Author Archive

• Readings: Tuesday 1 December 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | December 1st, 2009 at 11:07 am

  

  UN Meets Homeless Victims of American Property Dream: Chris McGreal, guardian.co.uk.

  Interviews with Jugglers – London Labour and the London Poor, London 1861: Henry Mayhew, juggling.org.

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• Gregor Macdonald To Provide Keynote Presentation At AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference This Week
  Gregor MacDonald, | December 1st, 2009 at 7:14 am

  

  Guest post by AGORACOM.

  I am very proud to announce that Gregor Macdonald, an oil analyst and energy sector investor who also focuses on the coming transition to alternatives, is a keynote speaker at this week’s AGORACOM Online Gold and Commodities Conference, this December 3rd and 4th We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet but we can tell you that Gregor is working hard and “feeling quite good about my presentation, which will concentrate on Coal, and Energy Transition (with some internal nods to failed monetary policy and scarce resources)”.

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• Powering the Dubai Overshoot
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am

  

  You’ve seen the before-and-after pictures, like a Vegas slug of glass rising in the desert. And, you’ve read the stories about indebted foreign workers leaving their Range Rovers behind, as they flee. Perhaps you’ve seen video of the indoor ski arcade? Or, caught the gaze of the photographer’s eye on the poor, underpaid migrant workers constructing the Burj Dubai.

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• Readings: Tuesday 24 November 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

  

  What Peak Oil Can Do for Climate Change: Chris Nelder, Get Realist.

  Capital Journal – California’s Budget is Going to Be Dreadful: George Skelton, The Los Angeles Times.

  Early Data Suggest Suicides are Rising: Murray and McKay, The Wall Street Journal.

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• Podcast Picks: Friday 20 November 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 20th, 2009 at 9:25 am

  

  Why We Need Architecture: Paul Goldberger, WBUR On Point Radio.

  China, Coal, and Climate Change: Schell, Stokes and Lieberthal, The Dianne Rehm Show WAMU.

  Boston: James Howard Kunstler thinks Boston is one of the few, healthy, major cities left in the US,  KunstlerCast Radio .

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• Solve for California
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am

  

  The next BLS release of unemployment data for California comes this Friday, and its bracing to think what the numbers might be. Currently, the broad measure of unemployment for California–or U6- is running at 19.9% and the more conservative measure, which will be updated this this week, is at 12.2%. I’ve written quite alot on the subject of California this year. So, I watch the macroeconomic newsflow that emerges from the state each week, and most of it is pretty awful.

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• Readings: Tuesday 17 November 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 17th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

  

  Zimbabwe – A Fresh Start: Alf Field, 321 Gold.

  Trash | Track – MIT Researchers Track Trash to Encourage Recycling: Brian X. Chen, WIRED Magazine.

  Is the IEA World Energy Outlook Politically Distorted?: Chris Nelder, Get Realist.

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• Who Gets to Optimize?
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 17th, 2009 at 8:10 am

  

  The week before last I spent a very enjoyable day in Cambridge, Massachusetts taking in presentations at Harvard and MIT. I traveled there partially by train, which gave me a chance to test out the MBTA’s free WiFi service, and also to assess the restoration of various rail lines in Eastern Massachusetts

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• Podcast Picks
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 14th, 2009 at 11:44 am

  

  Blackout: Coal, Climate and the Last Energy Crisis: Richard Heinberg, Financial Sense Newshour.

  Seminars About Long-Term Thinking (SALT): Stewart Brand – Rethinking Green, The Long Now Foundation.

  Collapse Dynamics: an interview with Noah Raford,  Jason Bradford’s Reality Report.

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• Let Them Eat Data
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 11th, 2009 at 8:38 am

  

  The Guardian newspaper dropped a small bomb on the International Energy Agency last night, on the eve of the IEA’s annual release of their signature product: The World Energy Outlook. According to the British newspaper, at least one if not two whistleblowers within the agency were claiming that the IEA’s record of chronic optimism on future oil supply had been disingenuous at best, and moreover, that this positioning had been influenced over the years by pressure from the US.

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• Readings:Tuesday 10 November 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

  

  Key Oil Figures Were Distorted by US Pressure, Says Whistleblower: Terry Macalister, The Guardian.

  IEA Warns Non-Opec Oil Supply Will Peak Next Year: Kate Mackenzie, FT energysource.

  World Energy Outlook Executive Summary (12 page Adobe .pdf), IEA Paris.

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• Gaze Upon the Glory of Free Market Oil
  Gregor MacDonald, | November 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 am

  

  40% of global oil supply is provided by OPEC, and 60% of global oil supply is provided by Non-OPEC oil producers. Russia is a Non-OPEC oil producer but if we take Russia out of that category, we are left with 44% of global supply.

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• Podcast Picks: Friday 30 October 2009
  Gregor MacDonald, | October 30th, 2009 at 8:30 am

  

  The World’s First Digital Soil Map: Future Tense, ABC Radio Australia.

  Darrin Nordahl, a city designer speaks on urban farming: The Dianne Rehm Show WAMU Radio.

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• California Enters Inflationary Depression
  Gregor MacDonald, | October 29th, 2009 at 8:39 am

  

  I was surprised to see the following headline in today’s Wall Street Journal: Oil Price Rise Poses Little Threat, Yet, To Economic Recovery. The piece was stitched together with many quotes from economists, saying that oil’s advance to 80.00 was not yet a problem–though it could present a problem if we went any higher.

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• Revival of the Petrodollar Recycling Machine
  Gregor MacDonald, | October 28th, 2009 at 8:43 am

  

  Generally we think of the Federal Reserve as being very queasy, in an old school sort of way, about rising oil prices. But at a time of collapsed trade flows and the attendant reduction in Dollar reserve building, might the FED secretly welcome an advance in the price of oil?

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