Road to Serfdom - 2

BBC on Hayek

Road to Serfdom - 1

A BBC story on FA Hayek

U.S. Farmland Values Reach Record on High Crop Prices

U.S. farmland values are at a record high even as the rest of the country suffers the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, with the highest crop prices ever pushing up agricultural real estate.

The value of all land and buildings on farms averaged $2,350 an acre at the start of this year, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an annual report. Surging corn, wheat and soybean prices boosted values in the Northern Plains, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, by 15.5 percent, the biggest increase in the country, according to the report.

(Click the subject line to read the full bloomberg article.)

Meredith Whitney: More Write Downs Ahead

Naomi Klein Debates Milton Friedman

Part I



Part II



These are must watch.

Middle East Oil Consumption and Exports

CIBC world markets chief economist Jeff Rubin discusses with Erin Burnett and Larry Kudlow of CNBC.

Cool It

If you have exposed yourself to jet set/carbon trader/gazillionaire Al Gore's global warming propaganda (I have), you owe it yourself to know the other side of the debate( debate is hardly over ). I found this book very interesting - "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming ".

Or you could watch "The Great Global Warming Swindle". It is free on video.google.com

Or you could read this short article - "I was on the global warming gravy train".

After having observed the environmentists for a while, I have come to the conclusion that environmentalism is a religion, a very intolerant one. According to the environmentalists, if you refuse to dogmatically follow the Gaia any other intolerant enviro-doctrine, you will fry along with the rest of the planet. In that respect, environmentalists are very similar to evangelicals - they both peddle salvation.

Radical environmentalists believe that the earth's human carrying capacity is about 400 million. They hope and pray for a massive human die-off that will reduce the population by 90% ( Oil Shock is not making this up ). Their view of the human race is akin to that of a virus/disease that should be stopped.

In other news from the energy universe, protests in europe turn violent

(Images courtesy of Mish's global economic analysis )

Carbon control treaties were meant to raise the price of fuel and reduce consumption. Now that the treaty getting closer to achieving its stated goals, the carbonistas don't like the outcome.

It is even silly to believe that a bunch of Soviet style central planners could just press a few buttons, pull a few levers and there by command and control the global climate.

Am I suggesting that the environmentalists the only reason for the pain at the pump? Not at all. But the NIMBY/BANANA groupies are adding to the troubles.

Matt Simmons on Bloomberg

Simmons discusses Saudi Arabia, Gas prices, Oil prices, Peak Oil etc.

Oil Shock is here!

"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" - Milton Friedman.

It is not the price of things that is going up, it is the value of money going down. See the chart. (Money supply in green and Gasoline price in Red). Price of gasoline futures are up a good 14 cents, just today.

I believe there is enough evidence to suggest that peak oil is here. But the mainstream public or the financial markets have not bought it completely. There has not been any serious declines in global oil production. Given that scenario, peak oil alone could not possibly explain the current prices.

Oil is bubbling according to the "experts", at the moment. It would seem as though it will climb until it breaks the back of the U.S economy. Prices are likely to be higher 2-3 years from now, regardless of whether it goes down in the near term. Peak Oil come to mind. An attack on Iran and all bets are off.

Bernanke's "strategy" of bailing out crooks through inflation, is clearly not working. Benny is not as fortunate as his predecessor - when greenspan expanded money supply, the price of stocks, bonds and housing (later on) went up. Now, real tangible things have a lot of catching up to do.