Economic Crisis: The Virtual Economy is the End of Freedom

Economic Crisis: The Virtual Economy is the End of Freedom

INCLUDES:US Economic Crisis Ahead: Major Failure of Analysts to Spot Danger

There is one simple rule to follow when understanding the tragic history of economies: Never put blind faith in a system built on an establishment-created foundation. You would think this would not be a difficult concept to grasp being that we have so many examples of controlled economies and collapse to reference over the centuries, but in our era more than ever the allure of a virtual world with promises of endless wealth and ease is overwhelming.



Yes, I am referring primarily to cyptocurrency “tulip-mania” (sorry bitcoiners, the description is too fitting, it isn’t going away), but not this issue alone. I am also referring to a far-reaching problem of which cryptocurrencies are a mere reflection. Namely, the fact that humanity is swiftly losing sight of what a true economy is and what it is supposed to accomplish. It is because of this reality that crypto is thriving.
First, let’s be clear, fiat currencies are one of the first machinations of the virtual economy. Once paper currencies printed from thin air by central bankers were separated from tangible backing and accepted by the masses as “valuable” and worth trading labor for, the seed of financial cancer was planted. Today, there is one final step needed for the establishment to accomplish complete tyranny in global trade and that is to disconnect the masses fully from private transactions. In other words, we must be tricked into going digital, where privacy is an absurd memory.
Virtual economics is appealing for several reasons, most of them bad.
Americans and much of the west in particular are increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of real production. The latest generation coming into political and social influence, the millenials, is a perfect example. Surveys show American millenials more than any other generation lack basic workplace competency skills, including scoring low on arithmetic and reading comprehension. Often portrayed as “tech savvy” in popular culture and the media, millenials are quite inept when it comes to core skills that fuel strong business and trade, which is part of the reason why the U.S. is falling into the shadow of foreign workforces.
Millenials in the West also exhibit abysmal technical skills in international testing and lag far behind foreign peers. This has come as a surprise to many mainstream economists and social analysts, primarily because millenials are also considered the “most educated” generation ever. But, of course, we have not only been given a virtual economy in recent decades, but also a virtual educational system. A majority of millenials are lacking when it comes to key production skills and entrepreneurship methods because they have been trained to dismiss such skills as negligible. In other words, millenials have been conditioned to be academic idiots.
Why go through the struggle and hardship required to become an effective producer of tangible necessities when it is far easier to join a collectivist drive for socialism and a structure in which little to no work is required to obtain such necessities? Why not steal from a productive minority and spread it thinly enough to keep the unskilled majority fed? It is only within this kind of culture that virtual production, a virtual society and virtual “money” is seen as an ideal solution.
The notion is becoming more and more prevalent in our popular media, and I believe this is rather symbolic (or ironic) of our conundrum.
For example, consider the book Ready Player One, a pop-culture craze and archetypal zeitgeist for millenials soon to be released as an intended Hollywood blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg. The novel depicts the world of 2045, a world in which fossil fuel depletion and “global warming” have triggered economic and social decline (Remember in the 1980s when they used to tell us that global warming was going to melt the polar icecaps and we would be under water by the year 2000?). A totalitarian governing body controlled by corporate behemoths rules over the dystopian sprawl.
In response to an ever painful existence in the real world, the masses have sought to escape to a virtual world called “the Oasis,” created by a programming genius. The Oasis becomes a nexus for the global economy and a virtual society.
This sounds like a rousing background for a story of rebellion, and it is about that… sort of. Unfortunately, here is where the disturbing ties between our world and the fictional world of Ready Player One meet. The “rebellion” is for all intents and purposes also virtual, and for millenial audiences in particular, this is supposed to be inspiring.
Perhaps this is why cryptocurrencies are so appealing to the millenial crowd in particular. Think about it — the dismal economic doldrums of Ready Player One exist NOW; we don’t have to wait until 2045. Millenials are already feeling disaffected, indebted and disenfranchised, and most of them are also skill-less. Self reliance to them is an idea so alien it rarely if ever crosses their minds. So, how do they fight back? Or, how are they tricked into thinking they can fight back against a virtual system that has left them in the gutter? Why, with a virtual community and a virtual currency, of course.
Millenials and others think that they are going to rebel and “take down the banking oligarchs” with nothing more than digital markers representing “coins” tracked on a digital ledger created by an anonymous genius programmer/programmers. Delusional? Yes. But like I said earlier, it is an appealing notion.
Here is the issue, though; true money requires intrinsic value. Cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value. They are conjured from nothing by programmers, they are “mined” in a virtual mine created from nothing, and they have no unique aspects that make them rare or tangibly useful. They are an easily replicated digital product. Anyone can create a cryptocurrency. And for those that argue that “math gives crypto intrinsic value,” I’m sorry to break it to them, but the math is free.
In fact, for those that are not already aware, Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hash function, created by none other than the National Security Agency (NSA) and published by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
Yes, that’s right, Bitcoin would not exist without the foundation built by the NSA. Not only this, but the entire concept for a system remarkably similar to bitcoin was published by the NSA way back in 1996 in a paper called “How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography Of Anonymous Electronic Cash.“
