VirtaPay Blog: Wed, Feb 6 – Global Crisis (3): Energy Shortage

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Wed, Feb 6 – Global Crisis (3): Energy Shortage Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:12 PM PST Recap for new VirtaPay users: In part 1 of this blog post series, we covered some of the events of the global economic crisis. In part 2, we explained a bit about who gets hurt by the crisis, revealing how the middle-class and poor get hurt the most as the wealthy consolidate power and wealth during times of economic trouble. In this post we cover what we believe to be one of the root causes of the crisis. To understand where VirtaPay is headed, it is important to understand the current crisis. As you read this blog post series on the global economic crisis, please keep in mind that in our final part of the series, everything will tie together and you will see how VirtaPay is positioning to help you profit from the crisis… and hopefully help make our world better in the process. What’s at the root of the trouble? During our research of the current global economic crisis, we were looking for the root causes of all this trouble. As the trails of evidence led us deeper and deeper, a couple of things continued to resurface. One of those is “peak oil”. Peak oil refers to the fact that the world is running out of oil. The problem is simple to understand. Humanity has an ever-growing demand for oil. Our oil wells have limited supply. It has become apparent that the world’s oil reserves are now very close to reaching a point where our demand exceeds the supply available. We are reaching—or may have already reached—the “peak”. Why does oil matter? The availability of a cheap ubiquitous power source (oil) is what literally powered the growth of our civilization from the early 1900s until now. Having a cheap, concentrated power source allowed humanity to go from riding on the backs of horses to the rise of automobiles, aircraft, and space exploration in such a short period of time. Oil has been a massive boon to humanity, both in terms of industry and wealth. Many of the world’s wealthiest families today are the offspring of people who—many years ago—recognized the importance of oil and quickly secured all the oil resources they could for themselves. Then they used their oil profits to acquire exclusive access to more and more oil fields. We believe our current global economic crisis is tied directly to the decline of world oil supplies. No, we don’t believe this is the only reason for the crisis. However, we do believe it to be a primary cause. What about declines in oil prices? You may see oil prices decline (at the petrol or gas pump) due to the global recession. These price declines are a direct result of industrial production slowing down in the current global economic crisis. Most industrial production relies on oil, and so the recession can temporarily reduce demand for oil. Which, in turn, will naturally lower the price of oil. These price declines are temporary, and every time industry tries to speed up, we will be hit with quickly rising oil prices. We believe this will tend to extend the economic slowdown and to also slightly prolong the decline of our diminishing oil supplies. What about other energy sources? We are at a challenging new point in human history. We have never faced such a challenge. Our capitalist global economy is actually a huge part of the problem. In a capitalist system, commodities compete on price. Energy is a commodity. The lowest price wins. If you can provide energy at a lower price with oil than your competitor can provide it with solar power, then you win. In today’s system clean, green energy technologies are still too expensive and so dirty, cheap oil wins on price. The oil rich families and the corporations they own are deeply invested in petroleum extraction and refining technologies. In turn, oil is deeply entrenched in our global economic system. The oil companies have spent billions on equipment specifically designed to extract oil from the Earth and refine it into various petroleum-based products. They have secured lands and oil fields across the globe. Yes, oil is a dying energy source, but the wealthy oil barons will milk it until every oil well runs dry. They don’t want any new technology to step in and destroy their investment in petroleum extraction and refining technology… until oil is completely gone. Green Energy Green energy sources are the next natural step for humanity. There is abundant energy available from the sun, wind and water to provide many times what humanity needs. But dirty oil, coal, and high-risk nuclear (think of Japan) energy sources are stealing the show for now. We are being held back by the greed of the deeply invested wealthy who control our global economic system. They are determined to keep the system in their control and to get every ounce of benefit they can from their existing investments in petroleum extraction and refining technology. They suppress green energy technology behind the scenes while publicly acting as if they support it. The fact is, they do not support green energy. Not yet. It scares them. They stand to lose untold billions of dollars they have spent on research, development, production and purchasing of petroleum technologies. Not to mention the oil fields they have sometimes purchased or more often gained access to, through methods which are devious, insidious and highly unethical (we’ll explain more about that in an upcoming post). Where it’s headed… We believe our modern world is headed for a energy shortage crisis like nothing we have ever seen. Former less-developed countries are quickly become more industrialized and more westernized. This includes countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. These four countries alone represent over 40% of the world population. These countries and others are now rapidly raising their standard of living and along with it, their rate of energy usage is climbing dramatically. Unfortunately the natural resources of our Earth are limited, finite. It has been estimated that if every country in the world consumed resources like the U.S. we would need the resources of seven Earths just to sustain where we are today (not even considering growth). What will happen when oil runs out? Of course, no one can foretell the future with 100% certainty, but we can look at current trends and extrapolate a best guess. First, we looked at the current rate of oil decline and at humanity’s ever-growing demand for energy. Then, we looked at the rate at which green energy technology is being adopted in place of oil. By converging those two trends, we estimate that humanity will effectively run out of oil over 100 years before we have enough green energy technology ready to replace it. Humanity is not ready for what is coming. Part 4 is next… We have at least three more parts in our Global Crisis blog post series. Be sure to read every post in the series to discover the big picture of how VirtaPay is positioning to help you profit from the global economic crisis and to help make the world a better place in the process.

