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The essential thesis of American Thermidor is that America has become caught in an economic vicious circle - we import energy from places that do not import anything from us other military fiat and financial services - they, in turn, recycle the money we send them back here, corrupting our political system, but also distorting our economy. In response, we take steps which concentrate wealth. This creates a deficit of jobs, which gives people even more of an incentive to cut taxes and investment, and instead speculate on land. To do this requires burning more energy than we otherwise would, which, in turn makes our energy deficit worse, starting the cycle all over again.
People have asked me what we should do. Well, until someone raids the oil for land casino, there really isn't very much we can do. However, there are things we can do that will make it much worse. Yergin's very poorly thought out - or enormously self-serving, I am not sure which - article in today's Times of London reminds me of what "worse" looks like.
The Strip Mining Century.
The Strip Mining Century is the Windows of Energy policy - backwards compatibility to keep the billionaires in place and the personal capital working - at all cost. At any cost. At every cost.
Windows is running late, runs slow, and has enormous and constant security issues. That, in a nutshell, is the strip mining century.
But what is it? The strip mining century sees the capital in existence, and asks "what do we need to do to keep it working?" Yergin outlines it fairly well: drop a ton of money into new refineries, accept crummy LCA petroleum sources that require strip mining, make the poor pay out every available orifice for the whole thing - and spew gigatons of carbon into the air.
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