{"id":63436,"date":"2022-09-03T07:25:58","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T12:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63436"},"modified":"2022-09-03T07:25:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T12:25:58","slug":"238-money-and-the-end-of-abundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63436","title":{"rendered":"#238. Money and the end of\u00a0abundance"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com\/2022\/08\/30\/238-money-and-the-end-of-abundance\/\">#238. Money and the end of\u00a0abundance<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><strong>A FINANCIAL CRISIS PRIMER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Amongst the world\u2019s decision-makers, French president Emmanuel Macron has come closer than anyone to spelling out the reality of the current economic situation,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/france\/20220824-macron-warns-french-of-tough-times-ahead-end-to-energy-price-cap\">saying that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cwe are in the process of living through a tipping point or great upheaval\u201d, and referencing \u201c<em>the end of abundance<\/em>\u201d (my emphasis).<\/p>\n<p>If his words are taken seriously \u2013 as they should be \u2013 a major crisis looms. The global financial system is\u00a0<em>entirely predicated on perpetual economic growth<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As important as what Mr Macron has said is what he\u00a0<em>didn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0say. He didn\u2019t say that abundance is over \u2018for a year or two\u2019, or that we\u2019ll have to live through this \u2018until better times return\u2019. He didn\u2019t make fatuous promises of \u2018sunlit uplands\u2019 or \u2018a new golden age\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Some of us have long known that an age of abundance made possible by low-cost energy was coming to an end. Until now, though, decision-makers have fought shy of this conclusion, taking refuge in the tarradiddle of \u2018infinite growth on a finite planet\u2019 proffered by a deeply flawed economic orthodoxy.<\/p>\n<p>What should concern us now isn\u2019t when, or whether, other leaders will arrive at this same conclusion. The trend of events is going to impose that emerging reality upon them.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, we need to be prepared for what happens when\u00a0<em>market participants<\/em>\u00a0arrive at the same conclusion as Mr. Macron.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The nature of the crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Preparedness requires clarity, and we need to be in no doubt that what we\u2019re witnessing now is an unfolding\u00a0<strong>affordability crisis<\/strong>. This means two things \u2013 and both of them point towards a major financial slump.<\/p>\n<p>First,\u00a0<em>the ability of consumers to make discretionary<\/em>\u00a0(non-essential)\u00a0<em>purchases is in structural decline<\/em>. This spells relentless contraction, not just in obvious discretionary sectors like leisure, travel and entertainment, but in \u2018tech\u2019 and consumer durables as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#238. Money and the end of\u00a0abundance A FINANCIAL CRISIS PRIMER Amongst the world\u2019s decision-makers, French president Emmanuel Macron has come closer than anyone to spelling out the reality of the current economic situation,\u00a0saying that\u00a0\u201cwe are in the process of living through a tipping point or great upheaval\u201d, and referencing \u201cthe end of abundance\u201d (my emphasis). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15342,33132,2328,536,4514,31315,31314],"class_list":["post-63436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-end-of-abundance","tag-infinite-growth","tag-money","tag-perpetual-growth","tag-surplus-energy-economics","tag-tim-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63437,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436\/revisions\/63437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}