The origins of bitcoin and thus the origins of crytpocurrencies and the blockchain ledger suggest anything other than a legitimate rebellion against the establishment framework and international financiers. I often cite this same problem when people come to me with arguments that the internet has set the stage for the collapse of the globalist information filter and the mainstream media. The truth is, the internet is also an establishment creation developed by DARPA, and as Edward Snowden exposed in his data dumps, the NSA has total information awareness and backdoor control over every aspect of web data.
Many people believe the free flow of information on the internet is a weapon in favor of the liberty movement, but it is also a weapon in favor of the establishment. With a macro overview of data flows, entities like Google can even predict future social trends and instabilities, not to mention peek into every personal detail of an individual’s life and past.
To summarize, cryptocurrencies are built upon an establishment designed framework, and they are entirely dependent on an establishment created and controlled vehicle (the internet) in order to function and perpetuate trade.  How exactly is this “decentralization”, again?
TOTAL information awareness is the goal here; and blockchain technology helps the powers-that-be remove one of the last obstacles: private personal trade transactions. Years ago, a common argument presented in favor of bitcoin was that it was “completely anonymous.”  Today, this is being proven more and more a lie. Even now, in the wake of open admissions by major bitcoin proponents that the system is NOT anonymous, people still claim anonymity is possible through various measures, but this has not proven to sway the FBI or IRS which have for years now been using resources such as Chainanalysis to track bitcoin users when they feel like doing so, including those users that have taken stringent measures to hide themselves.
Bitcoin proponents will argue that “new developments” and even new cryptocurrencies are solving this problem. Yet, this was the mantra back when bitcoin was first hitting the alternative media. It wasn’t a trustworthy assumption back then, so why would it be a trustworthy assumption now? The only proper assumption to make is that nothing digital is anonymous. Period.
With the ludicrous spike in bitcoin prices, champions of the virtual economy are unlikely to listen to any questions or criticisms. I have never argued one way or the other in terms of bitcoin’s potential “market value,” because it does not really matter. I have only ever argued that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are in no way a solution to combating the international and central banks.  In fact, cyrptocurrencies only seem to be expediting their plan for full spectrum digitization and the issuance of a global currency system.
Bitcoin could easily hit $100,000, but its “value” is truly irrelevant and consistently hyped as if it makes bitcoin self evident as a solution to globalism. The higher the bitcoin price goes, the more the bitcoin cult claims victory, yet the lack of intrinsic value never seems to cross their minds. They have Scrooge McDuck-like visions of swimming in a vault of virtual millions. They’ll only accuse you of being an “old fogey” that “does not understanding what the blockchain is.”
The fact is, they are the one’s that do not really understand what the blockchain is — a framework for a completely cashless society in which trade anonymity is dead and economic freedom is destroyed.
Ask yourself this: Why is it that central banks around the world (including the BIS and IMF) are investing in Bitcoin and other crytpocurrencies while developing their own crypto systems based on a similar framework? Could it be that THIS infusion of capital and infrastructure from major banks is the most likely explanation for the incredible spike in the bitcoin market?  Why is it that globalist banking conglomerates like Goldman Sachs lavish blockchain technology with praise in their white papers? And, why are central bankers like Ben Bernanke speaking in favor of crypto at major cryptocurrency conferences if crypto is such a threat to central bank control?
Answer — because it is not a threat.  They benefit from a cashless system, and liberty champions are helping to give it to them.
Above all else, the virtual economy breeds weakness in society. It encourages a lack of tangible production. Instead of true producers, entrepreneurs and inventors, we have people scrambling to sell real world property in order to buy computing rigs capable of “mining” coins that do not really exist. That is to say, we may one day soon be faced with millions of citizens expending their labor and energy in order to obtain digital nothings programmed into existence and given artificial scarcity (for now).
It also encourages false rebellion. Real change requires actions in the real world. Removing banking elitists and their structures by force if necessary (and this will probably be necessary). Instead, freedom activists are being convinced that they will never have to lift a finger to beat the bankers. All they have to do is buy and mine crypto. The day will come in the near future when the folks that embrace this nonsense will wake up and realize they have wasted their energies on a unicorn and are ill prepared to weather the economic reset that continues to evolve.
To maintain a real economy in which people are self reliant and safe from fiscal shock, you need three things: tangible localized and decentralized production, independent and decentralized trade networks that are not structured around an establishment controlled system (like the internet is controlled), and the will to apply force to protect and preserve that production and those networks. If you cannot manufacture a useful thing, repair a useful thing or teach a useful skill, then you are essentially useless in a real economy. If you do not have localized trade, you have nothing.  If you do not have the mindset and the community of independent people required to protect your local production, then you will not be able to keep the economy you have built.
This is the cold hard truth that crypto proponents do not want to discuss, and will dismiss outright as “archaic” or “not obtainable.” The virtual economy is so much easier, so much more enticing, so much more comfortable. Why risk anything or everything in a real world effort to build a concrete trade network in your own neighborhood or town? Why risk everything by promoting true decentralization through localized commodity-backed money and barter systems? Why risk everything by defending those systems when the establishment seeks to crush them? Why do this, when you can pretend you are a virtual hero wielding virtual weapons in a no risk rebellion in a world of electronic ones and zeros?
In truth, the virtual economy is not legitimate decentralization, it is a weapon of mass distraction engineered to kill legitimate decentralization.

