place of employment they had a lot more say than in any US company. (Not saying this is worse or better, but they did seem to believe that they experienced more freedom on a daily basis than they ever did in the US.)

The economy although complex still operates like any system – Input, Process, Output.

Changing simple rules regarding credit, incentive toward education and investment have profound impacts globally.

A jubilee would benefit hundreds of millions and at a lower cost than most of the current bailouts proposed. When the incentive to produce is restored to hundreds of millions, economies can expand very quickly.

Thus, credit cards – gone, student loans – gone, 3rd World Debt – gone and internal financing of public debt. All paid for with 10% VAT and regulation of retirement accounts.

These issues go to the heart of consumption which drives the demand for oil.

Did they ignore political news focussing only on economic results? It seems that these days, a group of analysts in the CIA model should be a core component of a hedge fund.

Alex M @11: So it was the Saudi’s decision to open the taps that brought down the Soviet Union, and the election of Gorbachev six months earlier had less to do with it?

Yes.

That is main point of the article, written by someone who was part of the Soviet system. In fact, the article is set out specifically as a response to people who hold the belief you seem to, namely that the Soviet system “brought itself down”, something it plainly didn’t do, given that the collapse of European Communism started with demands for freedom in the client states, not at the core.

I’m going to guess, given your comment, that you haven’t actually read the essay. You should — it’s quite good, and provides a much more nuanced view of things like economic stagnation, which, Gaidar makes clear, was by no means limited to, or even mainly concentrated in the 1970s.

The article from the Wall Street Journal describes the AMEX problem more clearly.

They made ” . . .AmEx made a big push in the past couple of years to let many of its customers keep a balance and pay the interest that accumulates”

In other words they got into the same silly game that Visa and MC have been playing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122446082980748593.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

There charge cards are still doing well compared with their credit cards.

Devaluing currencies against the price of bullion to exit the depression:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/109210-the-manipulation-of-gold-prices

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/the-g-20s-secret-debt-solution-27996

F6

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/hoye/hoye120705.html

http://www.kitco.com/ind/Field/dec022008.html

Do you understand what we’re talking about now?

F6

Let’s consider your post, line by line:

It is time for a year of jubilee in the US.

We’ll see…

1. Eliminate the credit card via act of congress and allow only charge cards.

Yeah, so everyone can only buy what they can afford right now? That won’t “grow” the economy.

2. Forgive Student Loans

To accomplish what? Take the pressure of the barrista at the local Starbucks?

3. Eliminate 3rd World Debt

Yeah, we’ll stop giving those poor folks money – they never pay us back anyway…

Add VAT in the amount of 10% to finance all of the above.

You seriously think that will cover the tab for the above? Do you have any idea the amount of student loans and third world debt?

4. Require 25% of 401K funds to be invested in US Treasuries to reduce dependence upon foreign cash.

You understand that Treasuries are federal debt obligations, so you are requiring taxpayers to buy their own debt, and pay themselves interest on the debt they just bought though their tax payments, right?

And that’s just a good beginning to turn around the ‘American Way’. . .

Well, that could be the “change” we were promised…

Freedom to millions over here where I live (Moscow) did not just happen. We can actually give credit where credit is due for once.

Reagan and his team also restricted Soviet access to Western credit and technology, while they covertly gave financial and logistical support to Poland’s Solidarity movement (with help from the Vatican, Israel’s Secret service and the Swedes). Reagan also directly helped the Czech underground. But most importantly the campaign to slash Soviet hard currency earnings by driving down the price of oil (with full Saudi cooperation) and the substantial covert aid to the Afghan resistance fighting the Soviet invasion is the reason the Evil Empire landed on the ash heap of history.

How is the USA going to avoid going through a similar collapse to the USSR?