Readers of this blog know I’ve been in a relatively pessimistic mood recently, and would not be surprised to find out my current read is Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy
Leeb attempts to debink the argument that we will simply find more oil to meet our needs, arguing that recent finds are in more difficult to access areas (deepwater ocean) and that even all of the discoveries announced are small drops in the bucket of our current consumption rates. He also argues that the free market is not the answer, as publicly traded companies often focus more on short-term results to satisfy shareholders and analysts than on long-term success.
Where does all this end? According to Leeb, left unchecked this condition could lead to the end of our civilization, as nations fight wars over scarce resources needed to sustain their populations. He also argues that urgent action is needed now to avert this outcome, and even then we are likely headed towards a much simpler existance as society adapts to living with a relatively low level of resources available.
This was the jist of the first of three parts of the book. The second part discusses actions we should take as a society to combat this problem and the final part outlines investments to make to profit from these events. Although I don’t agree with all the conclusions made in the first part of the book (for instance, resources like iron ore are discussed as if they are gone completely once used, when in fact metals could be recycled to meet more productive future needs), I think there are some very interesting arguments and considerations for your personal planning and investments. I’ll post a review of the next two parts when I get through them.