US Economic Crisis Ahead: Major Failure of Analysts to Spot Danger

The U.S. economy continues towards an epic crisis while the overwhelming majority of analysts are completely in the dark. Even though some alternative media analysts understand that our highly leveraged fiat monetary system and markets will crash, they fail to understand the underlying reasons. Thus, we are heading into a future we are not prepared because… the BLIND continues to lead the BLIND.

I don’t mean to be harsh on my fellow analysts, but the truth remains that the public is being misled due to the inability of market analysts unable to spot the real dangers. So, we continue to move step-by-step closer to the edge of the cliff while “no one seems to notice or no one seems to care” (George Carlin-comedian). I have to tell you; I miss ole George Carlin. Yes, he had a filthy mouth, but the truth in his comedic material gave me hours of much-needed laughter.

To explain what I mean about the “Major failure of analysts to spot Danger,” I am going to provide two examples and some additional information. It is crucial that the reader understand the FACTS and REAL DATA about our dire predicament and not become lost or confused in regards to lousy conspiracies or misinformation.

When I wrote the article, THE BLIND CONSPIRACY: The Gold Market Is Heading Towards A Big Fundamental Change; I thought for sure the individual and his analysis that I was calling into question would read the facts and data in my article and realize his error. However, it seems as if it provided quite the opposite reaction.

Mr. Weir spent 50 minutes of his time putting together another video about the Massive Billion Ounces of Hidden Gold in the Grand Canyon:

Mr. Weir thought by reading the 1912 New York Times article in detail and by explaining some additional exploration and geological information about gold in the Grand Canyon to his followers, this would further prove his Road To Roota Theory. Unfortunately, the rereading of an old article to prove a point does not change the fact that the gold in the Grand Canyon was uneconomical to mine in 1912 as it is today. Nothing has changed in over 100 years. Investors in 1912 were just as gullible and stupid as some investors are today.

To provide more detail to my readers and possibly those who are still questioning the 1 million tons of gold in the Grand Canyon, I came across some excellent historical information about the Lee Ferry Gold Mining Operation 1909-1912. If you read the information below and you still believe the U.S. Government turned the Grand Canyon into a National Park to keep billions of ounces of gold off the market, then you probably also believe in the TOOTH FAIRY and SANTA CLAUS.

Again, I don’t mean to be blunt, but it is very important for individuals to be able to discern between FACT & FICTION because they need to be prepared for the future. My motivation to SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT is only to get individuals to understand that you must move away from Grand Conspiracy Illusions to Critical thinking. While some real conspiracies are taking place in this crazy world of ours, to the focus on them only and not to understand the Falling EROI is gutting everything in its path, then you will not be physically or mentally prepared for what lies ahead.

So, I have provided evidence in two examples why we are wasting our time on incorrect theories and technology when we have much bigger problems ahead.

EXAMPLE #1: Unlearning The False 1 Million Ton Grand Canyon Hidden Gold Theory & Understanding Why Gold Is Rare And Valuable

To be able to disprove an incorrect theory, we have to provide enough factual data and information to render it useless. If an individual has an open mind and can think logically or critically, the facts once shown below should remove all doubts and concerns.

I came across an excellent historical document titled, Submerged Cultural Resources Site Report: Charles H Spencer Mining Operation And Paddle Wheel Steamboat. The report is nearly 100 pages and is full of detail on the gold mining operation that was written about in the 1912 New York Times article that Mr. Weir bases his Road To Roota theory.

