Europe left behind as shale shock drives America’s industrial resurgence
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
“…the US energy department said last week that the country will produce 11.4m barrels a day (b/d) of oil, biofuels, and liquid hydrocarbons next year, almost as much as Saudi Arabia.
America looks poised to become the
world’s biggest producer in 2014. It will approach the Holy Grail of
"energy independence" before the end of the decade.
This is largely due to hydraulic
fracturing - blasting rock with water jets - to extract shale gas and oil,
though solar power and onshore wind are playing their part.
Europe is going in the opposite
direction, drifting towards energy suicide. So is Japan as it shuts down its
nuclear industry after the Fukushima disaster….
…The implications are momentous. America will no
longer need a single drop of oil from the Islamic world. The strategic burden
will fall on Europe, which is meekly disarming itself to meet Wolfgang
Schauble's austerity targets. Russia and China will be pleased to help...”
HUSSMAN
John Hussman, PhD, is
still suggesting the US is in recession, even with the latest GDP number at 2%.
“…early
GDP figures are often reported positive even after a recession is already well
in progress, and waiting for two consecutive quarterly declines in GDP is a
poor way of gauging recession risk, because that pattern sometimes doesn’t
emerge until a much later revision, if at all.”
“Based
on the most leading economic signal that we infer from dozens of economic
variables…the best we can say about recent data is that the signal is negative
but the pace has not worsened, which suggests that at least over the next 4-5
months, the character of the recession is likely to be moderate, and not the
sort of off-the-cliff collapse we saw in 2008...” He noted that GDP is usually positive in the
beginning of recessions. He wrote, “The
heavy revision of GDP figures is not the exception but the rule. In the first
quarter of 2008…with the U.S. economy already in recession for three months, Q1
GDP was reported at 1% growth. That figure was later revised to -1.8%. Just
like 2001, the following quarter was reported at positive growth. The economy
then collapsed in the second half of 2008, but by the time that was evident in
GDP figures, the stock market had already plunged." John Hussman Weekly Market Commentary from Hussman Funds at…
The markets were closed
today, Monday, due to Sandy and will remain closed Tuesday so no Blog for me
Tuesday.
Sandy is a monster for the Northeast where direct hits by hurricanes are relatively rare. If you are in the impact area, I wish you the best.
