This economy stuff is interesting, being the news junkie that I am, I find it enlightening when the news and current affairs programs invariably get to economy reporting. The balancing and juggling act of a global monetary system has a theatric essence, while it filters down the chain, the soap opera of the likes of you and I seem to pulled by the puppet masters who yank at invisible strings. Doom and gloom seems inevitable, if it isn’t already upon us. I get the distinct impression that things may worsen over the next year.

The jist of the unfolding drama seems to have an apocalyptic end in store, although the yay sayers have a more optimistic vision for the future or maybe they just prefer denial over the reality of this looming doom. I have no idea when it comes to economics and how it all works but its fascinating watching interviews with power brokers and analysts, hearing their take on where things are going. There is a certain amount of fear mongering that seems to take place and I’m never quite sure what purpose this fear is utilised for, if indeed it is just scare mongering for the sake of manipulation. It seems like a game, a game of monopoly where trades are taking place with this fake money and one could imagine that people in power like to instill fear so that the fake-ness of it all can be kept in the dark and as a consequence all the more value is added to the fraud.

Doesn’t it just seem absurd that we give so much value to what essentially amounts to a piece of paper? It’s funny that this piece of paper can have a certain value one day and then the next, it has less or more, all because someone says so. Its like the sub-prime mortgage scam that was instigated by greedy banks, wasn’t that just a small example of the phoniness of this money? But we can’t live without it and it seemingly gives a more comfortable existence even if it doesn’t buy happiness. Although it possesses an evilness if allowed to possess it is the system that is here to stay – so why not indulge in the meaninglessness of it and wish a fuller back pocket?

As an observer I am constantly challenged by the charade that seems to be perpetuated by authority figures. I have to look twice on occasion and wonder if the person selling some idea actually believes the tale he is elaborating or whether he knows full well that the confabulation is just a colourful story.

I recently listened to an audio book, The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel and having oil prices rising now to 130 plus dollars it makes me wonder whether peak oil is causing the current soaring price. Wall street seems to be in denial over this phenomena. It seems that everyone just wants to bury their heads in the sand and hope against the evidence that oil is becoming a rare commodity. It actually has me concerned because if peak oil is a reality then we are certainly looking at some pretty devastating consequences by burying our heads in the oil sands as it were; we are in effect digging our own graves. It’s not even about the inconvenience of prices at the pumps and the already strained budgets that some of us have to deal with. It becomes a matter of survival, because oil infiltrates the bare necessities of our lives. Without oil everything begins to unravel – never mind hoping into the car and traveling to the shops to buy the groceries, there just won’t be any groceries to buy; period. Downscaling of society will all of a sudden be upon us and we will be unprepared. It won’t be pretty, we’ll soon see how much of an animal we truly are when faced with utter desperation.

Hopefully we’ll be able to see beyond the immediate future and begin to invest greater resources into finding alternatives to oil. But we may have to see some real hardship before we pull our heads out of the sand.