At the beginning of the report, it explained how Charles Spencer started mining gold in the Grand Canyon area in 1908:

By 1908 he had amassed enough investment capital to begin his own operation on the San Juan River. Spencer and his company hired a few trained mining specialists, many laborers, bullwhackers, and cooks. A small ore extraction plant consisting of crusher, drive motor, boiler, pumps, compressor, and amalgamators, was purchased and brought together along with wagons, oxen, and horses. Large samples of Wingate sandstone were dropped into the crusher, however tests and assays were run with negative results. The mining engineer hired by the Chicago-based investors declared that the operation had no commercial value and closed it down in 1909 (Jones 1960:1; Waller 1961:1).

Okay, here we can see that Charles Spencer failed in his first attempt to mine gold in the Grand Canyon… STRIKE ONE

Spencer had to travel back to Chicago to beg and plea for more investor money because he thought his next go-around would be widely successful, but unfortunately, he ran into trouble once again:

Spencer traveled to Chicago in an effort to convince his former investors to allow him to try again. Undaunted by their refusal, he found new investors, put together another group of men and made ready to try again. In December 1909, the whole outfit left Mancos, Colorado, for a bone-chilling trip through Monument Valley and on to the San Juan River. The crusher and amalgamator were set up at Paria Creek, 125 miles above Lee’s Ferry.

They tried their luck on the Wingate sandstone, the thick, reddish, broken rock that occurs widely throughout the canyon country. Once again, they met failure. During the testing, one of the mining engineers assayed a sample of the Chinle shale and found that it contained as much, if not more, gold than the Wingate.

As the report states, Spencer and his small crew tried to mine gold from Wingate sandstone but once again failed. However, a mining engineer found that there was more gold in Chinle shale, so they decided to move operations to Lee Ferry… STRIKE TWO

Without further debate, the decision was made to move the operation to Lee’s Ferry. Spencer and his first crew arrived in May, 1910, and immediately began assembling additional men and the mechanical equipment needed to sluice the Chinle shale from the cliffside about 250 yards north of the Colorado River, behind the old Lee’s Fort.

Okay, so far so good. Spencer had listened to the mining engineer and decided he would have a better chance mining gold closer to Lee’s Ferry. However, Spencer ran into even more trouble as the fine gold was not being collected by the amalgamator as it was becoming clogged:

Spencer went ahead with his plan to recover gold from the Chinle by sluicing. A large boiler and pumps were set up near the river and water was pumped through hoses to big pressure nozzles aimed at the shale (Figure 2.3). The dissolved Chinle was carried down a long flume back toward the river where an amalgamator was set up. Spencer’s first “runs” at the mine were made in the spring of 1911. While everything worked fine at first, it soon became apparent that the mercury in the amalgamator was becoming clogged. The gold was passing on out with the tailings, instead of being absorbed by the mercury. Numerous efforts and tests were made to solve the problem with no success. Samples were even sent to outside experts who could not identify the “foreign” element present. It wasn’t until many years later that the element was identified as rhenium.

Unfortunately, for Spencer, the ability to extract the ultra-fine gold in from the shale and silt in the Grand Canyon was extremely problematic. However, this did not stop him from moving forward. There is something quite amusing about the human intellect to continue doing something that isn’t working or is fundamentally flawed. Even in the face of insurmountable problems, we humans have no problem throwing good money after bad.

Before I get to explaining the factors for STRIKE THREE of Spencer’s gold mining operation, let’s take a look at some of the interesting photos taken during and after operations ended. All photos courtesy of the report linked above:

Charles H Spencer 1911

Spencer’s Crew – front of Lee Ferry’s Fort, July 1910

Boiler used to operate water pump for gold sluicing operations – Aug 1910

Panoramic view Spencer Mining Area, taken 1915

Spencer gold mining area view from downstream, taken 1914

Layout of Spencer gold mining operations

If you look at the layout of Spencer’s gold mining operations, you will see the steamboat on the bottom right-hand side of the map. To see a larger and better quality image of the map above, click on the report link above and go to page 29.

Okay, let’s find out what happened to Spencer’s gold mining operation in 1912. While the mining engineers were trying to figure out how to solve the problem with the clogging of amalgamator, Spencer needed more money as the operation wasn’t producing gold, but burning cash like crazy:

While the chemists and mining engineers attempted to resolve the problems at the mine, Spencer continued to promote his enterprise. On at least one occasion, he used trail construction to impress a group of investors from Chicago. His men were instructed to put on a good, noisy show, by setting off sticks of dynamite. The investors left satisfied that Spencer’s men were earning their money.

As the report explains, Spencer instructed his men to make a lot of noise and set off sticks of dynamite to give the illusion to the visiting investors that they were doing something constructive. I imagine the investors visiting Spencer’s gold mining operation weren’t all that smart if just the mere evidence of only dynamite going off made them think the operation was successful.

