Bubbles and Green Investments

Yesterday on the 21st of october the business pages of the NYT you could read that ".......investment capital for big renewable energy projects are likely to get tighter..."

Why do you think this is the case?.....could it be falling oil prices perhaps....? I have this funny feeling that I have seen this movie before --remember Carter ?

Let's learn a lesson from history: regardless of where the oil prices may land, we as a society, we the people should insist on federal investments --much larger than any bank bailout-- into greening the economy. Let's not get suckered any longer by the oil companies and think that the current drop in prices has anything to do with a rosier future of the fundamentals: The reality is, that we are running out of oil and whatever window the last little bit of oil gives us needs to be spend on reforming the economy by way of infrastructure development necessary to be real about the carbon reduction goals that were set at Kyoto and Rio.

Reagan took the sledgehammer to Carter's attempts towards a greener economy. Bush finished the whole greener vision off with a sustained nightmare of war, war economy, war culture (violence on tv) etc......and look where it got us.

Let's face it: we need the money that is now being spend on war, to be spend on education, families, and economic justice. We need the money that is now being spend on bailouts and invest it in a much more modest approach to life where happiness comes from using less and living in whole different ways than what we have become used to since the second war.

One thing is becoming clear: we don't need any more wars.

Let's tell Obama to tone down the rethoric on Afganistan and Pakistan and keep his commitment to leave Iraq as soon as can be agreed upon with the Iraq Government.

Then we should direct our focus to greening our economy and retooling our way of life.

Even the Buddha spoke of bubbles: "Life is like a bubble in a stream --it is an illusion"

Willem