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Weekend Reading: Oil Edition

By Kevin

Oil Pump, Sunset. Source: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/oil-gas/oil-gas.htm

As the recent turmoil across the Arab world has driven oil prices skyward, I’ve had some thoughts about what this means for civilization going forward. Could our civilization truly function without oil? Are alternatives, such as solar and wind, truly “free” forms of energy?

I believe it will take time for us to shift from oil to alternative sources, and while I do believe that solar and perhaps fusion (in a very long time) are the ways of the future, it’s going to take a while to get there. I also think that every energy source has costs and that renewable energy sources are not really free. One must also consider the opportunity costs as well as energy return on energy invested — something that I believe corn ethanol failed miserably at, besides increasing food prices for the poor.

What are your thoughts on the future of energy and of our dependence on oil?

Contests and giveaways

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff is holding her first blogversary giveaway, with over $600 in prizes!

Control Your Cash is also holding a big giveaway with lots of great prizes at their recently redesigned site; the new site also looks really great!

Yakezie Writing Contest

There are a lot of great submissions over at the Yakezie writing contest site; here is one in particular that I’d like to share with you: War Torn, which is about the author’s experiences growing up in Serbia.

Weekend Reading


On the topic of oil, my friend Mich over at BTI always has interesting insights: Investing in Oil: My Bias for Canadian Oil Producers.

Best of
  • Welcome MSN Readers – Best of First Gen (First Gen American)
Economics
  • Are the High Oil Prices Sustainable? (Invest in the Markets)
  • Capitalism, Happiness, and Beauty (Mises Canada)
  • Skyscraper Scale Econ (Overcoming Bias)
  • The Growing Income Gap Between The Rich And The Poor (Buy Like Buffett)
  • The Dollar, and The Next Ten Days (Gonzalo Lira)
  • The Poverty Cure (The Biz of Life)
  • What Economics Is Not (Mises Canada)
Government
  • Improving the World Through Competitive Government (Let A Thousand Nations Bloom)
  • Seasteading: Striking at the Root of Bad Government (Freeman)
Home ownership
  • Interview With A Vampire… I mean RESPA Writer (The Biz of Life)
Investing
  • An Energy Pick By Portfolio Manager Daniel Cheng of Matco Financial Energy Fund (Investing Thesis)
  • How to Rebalance a Portfolio (DIY Investor)
  • Indexers are Human Too (DIY Investor)
  • The Grouch Potato Balanced Portfolio (The Biz of Life)
  • What’s Better Than Learning From Your Investment Mistakes? (Andrew Hallam)
Miscellaneous
  • Financial Windfall: What a Week! (Squirrelers)
  • Human Nature and the “Perfect” Society (Mises Daily)
  • Inside a Millionaire’s Mind (krantcents)
  • Invest in Yourself: Wealth vs. “Small Means” (MomVesting)
  • My Most Interesting Job – Candy Factory Worker (Everyday Tips and Thoughts)
  • Primo Property Pets Help Sell Homes (Savvy Saving Bytes)
  • Rethinking “Teach a Man to Fish” (MoneyMamba)
  • The Regulars VS The New Year Crowd (retireby40.org)
  • To Hell With Farming (Daily Capitalist)
  • What Do You Do? (21st Century Human)
  • Would you sleep in your office…. (My Financial Trek)
Money
  • BAD MIX! FRIENDS & MONEY (Finance Fox)
  • Random Thoughts on Money (101 Centavos)
Personal Finance
  • Buffett Speaks (Dr. Dean)
  • Get Out of Debt, Stay on Track (Life and my Finances)
  • How Not To Retire By 40 Part I: Things That Undo Us (Aloysa’s Kitchen Sink)
  • The Most Important Financial Goal You Could Ever Have? (The Wise Buck)
  • WHY YOU MUST START SAVING NOW! (Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance)
Retirement
  • Using Credit Card Points Toward RRSPs Revisited (In Search of Salt)
Reviews
  • Inside Job (Dividend Ninja)

Thank you (as always) for all of the great comments and feedback; I appreciate it and hope you all have a great weekend! 🙂

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Weekend Reading Tagged With: energy, oil, renewable energy, sustainability

About Kevin

Kevin has left the office, and he is currently fighting the rat race by working on his own business. He enjoys exploring unvisited places around the world and gaining new experiences. He believes that by properly managing our energy and time, we can learn to invest our lives wisely.