You see, this is the sort of shady activity that is done to give investors a false sense of security. However, the problems for Spencer were just beginning. Not only was the amalgamator not working to extract the gold correctly, but the boilers that ran water pumps still needed a reliable energy source if operations were to continue:

In the meantime, the question of an adequate supply of fuel for the boilers was still unresolved. After examining several rugged canyons, eventually a sizeable vein of coal on a distant branch of Warm Creek was located, 28 miles upstream in Glen Canyon.

Company backers were convinced that the only economical way to move coal from Warm Creek to the mining location just below Lee’s Ferry was by boat. A paddle wheel steamboat (discussed in detail elsewhere in this report) was ordered from San Francisco, constru·cted at the mouth of Warm Creek, and launched in late February 1912.

Even though investors provided Spencer with a steamboat to deliver some coal for his mining operations, the realization after many attempts that quality of gold was uneconomical to produce, all mining operations ceased:

The fouling of the mercury plates in the amalgamator was an insurmountable problem, further, the value of the mercury required exceeded the value of the gold that was recovered (Jones 1961 :8). About the same time, the financial backers of the company… became greatly displeased with the management; account books were reported lost; many of the men were not paid; lawsuits were brought; the bank account Spencer used for operating expenses and payroll was attached; etc. …the proof that the silts were not a commercial enterprise definitely eliminated the group interested in that development.. .. (Jones 1961 :8).

Finally, in the Spring or Summer of 1912, the entire mining operation was shut down and the hired hands departed the area.

So, there we have it. Because of the failure to solve the fouling of the amalgamator and the value of the mercury required exceeded the value of the gold recovered, Spencer’s gold mining operation was shut down for good… STRIKE THREE.

Can you imagine investors finding out that the value of the mercury used to recover the gold cost more than the gold that was recovered?? LOL… fer Pete sakes, that doesn’t even include all the other expenses. The Spencer gold mining operation was doomed even before it started. However, the ability to get stupid and gullible investors to part with their money never ceases to amaze me.

Now, if we understand that the Spencer gold mining operations were shut down spring or early summer 1912, we can assume the motivation behind the June 19, 1912, New York Times article:

Anyone who understood what was going on at the Spencer gold mining operations in the Grand Canyon in June 1912, knew it was KAPUT and a FINANCIAL DISASTER. However, for those in the Eastern part of the country, where most of the investment money came from, and who were oblivious to the situation, were RIPE TARGETS to swindle more money. So, this news article was put out by the Chicago based investment firm to HOODWINK investors out of money so they could recover some of their losses. The oldest investing trick in the book.

If we can read the information above and digest it correctly, the facts and data suggest that gold mining in the Grand Canyon was simply, too technically difficult to extract and uneconomical to produce. I spent some additional time researching that report and found data showing that large gold dredging operations in the Grand Canyon were also unsuccessful:

HOSKANINNI Gold Dredge Grand Canyon, June 1900

Gold dredges were also tried on the upper Colorado River. Robert Stanton’s interest in placer mining in Glen Canyon was the impetus behind the organization of the Hoskaninni Company and his dream of a fleet of gold dredges. Stanton eventually located a suitable claim and, with backing from Eastern investors, obtained materials for the construction of the dredge HOSKANINNI in June 1900 {Figure 5.5). The dredge was 105 feet long, 36 feet in beam, had 46 buckets, and was powered by 5 gasoline engines that generated 168 horsepower (Crampton and Smith 1961:121-140). Like its predecessors ADVANCE and NORTH DAKOTA, the results were disappointing. In nearly two months work the dredge only recovered $30.15 worth of gold; a second location resulted in recovery of $36.80 (Crampton and Smith 1961:139, 143). Finally, in September 1901, the company went into receivership, and the dredge and other related company property were sold for $200 {Crampton and Smith 1961:148).

Robert Stanton had a dream to have a fleet of gold dredges working in the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, as the report findings state, in two months of work in 1900, the dredge only recovered $30.15 worth of gold (1.5 oz) and in a second location, $36.50 (1.8 oz). The failure of Robert Stanton’s gold mining operation went into receivership and the dredge and all other property were sold for a paltry $200.

One more thing. Some individuals who read the facts presented above will still believe that the U.S. Government is hiding this gold from the public. Folks, there are these people called INDEPENDENT GEOLOGISTS in the country. They can look at geological surveys all across the country and understand where the real high-grade economic gold deposits are found. If the Grand Canyon held a lot of high-grade gold worth the picking, then geologists and mining companies would have already extracted it.