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VirtaPay Blog: Mon, Jan 14 – Global Crisis brings Chaos, Calamity and Opportunity

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Mon, Jan 14 – Global Crisis brings Chaos, Calamity and Opportunity Posted: 13 Jan 2013 11:21 PM PST Apologies to our users for the delay since our last blog post. Almost 6 months ago, we posted on the global financial crisis. Since that time, we have been carefully monitoring and studying the crisis, with a special focus on how it relates to VirtaPay. We believe the severity and intractability of this crisis—due to its underlying causes—will forever change the world. Plus, due to the financial nature of the crisis, it will inevitably affect the future of the VirtaPay currency. Rather than ignore the increasing warning signs, we dug in, deeply researching the problems in search of root causes. What we found is shocking and holds deep implications for what will be the best way to move the VirtaPay currency forward. It will require some big changes, but if all goes to plan, we expect our users will benefit tremendously as the global crisis runs its course. Although we are already 5 years into the financial crisis, we expect it will continue to get worse, and likely last another 10 years or more. Despite how grim the situation appears on the global stage, we believe these circumstances have created an unprecedented opportunity for VirtaPay and our users. What is the “Financial Crisis”? When we talk of the “financial crisis” we are referring to a huge list of financial failures and other problems which have occurred (some still ongoing) since 2007. Only a handful of these events are listed in the examples below, as there are far too many to cover in one blog post. Every nation taking part in the global economy has been affected by these problems to varying degrees. Here are just a few of the problems the crisis has brought so far… Burst housing bubbles — This has already happened, or is still in progress, in the United States, Argentina, Britain, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, Lebanon, France, Poland, South Africa, Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Baltic states, India, Romania, Ukraine and China to name a few. Housing bubbles cause a massive spike in housing prices, followed by a crash. This results in a high rate of foreclosures and evictions. Many trillions of dollars have been lost in property values — this loss is mainly felt by the homeowners. Many average citizens are left bankrupt or even homeless. However, financial institutions, the same ones that caused the bubble, are now benefiting from the low prices of homes now left vacant due to foreclosure. Average citizens pay the price, while financial institutions get even richer from the bubble they caused. Failed or acquired financial institutions — Numerous large banks, insurance companies and hedge funds have been rescued, acquired or bankrupted during the financial crisis. Just a few of the largest include: Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, Lehman Brothers and AIG. Many smaller banks continue to fail in the U.S. and around the world. Government bailouts of corporations — A number of financial sector businesses (such as banks and insurance companies as mentioned in the last point) have been rescued or “bailed out” by governments around the world. In many cases, the top executives of these companies even received multi-million dollar bonuses for the time they spent guiding their company as it ran into the ground. Do the citizens, like you, get a bailout? No. You pay for the bailouts. In most cases, citizen’s tax dollars are used to fund the bailouts. If the rescued companies default on these loans, future generations (your children, then their children, etc.) will end up paying for these bailouts too. Failed retirement funds — Nations and corporations have been busy plundering, risking, and losing the retirement funds of their citizens and employees. In 2008 alone, retirement funds and pensions in a group of nations including the U.S., Japan, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands lost a combined $5 trillion due to the global financial crisis. Many workers nearing retirement age have had to postpone retirement plans or take a second job. Some have completely given up on the idea of retirement, having no choice but to keep working until they drop dead. This is especially hard on those who have watched their home’s value plummet or if one or more people in their household have become unemployed. In another example, Spain has quietly and aggressively plundered at least 90% of its social security fund, purchasing increasingly risky debt—its own debt—Spanish government bonds. The Spanish government is nearly bankrupt. It is on the brink of needing international financial aid, like Greece. Spain is among the most financially unstable of European nations. It seems likely their social security fund would have been safer if wagered on a coin toss. Rich are getting richer, middle-class are joining the poor — Here are a few figures (from the U.S.) to help put this in perspective… In 2010, the wealthiest 1% of Americans held 42% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The richest 10% controlled 85% of the wealth. The bottom 80% held just 5% of all U.S. wealth. This wealth gap continues to grow more extreme. (Note: These figures represent total net worth minus the value of one’s home). This phenomenon isn’t limited to the United States. In a bigger view, worldwide, the poorest 50% hold only 1% of global wealth. Rising unemployment -- Contrary to official government reports, we estimate that the real unemployment rate in the U.S. is now over 20%. This is getting very close to levels seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Note: U.S. government statisticians attempt to hide the real level of unemployment by using new reporting methods which, for example, don’t include the long-term unemployed!) Looking to Europe… in the critical 15-24 age group, unemployment recently reached 57.6% in Greece and 56.5% in Spain. We see this as a time-bomb, ready to explode without warning. Historically, high unemployment in this age group often leads to future economic instability and social upheaval. We are already seeing strong signs of both. Rising dependence on government assistance — In 2012, a record-setting 1 in 6 Americans were at, or below, the poverty level and receiving “food stamps”, a form of government assistance. Many nations have far higher levels of poverty brought on by the global crisis. Plus many more — The above list is just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless more examples of how the current global financial crisis has been impacting our world and our lives. Conclusions of our research… Our research into the global financial crisis led us to several conclusions: We expect that the financial crisis will get worse before it gets better. We expect that governments will attempt to hide the true severity of the crisis by manipulating official statistics… for as long as they can. If they take this manipulation too far, they will lose the trust of their citizens. They must walk a fine line. We expect that the crisis will continue for another 7 to 10 years, at least. We believe that all of the failures of the financial crisis are due to causes which are tightly interconnected. We believe that today’s global financial system is built on an incomplete and inherently unstable foundation. We believe that VirtaPay users can benefit tremendously from the current global crisis as VirtaPay makes changes to fill the gaps and provide what is missing from the foundation of today’s global financial system. We expect VirtaPay to become a bright spot of prosperity rising out of the gloom of the current global financial crisis. Read More in Part 2… Because of the complexity of this issue, we will cover the Global Financial Crisis in a multi-part blog post. In our next blog post (part 2) we will give more details about the crisis and the changes VirtaPay plans to make in order to help you take advantage of the financial crisis—rather than be crushed by it.

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