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Is globalization and super free market here to stay and is it even possible to reverse it?
Let me give a concrete example. Fish caught off the Norwegian coast are immediately frozen, transported to China where they are gutted and turned into products, then put back on a ship where they are transported to a port (LA,) where the cargo container containing the fish is transported to a warehouse, the cargo container is opened and the boxes of fish are put on trucks, which then transport the fish to other warehouses (Albuquerque,) where the truck is unloaded, the boxes are then placed on short-haul trucks who take the fish to local retail outlets (my grocery store in back-of-beyond New Mexico.)
And that's how I get a nice piece of cod to tuck into for my dinner.
Globalization and the super free market depend on cheap oil, extracted at around 85 million barrels a day, for a 8 ounce piece of Norwegian cod to arrive at back-of-beyond New Mexico.
Put bluntly, this isn't going to continue long-term. As oil prices rise, due to falling extraction, there will come a point where the cost of transportation overwhelms the ability of the consumer to pay for it.
When the "What-Is" becomes the long-term is anybodies guess. It all depends on how quickly we go sliding down the right hand side of the Hubbert Curve:
I note, as I write this the 85 m/b/d is being supplemented by (around) 5 m/b/d of higher cost fuel additives, such as ethanol. Which to me - YMMV - indicates we're already past the peak and slowly starting to head downward. Another bit of evidence is the fact OPEC, specifically the Saudis, can no longer increase production enough to counter rising oil prices. She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
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