Peak oil and 'a dollar crisis'

An influential business column is warning savvy investors about peak oil and a possible freefall in the US and Chinese economies.

Under the headline Betting on higher oil prices, Marketwatch writer Peter Brimelow considers the projected future rise of oil prices, and under-performing green power options. MarketWatch, published by Dow Jones & Co., “tracks the pulse of markets for engaged investors with more than 16 million visitors per month.”

It’s clear that Brimelow is discussing peak oil for an informed audience, especially when talking about possible outcomes, including “a dollar crisis” – which looks like a business-speak-warning of the possible collapse of the US economy. Or at least, financial turmoil.

His column focuses on Outstanding Investments, which bills itself as a “leading innovator in the financial advice industry.” According to Brimelow:

The key to Outstanding Investments' position: Yes, there really is an energy crunch.

It wrote recently:

"The real source of our current high oil prices -- and the reason why they'll stay high for a long time to come -- is pure and simple science.

"It's known as Peak Oil, the well really is running dry."

Outstanding Investments then powerfully summarized the celebrated contention of geologist M. King Hubbard that the world is simply running out of oil, at any price.

This argument is not a smooth road to riches. As Outstanding Investments editor Byron King wrote judiciously earlier this year:

"In the medium term -- the next year or so -- we will probably see oil prices swing wildly, perhaps down into the $50s per barrel and up toward the $100 range. These price swings will reflect much larger events that are floating like sea mines all through the world economy. We could see a dollar crisis, related to loss of confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to raise funds to pay its obligations. We could see a China bubble crisis, either through the ongoing tightening already apparent or through an outright Chinese crash."

'Green' options do not offer a “long-term investment value” to the savvy investor, the column continues. They remain uncompetative compared to coal and nuclear.

Once again, the real news is on the business pages. It’s written in a coded way, or at least in a form of shorthand, for an informed audience. It looks like a warning – oil is going to fluctuate wildly, and be a poor bet, green alternatives offer little more, and watch out, there is a chance of the economy falling down on us. Man the lifeboats.

At the risk of repeating myself here, the truth is out there, on the business pages. The elite is kept informed.