Nicole Foss
direct mini-link >> http://bit.ly/NicoleFoss
YouTube compilation from a fan:
Brilliant lady from the Automatic Earth Blog who provides incredibly clear insight to some of the many problems staring us in the face today.
Truly a 'Big Picture" intellectual whose knowledge covers an amazing array of diverse topics.
"World Financial Instability" covers so many important subjects, that it really needs to be the one lecture of hers that everyone listens to, even if they never hear any of her others.
I have assembled 4 of her Best moments here for interested viewers
Nicole Foss advises:
How to survive economic collapse
About Nicole Foss
http://sustainabilityconference.org/n...
Foss is a biologist, an environmental attorney, an energy industry insider, and an expert in the economics of finance.
Foss believes that resource limits (peak oil) and the collapse of global Ponzi finance are a "perfect storm" of converging phenomena that threaten to trigger wealth destruction, social discontent, and global conflict.
The consequences for unprepared individuals and families could be dire.In Foss's presentation "A Century of Challenges", she discusses the many converging factors that are contributing to the predicament we face today, and how individuals can build a "lifeboat" to cope with the difficult years ahead.
She explains how our current financial system is an unsustainable credit bubble grounded in "Ponzi dynamics," or the logic of the pyramid scheme.
Foss argues that this crisis has developed in the context of the fossil fuel age, an age which will prove to be a relatively brief period of human history.
She says that we have already seen oil reach a global production peak, and other fossil fuels are not far behind; and while there is still plenty of fossil fuel in the ground, production will fall, meaning that there will be less and less energy available to power the economy at prices afford to pay.
Foss continues that societies have gone through boom and bust cycles before, examples include: the Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble and the "Real" Great Depression of the 1870s; but most people in the Western world today will face this crisis without the knowledge or means to provide the basics of their own survival.
The industrial system has nearly destroyed the individual capacity for self-reliance.Foss argues that individuals and communities that take steps now to prepare stand a much better chance to thrive in a changing world.
Warwick University says of Foss's work, "[she] writes a finance blog with a difference; instead of saying how to make money, it tells ordinary people how to avoid losing it."
Foss travels extensively on speaking tours throughout North America, Europe and Australia.BackgroundNicole M. Foss is co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh.
She and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament.
The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what can be done about it.
Prior to the establishment of TAE, she was editor of The Oil Drum Canada, where she wrote on peak oil and finance.
Most recently, Foss ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy.
While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level.
Her academic qualifications include a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK.
She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997.
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from Living Economies
This article was first published in Organic New Zealand – July/August 2012. Co-authors Deirdre Kent and Helen Dew are founding members of Living Economies. Deirdre is the author of Healthy Money Healthy Planet and a co-founder of the New Economics Partyhttp://neweconomics.net.nz.
"The future is, after all, something we create, not something that just happens."
Paul Gilding1 - The Great Disruption
If economic and energy analyst Nicole Foss2 is correct, we’ll need to do much more than grow our own food to meet the challenges of economic collapse.
Foss, keynote speaker at the 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence held in April 2012 in Turangi, believes the global financial crisis is far from over. “The recent credit bubble was the biggest ponzi scheme the world has ever experienced and it’s not yet unwound.” The bailouts now add up to at least $4.6 trillion or $4,600,000,000,000. Foss says the bubble is leading us into a very long and painful depression, perhaps another ten years, and Professor Steve Keen3 of Sydney agrees.
Foss had just completed a tour of New Zealand, transfixing many audiences. Although for many years she ran the Oil Drum website, she now sees finance as a more immediate challenge than the admittedly serious energy crisis. Many of those attending her talks planned to change their personal situations.
We in New Zealand have had a taste of what is to come with the collapse of 28 finance companies. Europe is in turmoil at the prospect of Greece leaving the Euro. Foss predicted the Euro would collapse in the next two years and send shock waves throughout the world.
So how have we got to this situation?
The fancy “financial instruments” that trading banks and investment banks have invented in the last 30 years created virtual wealth as markets bid up the price of assets. But when a bubble bursts, panic sets in and prices plummet. The financial system is rather like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops there are 100 people claiming each chair because the amount of credit in circulation far exceeds the available assets.
In a depression the economy slows and the money supply shrinks. Investment and pension funds are badly affected. If interest rates rise mortgage holders are very exposed. People stop spending and cash is king. Against a background of increasingly high unemployment it doesn’t matter whether prices are high or low. What matters is the ability to pay.
