Este libro tiene como origen el curso que, con el mismo título, se celebró en la Fundación César Manrique entre el 17 y el 19 de octubre de 2007, y que fue dirigido por los editores, Federico Aguilera y José Manuel Naredo.
La publicación incluye textos de Óscar Carpintero, Albert Recio, Manuel Delgado, Félix Arias y Marcos Roitman, además de los propios editores.
Tras los cánticos al libre mercado y al crecimiento de la producción, las operaciones de mera adquisición de riqueza están cada vez más al orden del día. Este libro da cuenta de ello a través de análisis generales y aplicados. Los primeros precisan el contexto sociopolítico en el que toma cuerpo la refundación oligárquica del poder en las actuales democracias, así como la cobertura ideológica que la hace pasar desapercibida. Los análisis aplicados se ilustran con casos en los que determinados personajes y grupos empresariales obtienen el lucro fácil e inmediato mediante «operaciones» inmobiliarias o financieras amparadas por el poder, utilizando como pretexto determinados megaproyectos de gran impacto territorial.
This paper explores similarities and differences between the run‐up of oil prices in 2007‐08 and earlier oil price shocks, looking at what caused the price increase and what effects it had on the economy. Whereas historical oil price shocks were primarily caused by physical disruptions of supply, the price run‐up of 2007‐08 was caused by strong demand confronting stagnating world production. Although the causes were different, the consequences for the economy appear to have been very similar to those observed in earlier episodes, with significant effects on overall consumption spending and purchases of domestic automobiles in particular. In the absence of those declines, it is unlikely that we would have characterized the period 2007:Q4 to 2008:Q3 as one of economic recession for the U.S. The experience of 2007‐08 should thus be added to the list of recessions to which oil prices appear to have made a material contribution.
Internal Combustion is the compelling tale of corruption and manipulation that subjected the United States and the world to an oil addiction that could have been avoided, that was never necessary, and that could be ended not in ten years, not in five years, but today.
Erin Neal has been living a secluded life in the Arizona desert since the death of his girlfriend and he isn’t happy when an oil company executive comes calling. A number of important Saudi wells have stopped producing and Erin is the world’s foremost expert in resolving just these kinds of complications. As far as he’s concerned, though, he’s left that world behind. Not his problem. Homeland Security sees things differently. Erin quickly finds himself stuck in the Saudi desert, studying a new bacteria with a voracious appetite for oil and an uncanny talent for destroying drilling equipment. But worst of all is its ability to spread. It soon becomes clear that if this contagion isn’t stopped, it will infiltrate the world’s petroleum reserves, cutting the industrial world off from the energy that provides the heat, food, and transportation necessary for survival. Erin realizes that there’s something eerily familiar about this bacteria. And that it couldn’t possibly have evolved on its own.
Draining the lifeblood of industrial civilization, the terminal decline of oil and gas production will spark a crisis far more dangerous than international terrorism, and just as urgent as climate change. World leaders know it, so why aren’t they telling? The last oil shock is the secret behind the crises in Iraq and Iran, the reason your gas bill is going through the roof, the basis of a secret deal cooked up in Texas between George Bush and Tony Blair, the cause of an imminent and unprecedented economic collapse, and the reason you may soon be kissing your car keys and boarding pass goodbye. David Strahan explains how we reached this critical state, how the silence of governments, oil companies and environmentalists conspires to keep the public in the dark, what it means for energy policy, and what you can do to protect yourself and your family from the ravages of the last oil shock.
Relato de ficción que forma parte de The Simpler Way: working for transition from consumer society to a simpler, more cooperative, just and ecologically sustainable society.
