<A World Without Money? The Oil Drum New Year, New Price Poll>
<DrumBeat: December 31, 2008 DrumBeat DrumBeat: January 2, 2009>

103 comments on DrumBeat: January 1, 2009

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version

River on January 2, 2009 - 2:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Happy New Year Airdale...

I noticed a couple of days ago that the comments rating system was gone so I decided to log in. The system was FUBAR from day one, as I pointed out numerous times, but it was like attempting to talk to government bureaucrats.

Congatulations to whoever had enough sense to rid this board of that idiocy.

The new year has indeed arrived and the prediction that I made long ago, that the presidential election would be about the economy, has indeed come to pass. Of course that prediction was thourghly downrated. :)

I also predicted that in the coming environment of frugality that the technogeeks would play hell finding funding for their crude oil replacements. Also downrated but right again. :)

I said that oil at $146 was a bubble and promptly shorted it and made a bundle. Downrated but right again. :)

I could continue but will leave you with this thought...Rarely have I made money taking my own financial advice. :)

I hope you have all made appropriate preparations for the new year because 2009 is going to make 2008 look like a walk in the park.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Leanan on January 2, 2009 - 7:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Congatulations to whoever had enough sense to rid this board of that idiocy.

That would be no one. :-)

The ratings system is temporarily down because SuperG did a massive upgrade on Christmas Eve and had to disable some site features while he irons out the bugs. It will be back.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
River on January 2, 2009 - 9:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

'That would be no one. :-)

The ratings system is temporarily down because SuperG did a massive upgrade on Christmas Eve and had to disable some site features while he irons out the bugs. It will be back.'

Ah, I didn't think your staff had enough sense to get rid of the ratings system. If it will be back, I won't.

Your readers/contributors are going to have an interesting several years watching the commodities, oil not the least among them. Some countries economies will begin to recover prior to the US and at some point the world will decide that a single fiat currency will not work for a globalized economy, if the economy is to remain globalized. Nor will numerous individual currencies work because of downturns leading to currency devaluations and minipulations. The problem is as old as currencies, they are always devalued when governments need money for pork and wars. Expect to see more direct trade agreements excluding the dollar. Expect a dislocation in the US Treasuries Market. Expect a dollar crash. In order to regain the confidence of voters governments will eventually do the only thing left for them too do, go to currencies based on SOMETHING. After confidence is regained, that system will be eroded and the cycle will begin again. Aquire a taste for beans, rice, and Sunday Dinners featuring tamales as the main dish.

When Bernanke's Keynesian remedies fail the most doomerish readers will find that they have done the right things for the wrong reasons. These doomers, being human and having short memories, will congratulate themselves anyway.

Get the extra large popcorn, it will be a long and fireworks filled show.

Happy New Year and adios

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Black_Dog on January 2, 2009 - 10:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

How about a dollar backed by "Gold"---Golden Corn?
Too Corny for you? How about a dollar backed by beans---the Soy ones.

It would be better than today's dollar backed by Gas---as in Hot Air...

E. Swanson

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Noizette on January 2, 2009 - 11:43am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I too was happy to see it vanished.

Surely each person can have a rating system in their own brain, and skip stuff they disapprove of or dislike or are uninterested in? Besides that most of the posts are worth reading (not that I manage to do so or even wish to.) So someone posts about abiotic oil? Call him or her biotic or idiotic and be done. If the rating system ends up by influencing what is or is not posted, one may end up with a very narrow ‘majority opinion’, very conventional stuff, or a group-think atmosphere.

The basic idea of democracy is that one votes for elected representatives (Republic) or for decisions that are spelled out -- for or against the death penalty, for ex. Opinion is free...of course it is judged and can be, is often, quashed, but rating individual posts - and thus the individuals who write them - seems a highway to conformity, very corporate like, reminiscent also of beauty contests and ‘star academy’ (I don’t know the name of US programs) ...

I ignored it in the past and will do so in the future.

What I don't understand is what the rating is supposed to accomplish, what purpose it serves. Anyway the owners do decide the forms and rules.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Leanan on January 2, 2009 - 1:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Surely each person can have a rating system in their own brain, and skip stuff they disapprove of or dislike or are uninterested in?

They can. The place is called "Usenet." ;-)

What I don't understand is what the rating is supposed to accomplish, what purpose it serves.

It's supposed to keep TOD looking civilized and professional for visitors who may wander in, not knowing what the site is like. Sure, some kind of killfile function would work for regulars, but it would not help for newcomers. We don't want people to come in, see a flamewar or a discussion about how the government is hiding energy technology from space aliens, and write us off.

I'm glad you think most of the posts are worth reading, but that reflects a lot of work by the staff. And it's not scalable. Once a site reaches a certain size, community moderation is the only thing that works. We are not there yet, nowhere near it, but we're planning for the future.

Right now, the ratings system is in beta and there are no consequences. Eventually, that will change. We have a vision for this site, and it's not Usenet-type anything goes.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
ccpo on January 2, 2009 - 12:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Ah, I didn't think your staff had enough sense to get rid of the ratings system.

A perfect illustration of why you won't likely be missed.

Why so arrogant? I don't see any special insight in your words. All you have really said is the economic system has cycles and you people are stupid for thinking it's about oil... or something to that effect.

Bye!

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

103 comments on DrumBeat: January 1, 2009

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version