Bailouts, bankruptcies - it's all hokum if we're still basing our economics on the same stuff: debt, interest, and leveraging. Sorry, that part of our history is over. We now need to work with what we have left...resources. And not much for many many people.

In fact, our current financial system cannot be made to function in an era of declining energy supplies. We need an economy that can supply basic human needs without increasing the rate at which we consume resources. That will require the creation of monetary systems and financial institutions that are not based on debt, interest, and leveraging.

SHOOT: Unfortunately the majority of people haven't thought about this long enough, or hard enoughto get it. Those who think they do get it, are just getting part of it. All our problems have at their foundation resource depletion - Peak Oil. Snore snore, that old story. Well guess what? That fucked up doomsday stuff that everyone has been ignoring is now coming to bite everyone in the ass. Oops, sorry was that also too alarmist for you? I'm soooo sorry, was that too extreme, too negative for you.

clipped from www.voltairenet.org Voltaire Network: We were told by most media that the origin of the financial crisis is to be found within the financial system. Richard Heinberg: In 2008 we saw the biggest energy price spike ever. Historically, energy price spikes have always led to recessions. Therefore it would have been reasonable to expect a serious recession beginning around the first quarter of 2008. In fact, the recession began somewhat earlier and has proven to be deeper and more persistent than any other in recent decades. This is because a financial collapse had also become more or less inevitable due to the existence of multiple bubbles in the housing and finance sectors. Unfortunately, world leaders have largely misunderstood the crisis. They assume it to be entirely financial in origin, and they also assume it to be transient; they believe that if we can prop up the banks sufficiently, the economy will begin to grow again and all will be well.