So how will we prepare for a long depression? Politicians are unlikely to help – they typically cheerlead and talk up the economy.
New Zealand is vulnerable because household debt is very high. During the 1930s depression, trade fell 66% in two years - alarming for a trading country with long supply lines, importing 97% of our oil.
New Zealand’s banking system is exposed to the Euro and to the Australian banking system. Appropriate preparation can reduce the risk of panic, protests against austerity, repression and political instability. Constructive activities generate a sense of empowerment and purpose.
Energy
We have used the easy-to-access, cheap supplies of oil. The increasing cost of extraction will push the price up and at some point extraction will become uneconomic . As a result, commodity and service costs - especially of the essentials - will rise steeply.
The drop-off in oil production will be dramatic, forcing society to move very quickly to a low carbon economy. In 2008, oil hit $147/barrel but collapsed quickly to $32 when the financial bubble burst. However, oil priced as low as $20 a barrel may be unaffordable if incomes fall.
A community approach
Foss says reality is not going to negotiate with you and neither will the environment. You don’t want to be the only wildebeest crossing a crocodile-infested river, so work together. Design a resilience plan with family and friends; get to know your neighbours and wider community. Pool time, financial resources, skills, space, tools and facilities. Grow your own food, and create a local food, fuel and transport plan.
Decentralise and build local capacity, especially for basics, while we still have the chance – before declining resources lead to rationing, surveillance, loss of freedom and centralised power.
Depression-proof employment will include suppliers of life's essentials - builders, repairers, farmers, food growers, wood merchants, health workers and top entertainers. Be careful with education costs – consider an apprenticeship rather than studying for a degree.
Learn how to use complementary currencies, read books by Professor Bernard Lietaer4, start or join a timebank (www.timebanks.org.nz) or a LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), encourage your employer to participate in a business barter network.
Eliminate your mortgage and pay off your debts. Granted, getting out of debt may be easier said than done! Living Economies Savings Pools enable participants to share financial resources with friends and family – interest-free.
The ‘Co-operative Home Ownership Pool (CO-HOP)’ is a recent initiative that matches those with mortgages with others wanting safer investments. (Contact Sonia Corbett at soniaann.corbett@gmail.com to help develop this idea.)
Visit the Bank of Real Solutions (www.realsolutions.org.nz) or www.scoop.it/t/transition-culture/ for a comprehensive range of initiatives at local level to enhance resilience. Join a Transition Towns group www.transitiontowns.org.nz. Start a neighbourhood group.
Take an active interest in your local authority and central government. Councillors planning for business as usual and committing to huge unserviceable loans could cause significant rate increases. Growing your own food won’t save the day if you‘re forced to sell your house because you can’t pay your rates!
Nicole Foss’s checklist
1) Hold no debt (for most people, this means renting).
2) Hold cash and cash equivalents (short term treasuries) under your own control.
3) Don't trust the banking system or deposit insurance.
4) Sell equities, real estate, most bonds, commodities, collectibles.
5) Gain some control over the necessities of your own existence.
6) Work with others to enhance personal and community resilience and security.
7) Get out of managed funds and don’t rely on middlemen.
8) Change your bank account to a New Zealand-owned bank.
9) Buy durable goods and quality tools.
10) Educate yourself and your children; read, watch and discuss documentaries.
11) Download material from the internet while it’s still working!
12) Watch your local and central government indebtedness and risk-taking.
1 Paul Gilding is an independent writer, advisor and advocate for action on climate change and sustainability. http://paulgilding.com/
2 Nicole Foss LLM and BSc, Systems Analyst, http://theautomaticearth.org/ If you do a search you will find many references to her NZ tour.
3 Professor Steve Keen writes at http://www.debtdeflation.com
4 Professor Bernard Lietaer’s website has a comprehensive range of his books, articles and TED talks. http://www.lietaer.com/
A Century of Challenges
At her presentation, Foss will discuss the many converging factors that are contributing to the predicament we face today, and how individuals can build a "lifeboat" to cope with the difficult years ahead. She explains how our current financial system is an unsustainable credit bubble grounded in "Ponzi dynamics," or the logic of the pyramid scheme. She warns that most people are woefully unprepared to face the consequences of the devastating deflation that is now unfolding.
What makes this crisis different from past financial calamities?
Foss argues that this crisis has developed in the context of the fossil fuel age, an age which will prove to be a relatively brief period of human history. She says that we have already seen oil reach a global production peak, and other fossil fuels are not far behind; and while there is still plenty of fossil fuel in the ground, production will fall, meaning that there will be less and less energy available to power the economy at prices afford to pay.