I have provided clear factual examples that gold mining in the Grand Canyon failed miserably. While there might be billions of ounces of gold in the Grand Canyon, ONLY A FOOL is going to spend more money to extract it than it’s worth. Also, you would probably have to destroy the Grand Canyon in order to get the gold. Not only is the attempt to extract gold, FINANCIAL SUICIDE, its complete madness to destroy such a beautiful part of nature for the almighty Dollar. When are we going to wake up here??

If we understand that the world can only have mined approximately 180,000-200,000 metric tons of gold in human history, the notion that we have 1+ million tons in the Grand Canyon or in hidden Nazi vaults or Yamashita’s hoard loses all credibility.

It takes a heck of a lot of energy and capital to mine and produce gold. Individuals who claim there are 5-10 times more gold in the world than humans were physically able to mine, fail to grasp the fundamentals of “Economic resource extraction.” Basically, it means there are limits to what we can do. However, those who focus mainly on sensationalized conspiracy theories, seem to be unable to separate FACT from FICTION.

This is quite a shame because individuals need good factual information to be able to make better decisions for their future. If they are receiving disinformation or incorrect data from either the mainstream or alternative media, then they will be making bad decisions.

Investors need to understand that the world has a limited amount of gold and the value of it should be much higher than what it is currently. The funneling of the public’s funds into STOCKS, BONDS, and REAL ESTATE have given them an illusion of wealth. This illusionary wealth will evaporate when the global oil industry starts to disintegrate.

EXAMPLE #2: Advanced Technology Won’t Save Us, But It Will Take Us Down Quicker

The notion that advanced technology will save us is just as erroneous as the belief that the world has 1 million tons of gold hidden. Both are based on believing in fantasy over fact. For example, many people believe that solar-wind power and electric vehicles are our answers to our coming energy crisis. Unfortunately, renewable energy sources really aren’t renewable. Furthermore, without the burning of oil, natural gas, and coal, the manufacture of solar-wind power plants and electric vehicles would be impossible.

However, this doesn’t stop the High-Tech leaders of our day from promoting electric vehicles as a viable solution. The example I am going to focus on is Elon Musk’s notion that an electric semi-tractor truck will be a solution for our future commercial transportation needs.

While this is most certainly a neat futuristic looking truck, if we dive into the details of its projected performance, we’ll find out that is was better just to keep it on the drawing board.

According to the article, Given The Laws of Physics, Can The Tesla Semi Really Go 500 Miles, and What Will Be The Price?:

The maximum weight of a truck allowed on the road is 80,000 pounds, so if the body weight of a diesel truck is the minimum 33,000 pounds, then the maximum amount of cargo that can be carried by a diesel truck is 47,000 pounds.

… the authors found that the weight of the battery pack needed for a truck to go 900 miles is 54,000 pounds. There goes the payload: 54,000 + 29,000 truck weight is 83,000 pounds, over the 80,000 pound road limit. And this truck that can not haul cargo will set you back $500,000 to $650,000 dollars for the battery alone.

The article is quoting a study by two scientists about the next-generation battery technology to make a practical electric semi-truck. The scientists calculated that for an electric truck to go 900 miles, it would need a battery pack that weighed 54,000 pounds. This is quite amusing because the normal weight limit of the cargo a diesel semi-truck can transport is 47,000 pounds. This is because the empty truck and trailer weigh approximately 33,000 pounds. The total weight limit for a typical semi-truck-trailer and load on U.S. roads and highways is 80,000 pounds.

Alice Friedemann, who runs the EnergySkeptic site where I found the article, using data from the two scientists, put together the following table on the different battery weights needed for various trucking miles:

As we can see, for an electric semi-truck to go 900 miles, it would require a battery pack that weighed 27 metric tons or 54,000 pounds. Now if they decided to drop the distance to 600 miles than the battery would only need to weigh 18 metric tons or 36,000 pounds. This is still bad news because the company with the nice new electric semi-truck could only haul cargo that weighed 11,000 pounds. How economical is that when the diesel semi-truck can haul more than four times that amount at 47,000 pounds??

Now, let’s just say the company decided to buy electric semi-trucks to go 600 miles for a trip and then recharge them to go back 600 miles the next day. However, the cost of the battery to power the electric truck for 600 miles ranges from $320,000-$420,000. That’s a lot of money being spent on batteries when a company could take the same amount and purchase approximately 110,000 gallons of diesel fuel, which would allow the truck to haul freight for 700,000 miles. Most trucks in commercial fleets drive approximately 150,000 miles per year and are traded in after 500-600,000 miles.

