Today's Kunstler

[don]

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

Today's rant will make most of us feel a little better...for a little while.

As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy, I thought of the subway rumbling beneath my feet, and how in dying Berlin’s final hours, Der Fuehrer ordered the Berlin subways flooded, denying their use to the oncoming Russian army. Approximately 10,000 wounded German soldiers were in makeshift hospitals in those subways but when it came to buying a little more time for Adolph, they were expendable. As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy….

[FRED]

Re: Today's Kunstler

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

Today's rant will make most of us feel a little better...for a little while.

As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy, I thought of the subway rumbling beneath my feet, and how in dying Berlin’s final hours, Der Fuehrer ordered the Berlin subways flooded, denying their use to the oncoming Russian army. Approximately 10,000 wounded German soldiers were in makeshift hospitals in those subways but when it came to buying a little more time for Adolph, they were expendable. As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy….

Kunstler Q&A

Q: Does Kunstler's site ever posts link to iTulip.com?
A: No.

Q: Does Kunstler ever credit iTulip for making him aware the FIRE Economy?
A: No.

Q: Did Kunstler give The Next Bubble a careless and negative review?
A: Yes.

Otherwise, we like Kunstler here.

[Rajiv]

Re: Today's Kunstler

As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy, I thought of the subway rumbling beneath my feet, and how in dying Berlin’s final hours, Der Fuehrer ordered the Berlin subways flooded, denying their use to the oncoming Russian army. Approximately 10,000 wounded German soldiers were in makeshift hospitals in those subways but when it came to buying a little more time for Adolph, they were expendable. As I stood on Wall Street, looking at the temples of the FIRE economy….

I didn't see this section anywhere on Kunstler's site -- was that a quote from Kunstler? or just your own poetic musings on the current mess?

[don]

Re: Today's Kunstler

My paraphrasing a comment on Kunstler from his readership. Sorry for any confusion.

On the dissing of iTulip by Mr K, I'm not sure what to make of that as a reader of both. I enjoy the heat Kunstler brings to what's going on but for information, he's in the cold compared to my main site, iTulip.

Overall I feel like I just found out two friends of mine don't like each other. Hmmmm.

[FRED]

Re: Today's Kunstler

My paraphrasing a comment on Kunstler from his readership. Sorry for any confusion.

On the dissing of iTulip by Mr K, I'm not sure what to make of that as a reader of both. I enjoy the heat Kunstler brings to what's going on but for information, he's in the cold compared to my main site, iTulip.

Overall I feel like I just found out two friends of mine don't like each other. Hmmmm.

We like him, don't know what his issue is.

[Rajiv]

Re: Today's Kunstler

I think you may get a flavor of the Kunstler/EJ issues from the following

Boom in the Doom

In Defense of James Howard Kunstler

James Kunstler responds to Next Bubble Article in Harpers

Serial Bubbles?

From the last, key issues of disagreement seems to be in Kunstler's analysis

Janszen's idea seems to be that the new investment comes from simple credit reflation. I don't see how this is possible while the current bubble in housing remains only fractionally "worked out." It has a long way to unwind yet, and a lot of damage to do. It will bring down banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, municipal governments, and leave a lot of individuals impoverished, literally out in the cold. As long as trillions in losses remain concealed or unresolved, the basic system for deploying capital will remain paralyzed.

I wonder if fixing all the infrastructure for happy motoring is not an exercise in futility and another layer of tragic misinvestment. After all, it's based on the assumption that we will still be running huge numbers of cars and trucks decades ahead, and I'm not convinced that this will be possible under any circumstances. The psychology of previous investment will exert a powerful pull to throw money at our highways. It might be more realistic to think of this as a triage process -- to ask ourselves how much of this stuff do we just let go of and which parts do we actually keep. Thousands of miles of suburban commercial strip highway six-laners may not be needed at that "level of service." What becomes of them? Do we run trains down the interstates? Surely, we don't want our bridges to crumble.

By the same token, I wonder if our investments in alternative energy will prove to be chimerical -- things wished and hoped for but impossible to achieve. My own hunch is that our notions of scale are not consistent with what reality will permit in this field. I don't believe that we will build more than a few giant wind farm installations. Rather, I believe we'll discover that wind power is only really practical on the household or extremely local basis. Ditto solar. I also doubt that we will continue to get all the necessary exotic metals needed to fabricate the hardware for these things. Along similar lines, I believe our expectations for ethanol and bio-diesel fuel production will prove to be not only disappointing but destructive to the food production sector.