Peak Oil: The End of Cheap OilWritten by Gordon Owen
Since corporations and governments are staffed by human beings, it's no surprise that corporate and governmental decisions are marked by same shortsightedness that we've been warned of ever since Aesop told tale of grasshopper and ant; i.e., tactical decisions for near term rather than strategic decisions for long term. True, some Asian corporations try to look five years into future and certain European governments require new construction to include energy-related features that just don't pencil out at current energy prices, but those two cases are exceptions to rule that decisions are made based upon next quarterly statement and most recent poll or -- in best case -- current fiscal year and next election.Faced with a tightening of oil supply (only "the beginning of end of cheap oil"), one might hope that US government would invest 3 or 4 years and a few tens of billions of dollars in cash or tax incentives on strategic effort to reduce/eliminate dependence on foreign energy sources: * most importantly, establish sufficient grain production and distillery capability to be able to use alcohol rather than gasoline for our internal combustion engines. (Most people don't know that when US forces took Phillipines during WWII, all those barrels of aviation fuel and truck fuel left behind by Japanese were of no use because our engines ran on fuel produced by Standard Oil rather than by farmers.) * distributed across agricultural areas, set up facilities for anaerobic composting of crop residues and manure. These produce methane (CH4), active ingredient of natural gas and 88 to 90% of its volume. In addition to its use in heating homes and generating electricity, natural gas can also be compressed and used to fuel our vehicles. * again distributed but across desert areas, set up photovoltaic facilities to tap solar energy with electricity used directly or to electrolyze water into oxygen and hydrogen. High tech version would be two-pronged: (1) on-orbit facilities with power beamed to receiving antennas in those same desert areas and (2) with expensive solar panels at 16% efficiency and super expensive ones approaching 20%, we'd implement a Manhatten style project to put our best and brightest at work coming up with a cheap photovoltaic film of maybe 3 or 4% efficiency that could be squeegeed onto flat surfaces across thousands of acres of sunlit desert. * possibly pursue similar efforts to tap wind, geothermal, and tidal energy sources. These efforts would lead toward a future where a world population measured in billions comes to adopt Western mindset that light comes from flipping a switch, drinking water comes from twisting a faucet tap, and to go faster you just push down on pedal. They might even lead to a future where a kid born in Iowa could hope to go where no man has gone before. But gasoline packs more BTUs per cubic inch than any of alternatives so even if/when oil goes to $100 per barrel none of these efforts can show a profit this quarter or this year or even before next election. What's worse, they don't fit with unspoken assumption that what's good for "awl bidness" is good for USA. So, instead of those tens of billions being strategically invested over next few years we got a short term tactical decision based on what's good for oil business. With Saudia Arabia (the #1 oil source) already on board as one of best friends that money can buy, with Taliban unwilling to have a new pipeline across Afghanistan, and with Saddam (the #2 oil source) threatening to price oil in Euros rather than dollars, we chose to spend a year (2003) and $84 billion to assure "the free flow of oil at market prices." Which also assures that Japan, Germany, and other non- oil producers will continue to have to swap their currency for dollars in order to buy oil. It turns out that pursuing free flow of oil takes more than a year and a lot more than $84 billion even though no oil flows from Iraq and even though Saudi pipelines are now under attack, but there's no indication of reversing course no matter who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
| | Credit Report and Credit ScoresWritten by Andre McFayden, Ph.D.
The information on your credit report can greatly affect interest rate and your ability to obtain a loan. So its very important to check your credit report early, even if you are not quite ready to buy a house just yet.There are 3 major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Everyone has 3 FICO credit scores, one from each of agencies. The FICO (Fair Isaacs Corporation) score is found by combining several factors, most important ones being: Payment History - have you been paying all your bills on time? Late payments will hurt your credit score. Amounts owed do you owe a lot of money on each account? Length of credit history how long have accounts been opened? The longer, better. New Credit how many new accounts do you have? Types of Credit in use do you have a mix of accounts? Generally, lenders consider credit scores of 720 and above as excellent and you will get best interest rates. Scores of 680 to 719 are considered good and you will get next best rates and so on.
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