Smaller transportation companies may hold onto their trucks for more than 1 million miles. Even so, the cost of a battery pack to power an electric truck for 600 miles can pay for the lifetime fuel costs of one truck. Furthermore, the cost of the battery pack for the semi-truck does not include the electricity cost to charge the battery. According to anarticle on Zerohedge, it would require the energy of 4,000 homes to recharge Tesla’s semi-truck. Well… that could get quite expensive.

The two scientists concluded about the economics of electric semi-truck capabilities:

The bottom line according to the authors, is that a 600 to 900-mile range truck will use most or all of their battery power to move the battery itself, not the cargo.

1. all our advancements in technology, we still come up with economic limits. Here the scientists found that for an electric truck to go 600-900 miles, it would use most or all of their battery power to move the battery pack itself, not the cargo.

Where have we heard that one before???

I will refresh your memory. In my previous article, I stated that the Charles H Spencer steamboat was burning most of the coal that it was transporting to power the boilers for the gold mining operations. However, this turns out to be more FICTION than FACT. The report linked above uses testimony back in 1929, to clear up that misnomer:

If the vessel carried the maximum amount reported on its first trip, that is 5 tons of coal, and if even 1 or 2 tons were unloaded at Lee’s Ferry, that would mean the paddle wheel boat used 3 to 4 tons to make the round trip between Warm Creek and Lee’s Ferry. The carrying capacity of SPENCER is estimated to have been 50 to 60 tons. A consumption rate of 3 to 4 tons, from a maximum capacity of 50 to 60 tons, figures out to be a use rate of 5% to 8%.

CHARLES H. SPENCER Steamboat, 1912

Herman W. Freeze testified that on a later trip the boat carried 15 to 20 tons of coal (U.S. vs. Utah, 1929, Abstract of Testimony 1 :686-689). Using the rate of 3 to 4 tons of coal to make that round trip, the result is 15% to 25% consumption. In either scenario, the rate of coal use is well below all that could be, or was reported to have been, carried by the boat.

The notion that the Charles H. Spencer steamboat burned all the coal during its round trip in delivering its coal load, in fact, was a fabrication to take the blame away from incompetent management and operators of the gold mine. In conclusion, the testimony and findings in 1929 of Spencer’s gold mining operation stated the following:

CHARLES H. SPENCER steamboat abandoned, 1915

The steamboat was and has been characterized as a failure by association rather than by a careful examination of the facts. CHARLES H. SPENCER became a scapegoat and was used as an excuse to help explain the collapse of a poorly-conceived mining operation. Charlie Spencer’s steamboat was not abandoned because it was a technological failure, the steamboat was abandoned because the men and the mine were an economic failure.

So, there we have the rest of the story. The real fact of the matter was the Charles H. Spencer steamboat actually did what it was designed to do.. and that was, to transport coal up the Colorado River. However, the abandoning of the steamboat at Lee’s Ferry was not due to the U.S. Government hiding the fact that there were billions of ounces of gold hidden in the Grand Canyon, but rather because the Spencer gold mining operation was a complete economic failure.

Which brings us to a final point…. while investors were still stupid and gullible 100 years ago, at least they used steamboats that made economic sense. Unfortunately, today… we are wasting a lot of time, effort, money, and resources to manufacture highly advanced electric semi-trucks that will use the majority of its battery power to transport cargo 600-900 miles.

U.S. Economy Heading Towards A Serious Crisis

If we are wasting our time on renewable energy technology that doesn’t work or solve our energy problem, we must be in serious trouble. The world has developed an economic system based on liquid fuel consumption. Our highly complex retail markets are based on a just-in-time-inventory-system. We need to continue producing liquid fuels at the current rate; our economic activity will decline.

Unfortunately, the cheap to produce oil is mostly gone and we are now being forced to produce low-quality-low-EROI oil (EROI – Energy Returned On Investment). The Venezuelan economy has gone into the crapper because it holds mostly heavy oil. The Statoil CEO stated recently that they would no longer go after heavy oil or oil sands resources. Thus, 70% of the world’s oil reserves are heavy oil and oil sands.

Furthermore, the ConocoPhillips CEO also remarked that they weren’t going to invest in projects that need $50 or more to break even. This is terrible news. There just aren’t many sub $50 oil projects available anymore.

The coming collapse of U.S. and global oil production will be a shock to the public. Virtually no one is prepared. If we continue to waste our time on lousy conspiracies or advanced technology that doesn’t work, we will be heading over the cliff… BLIND AS A BAT.

While we can’t solve the dire energy predicament we are facing, we can at least know what we are up against and make changes as best we can. However, only a fraction of people will GET IT. Most will continue doing what they are doing…. chasing FANTASY over FACT.