She continues that societies have gone through boom and bust cycles before, examples include: the Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble and the "Real" Great Depression of the 1870s; but most people in the Western world today will face this crisis without the knowledge or means to provide the basics of their own survival. Our industrial system has nearly destroyed the individual capacity for self-reliance.
Foss argues that individuals and communities that take steps now to prepare stand a much better chance to thrive in a changing world.
This is part one of a keynote talk delivered to the 2010 International Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy, and Environment organized by Local Future nonprofit and directed by Aaron Wissner. This portion of the talk is provided with permission of Ms. Foss. To view the rest of the copyrighted talk, visit:
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com
How I Prepared My Home for Peak Oil
Subido el 08/10/2011
http://sustainabilityconference.org
Nicole Foss, senior editor of financial blog The Automatic Earth, where she writes as Stoneleigh, describes her personal preparation for peak oil and economic uncertainty.
Foss returns to North America in November 2011 for the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision, Action, Leadership organized by Local Future non-profit, and directed by Aaron Wissner.
Foss has delivered her Century of Challenges talk hundreds of times.
1. The first 20-minutes of her talk regarding peak oil is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKZT5...
2. To view her full talk, visit The Automatic Earth at:
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com
3. To view a full Q&A session with Mrs. Foss, following her presentation, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKMnBe...
EU crisis: Riots in Spain and Greece
In this edition of the show Max interviews Nicole Foss from theautomaticearth.com. She talks about the ongoing global debt deflation and what's next for Europe and US in terms of government and Central Bank policy to stop the collapse. Nicole M. Foss is co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it.
World Financial Instability Dialogue
Forecasting 2012 & Beyond
Economists Nicole Foss (The Automatic Earth), Steve Keen (Debunking Economics), and Tom Greco (The End of Money) are interviewed by Aaron Wissner (Local Future) regarding what to expect in the world economy in 2012 and beyond.
This video was recorded at the 2011 International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision - Action - Leadership which was organized by Local Future, a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization, and directed by Aaron Wissner.
QUESTIONS, KEYWORDS, NOTES
What about sending everyone a tax refund check that had to be used to pay off mortgages and loans?
Bernanke "quantitative easing" "Jubilee shares" speculation
What would you not be surprised to see in the news headlines in 2012 out of Europe?
Greece Italy Spain PIIGS "military coup" Portugal debt "Euro zone" GDP bubble "European Union"
If I was a person living in Greece, and I had some Euros, what does it mean for Greece not to be on the Euro? What is the process for currency reissue?
"currency flight" "capital controls" Argentina Mylasia
Could capital controls happen in US?
"reserve currency" Keynes "Breton Woods" "special drawing rights" SDR seniorage "printing money" "multilateral clearing" Europen "legal tender" "currency peg" debt
Headline: "War Declared in Europe!" What's your first thought on how that might have happened?
"diversionary war" Kuwait Iraq oil Libya NATO "popular uprising" Egypt "civil war" 1929
Are you implying that the structure of the economic system itself had something to do with the depression and that in turn caused the second World War to happen?
"The Economics Consequences of the Peace" repirations Hitler Germany rearmament unpayable France unemployment "financial crisis" "balance budget" deficit "welfare payment system" contrarian
Question and Answer, January 2012
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com
Nicole Foss (a.k.a. Stoneleigh of The Automatic Earth) answers questions following her talks on economics and preparedness, part 3 of 3. For more information, and to view Ms. Foss's full presentations, visit The Automatic Earth web site.
Recorded in Michigan by Aaron Wissner for a live event hosted by Local Future, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit educational organization.
We Need Freedom of Action To Confront Peak Oil
In the third video in the series "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" from The Nation and On The Earth productions, co-editor of The Automatic Earth, Nicole M. Foss, explains how energy relates to the economy and what our impending energy crisis will look like. Foss discusses the issues associated with peak oil in financial rather than environmental terms, because she finds that peak oil has much more to do with finance than it does with climate change.
Foss talks about what she calls a "false positive feedback loop," which involves optimism leading to "caution being thrown to the wind." When this happens, Foss believes that people become angry. Succumbing to fear and anger might lead to engagement in destructive behavior, which would make it harder for society to confront peak oil and climate change.
Reacting to former vice president Dick Cheney, who once said "the American way of life is not negotiable," Foss says, "That's true because reality is not going to negotiate with you."
For more videos in the series, visit www.TheNation.com.