Comments

  1. LifeAndMyFinances says

    March 5, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    Thanks for including me in your round-up! I’m really focusing on writing some quality articles this month. 🙂

  2. The Dividend Ninja says

    March 5, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    Thanx for the mention 🙂

  3. DIY Investor says

    March 5, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Thanks for the mention. I think we are slowly weaning ourselves off of oil but it is a real battle with emerging economies coming on. In the short term oil will spike and then probably fall off a cliff as supply comes from everywhere and previously uneconomical oil is pumped.
    A lot depends on the Saudis. In the meantime progress will come in fits and starts from alternative sources.

    • Kevin says

      March 7, 2011 at 8:52 pm

      That’s an interesting take on it, but I definitely wouldn’t rule it out. As technology progresses we’re able to tap previously untappable sources, but the question of environmental practices will come out too especially in the wake of the BP spill.

  4. krantcents says

    March 5, 2011 at 12:47 pm

    thanks for the inclusion! I am in good company.

  5. Mike says

    March 5, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Hey Kevin,

    Thanks for including me in your blog round up; always appreciate it! Oil prices are reaching the point where we begin to see the negative spillover into the economy. let’s hope they reverse somehow. I do agree though; alternatives will take time.

    Have a good weekend. Mike

  6. Dr Dean says

    March 5, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    Thanks for sharing my article on Buffett. I agree with your assessment re oil and alternatives. I think we need to begin drilling and trying to increase domestic production until alternatives become financially viable.

  7. Squirrelers says

    March 5, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    Thanks for including my article in your roundup. Have a great rest of the weekend.

  8. BeatingTheIndex says

    March 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    Thanks for the mention Kevin.

    Sadly there are no alternatives to oil yet. We’re going to have to live with those prices for a while until they trigger demand destruction through a recession.

  9. 101 Centavos says

    March 6, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    Thanks for the mention in this roundup, and appreciate the links to Mises and other econ blogs. The one from Let a Thousand Nations Bloom was particularly interesting.

  10. Myke@In Search of Salt says

    March 7, 2011 at 12:54 am

    Thanks for the mention, Kevin.

    I know you may not think this when you go to fill up your tank, but the cheapness of oil and related products keeps us dependant. If the price were to double or triple, I’m sure people would find other means of transportation, which should force companies to develop better engines.

    The oil shock of the 70s is what motivated Japanese car companies to create ligher cars and more efficient engines, which eventually brought us the hybrid.

    • Kevin says

      March 7, 2011 at 8:59 pm

      I do think that were oil prices to shoot up substantially, we’d find a way to deal with it even if that meant driving underpowered cars and travelling less. What I think the real danger is the impact this is going to have on the poor and on the less stable areas of the world. People need to eat, otherwise they get very angry. We’ll just be inconvenienced, but very high oil prices will mean real hardship for many areas of the world and it also means, for better or worse, a US military that will find it increasingly expensive to project its influence.

      Long-term I don’t think oil prices are as significant a problem as some would make it out to be since many of the worst scenarios assume that technology is static, but short-term if the middle-east boils up in a rage then things could get pretty uncomfortable for a while. I think the market is being a bit bearish right now but I also don’t believe in market timing so we’ll just have to see what comes down the pipe.

  11. Everyday Tips says

    March 7, 2011 at 10:41 am

    Thanks for including my post! I haven’t done a roundup in a few weeks, but plan to again this upcoming weekend!

  12. Kevin says

    March 7, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    Thanks everyone as always for the great feedback and commentary! 🙂

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Invest It Wisely is about evaluating the choices that each of us face everyday. It’s about investing your time, your money, and your energy wisely, in order to achieve your goals. The end goal is maximizing your life expectation, and exploring the ways to get there.

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