Bank Of England Warns The UK: ‘Economic Collapse’ If UK Keeps Borrowing Money

The Bank of England is putting the United Kingdom on alert.  Should the UK keep borrowing money, there will be a “Venezuela-style” economic collapse that will devastate normal citizens.
A senior Bank official has warned that the UK’s economy would be unlikely to survive borrowing any more cash. Richard Sharp, a member of the Bank’s Financial Stability Committee, claimed an extra £1trillion had already been borrowed since the 2008 financial crisis, and any more could see the economy collapse in the same quick manner that Venezuela’s did.

Richard Sharp, Bank of England Financial Stability Committee

 The Times reported on the stark warning mere days after Philip Hammond announced a £25 billion spending spree in the budget. It’s likely to dissuade the Chancellor from loosening the purse strings too far though, since the Bank rarely comments on government finances. It could also come as a wake-up call for Labour (a communist party), which is advocating borrowing an extra £250 billion.

In a speech at University College London,  Sharp warned that Jeremy Corbyn’s public spending policies would be foolish and dire for the economy. Like any rational person understands, communist policies only work for those elites in the government.  “A highly indebted government has less capacity to react to crises: we cannot assume that further shocks do not materialize, and evidence demonstrates that fiscal space is a vital national resource to have available to counteract such a shock,” Sharp said. “Reducing fiscal space, therefore, means financial stability is harder to achieve.”
The Wall Street giant, in its look-ahead to 2018, warned the UK’s “domestic political situation is at least as significant as Brexit” given the “perceived risks of an incoming Labour administration that could potentially embark on a radical change of policy direction”.
A collapsed UK economy would have worldwide ramifications. The real losers in this political game of spending more and tyrannical governments are the everyday men and women who live and work in the UK.  Should the Labour party succeed in their borrowing of even more money, the standards of living for the average person would go through the floor – just like Venezuela.

Peter Schiff Warns Of CRASH: ‘Everybody Is Going To Get Wiped Out!’

This coming crisis will hit everyone in the wallet. Money manager Peter Schiff, who accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis, can already see the writing on the wall – and he says everyone is going to get wiped out.
Schiff says that this time, gold will explode and the dollar will be wiped out. USA Watch Dog‘s Greg Hunter interviewed Schiff about the impending financial disaster we are facing. Almost ten years after the 2008 meltdown, Schiff had this to say:

“I predicted a lot more than just the stock market going down back then.  I predicted the financial crisis, but more importantly, I predicted what the government would do as a result of the financial crisis and what the consequences of that would be because that’s where we’re headed.  The real crash I wrote about in my most recent book is still coming. . . . This is the third gigantic bubble that the Fed has inflated, and when this one pops, it’s not going to be ‘the third time is a charm.’  It’s going to be ‘three strikes and you’re out.’  I think this bubble is too big to pop.  I think it’s the mother of all bubbles, and when it bursts, there is not a bigger one that the Fed is going to be able to inflate to mask these problems, meaning we can’t kick the can down the road anymore.” –Peter Schiff

Schiff thinks it could get even worse too. It could go beyond just a financial crisis.

“I think the problem we are going to be confronted with is going to be much worse than a financial crisis.  It is going to be a dollar crisis, and it is going to be a sovereign debt crisis where the bonds people are worried about are not some sub-prime mortgages. . . . It’s going to be the U.S. government that people are worried about and the solvency of the U.S. government and the Treasury bonds.  If it’s a dollar crisis and people are worried about the dollar, the only thing worse than owning a dollar today is owning the promise of being paid in dollars in the future.  I don’t think we have the courage to default and admit to our creditors that we don’t have the money and we can’t repay.  I think we will create all the money that we need so we can pretend to repay, but what we end up doing is wiping out the debt with inflation.”

Inversely, Schiff says it is the same with the suppressed gold and silver markets.

“They can’t keep doing it, and it will end.  It’s just like how much debt can we take on.  It’s not an unlimited amount.  We will know when we get there.  How long can they keep the price of gold suppressed?  We will know when we get there.  At some point, the price is going to explode because there is real physical buying, and all that paper selling can’t camouflage that. . . . People don’t trust fiat currencies . . . . More and more people are looking for alternatives, and the real alternative is gold.  When they embrace it, it’s going to overwhelm central banks’ ability to suppress the price.  In the meantime, enjoy the gift that they are giving.”

Schiff also said no one knows when this is going to happen for sure, only that it will happen, and you are better off to be prepared in advance.
“A crisis rarely stops with a triggering event. The aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. Because of this, it’s important to have a well-rounded approach to our preparedness efforts,” says Ready Nutrition author Tess Pennington in her book, The Prepper’s Blueprint.
It may be the time we all take a step back and consider the impact the government has had on what Schiff says will be the ultimate destruction of the dollar and prepare as best we can.





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