
Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for 'global collapse' - gibsonf1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6599281/Societe-Generale-tells-clients-how-to-prepare-for-global-collapse.html
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eserorg
The United States has tens of trillions of dollars of mineral wealth (oil,
natural gas, tungsten, gold, silver, copper, molly, palladium, rhodium,
scandium, yttrium, bastnaesite, etc...) trapped in the ground by a gordion
knot of government regulations and bureaucracy.

By fully exploiting this mineral wealth, the US could not only pay off its
entire national debt, but also generate trillions of dollars of surplus tax
revenue, pay for universal health care, cut taxes, eliminate the federal
income tax, and create tens of millions of American jobs.

Interesting Fact: The United States has more oil and natural gas than any
other country in the entire world, including Saudi Arabia. These are the
official findings of the United States Senate, page 23: <http://j.mp/3HIfQi>

We could more than offset our trade deficit with China by feeding their
voracious appetite for natural resources.

Another interesting fact: if Nevada were a country, it would be the world's
4th largest producer of Gold.

On a per-capita basis, the United States is sitting on a mind numbingly huge
resource of untapped mineral wealth.

We could literally dig out way out of debt.

~~~
hristov
Oh yes, the usual idiotic bullshit -- "if it wasn't those liberals with those
environmental protection laws we would all be millionaires and have our own
ponies."

Let me just tell you some of the more obvious ways you are wrong:

"Interesting Fact: The United States has more oil and natural gas than any
other country in the entire world, including Saudi Arabia. These are the
official findings of the United States Senate, page 23: <http://j.mp/3HIfQi>

This is simply wrong. And the very document you reference proves it wrong. If
you see table 5 of the document you provided, the US is well below Saudi
Arabia and many other countries in oil and natural gas. It has about 1/10 of
the oil reserves of saudi arabia and about 1/6 of the natural gas of Russia.
Even if you add oil and natural gas up, the US is not first -- saudi arabia
and Russia both have more oil and nat gas than the US.

Now if you think the regulations are the problem, just look at Russia. Russia
is notorious for having a corrupt government where environmental and other
regulations are broken all the time. It also has about three times as much oil
and about 6 times as much nat gas as the US. It is also less than half of the
populations of the US. So, by your logic, Russia should be much richer than
the US, because it has more mineral wealth and does not have the regulations
that prevent its exploitation. But that is obviously not the case. The living
standard of Russia is still much lower than the US.

What might have made you confused is that if you add up coal the US does
become first. But of course coal has not made any country rich after the mid
20th century. It is too expensive to transport for export and it is dirt cheap
because it is dirty, causes global warming and disease, and nobody wants to
use it unless they have no other choice. Good luck basing our economy on coal.

The thing about Nevada may be right (I do not have time to check) but in
global economic terms gold production is simply not a big deal.

Of course you face the more fundamental problem that you think somehow
producing raw materials will get us out of a global recession. The problem
with global recessions is that demand for everything tanks and that includes
raw materials. The so called "voracious appetite" of China is only voracious
because they use it to feed the voracious appetite of America for consumer
goods. If Americans keep getting poorer that appetite of China will no longer
be voracious and raw materials prices will keep falling.

Raw materials only drive economies when they are relatively small economies
that can hitch themselves on larger consumer spending economies that are
booming. Thus, for example, Russia was able to improve their economy by
selling raw materials to booming US, Europe and China. But a major economy
like the US simply cannot rely on raw materials or it will quickly become a
minor economy.

~~~
eserorg
Table 6, page 23:

"Reserves of Fossil Fuels Plus Technically Recoverable Undiscovered Oil and
Natural Gas:" \---

Russia: 293.7 \---

Saudi Arabia Estimated Undiscovered Oil and Gas: 231.3 \---

United States Undiscovered Oil and Gas: 351.5 \---

351.5 > 293.7 > 231.3

Regardless, I'm putting my life where my mouth is. I started my own oil and
natural gas exploration and production company in Denver.

I've also spun off a second company, a mineral royalties company, that is
focused on the acquisition and divestiture of North American mineral rights in
producing open-pit mines.

And finally, I've started a third US natural resources company, SonicFrac, to
develop a solid-state fracturing device for optimizing the production of US
Shale gas wells.

I also invest every last penny that I take home back into US mineral rights,
US oil and gas prospects, and US minining royalties.

I own stock in dozens of publicly traded oil, gas, mining, and resource
development companies.

Natural resources are the first thing I think about when I wakeup in the
morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night.

I'm 26.

Perhaps I'm irrationally optimistic about US resource wealth...

I don't believe that I am.

But, you _need_ to be irrationally passionate about what you do. Whatever it
is.

If you're running a consumer internet company, and are not irrationally
passionate about its future, I doubt you could persevere through the trials
and tribulations of being an entrepreneur.

I am a US natural resources entrepreneur. And I am zealous about what I do.
You should be, too.

~~~
hristov
Undiscovered oil and gas means (logically enough) oil and gas that has not
been discovered yet. The existence of this stuff is a mere guess. Not only
that but different people are making estimates for different countries using
different methodologies, and different countries have different incentives for
under or over estimating.

You cannot say that the US has more oil and gas based on estimates or guesses
as to the undiscovered oil.

But wait. Lets assume that you are right. Lets assume that these undiscovered
oil and gas estimates are perfect and all of the estimated undiscovered oil
and gas actually exists. Well then if you try adding up these undiscovered
estimates of table 6 to the proven oil and gas reserves of table 5 you will
still find that russia and saudi arabia have far more oil and gas than the US.
So your initial statement is still incorrect.

Well congratulations on being an entrepreneur and good luck. I hope you get
some of that undiscovered oil. But you should not let your enthusiasm nudge
you into massaging the facts.

~~~
eserorg
Column #3 on Table 6, page 23 is the sum of: proved hydrocarbon reserves (from
table #5) + undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves in BOE.

~~~
hristov
Column 3 of table 6 includes coal. Nobody disputes that including coal the US
has the most hydrocarbons.

But the original statement was that the US has the most oil and nat gas. And
that is not true and not shown by the document.

edit: hydrocarbons substituted for carbohydrates

------
citrik
Anyone have a link to the referenced Société Générale report?

