Bonus gem

Here they come, one after another: clear signs of the total disconnect between the energy--read: oil--crisis we're facing and what investors/the megacorporations they blindly trust assume we should do about it--read: continue business as usual.

HSBC issued a prediction today markets will doubtless be reacting to:

“We’re confident that there are around 50 years of oil left,” Karen Ward, the bank’s senior global economist, said in an interview on CNBC.

Here's the NY Times on the counter-argument to that prediction:

"Some oil industry observers take a more optimistic view of future supplies, arguing that further development of Canadian tar sands, offshore discoveries in the Arctic and an expected surge in supply from Iraq will keep oil markets well-supplied for decades. Shale drilling has also managed to boost domestic oil production in the United States after years of decline."

So increasingly risky, hazardous methods of drilling are a-ok as long as on a superficial level the markets remain 'well-supplied'? Somebody tell me what's wrong with that. Hmm.