Most of us expect our politicians and financial institutes to just get the big stuff right while the rest of us handle our day-to-day budgets.
Unfortunately, governments and banks don't always get it right, leaving you and I to feel the pain.
The current global financial woes are a direct result of banks getting greedy and taking too many risks whilst goverments just let them do it.
That's the laissez-faire system for you. When it goes right, everyone benefits. When it goes wrong, it's the ordinary people who suffer. I guess that's the price we pay for a system that works most of the time.
However, I think we have a right to expect our politicians to anticipate potential problems for the economy and ensure they don't happen.
One such problem is 'peak oil'. Without getting too technical, it's a point in time when the maximum rate of worldwide oil production is reached, after which it plateaus for a period before falling.
If and when peak oil happens, we can expect an inexorable rise in oil prices as demand outstrips supply. This, in turn, would cause serious problems for most nations' economies as they are heavily dependent on cheap, plentiful oil for transport, farming, and industry. In fact, it would probably make the current global recession look small by comparison.
Well, according to two scientists, we have already hit peak oil! They say that, up to 2005, production increased in response to price rises but, since then, production seems to have hit a ceiling regardless of price. As a result, prices swing wildly with small changes in demand.
They say that new oil fields are not coming on line fast enough to replace those that are closing down and this seems unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
So, given the danger to our economies, shouldn't governments be working on weaning us off our dependence on oil?
Afterall, this isn't the first time they've been warned of the dangers of peak oil. There have even been calls from industry to do something (For example).
Surely it would be irresponsible of governments to ignore what is now a clear and present danger?
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