Southwestern Energy to cut 44% of workforce.

OPEC increased their production last year as the price of oil dropped in an attempt to maintain market share. So yes, they contributed to the current oil glut intentionally to lower the price of oil even more. Saudi Arabia, the largest OPEC member, runs a state owned oil company, so they have the ability to greatly influence the supply and price of oil. US shale producers are independent companies so there is no way for them to control supply and price. I'm no attorney but I'm pretty sure they'd be breaking the law of the colluded to control supply and regulate the price.

 

The economist I contacted has agreed.
Captain Capitalism is on the way! It may take a day or more though.
He's a rather entertaining guy, hope y'all enjoy.

 

But is this a bad thing? Surely everyone except oil workers are benefiting greatly from cheap energy.

 

The economist I engaged asked for clarification and this was my response:
The initial subject was the lay-off of half the work force for a crude hauling company.
I responded to someone saying the U.S, economy will go belly up in 18 months.

My main points:
There are stabilizing factors preventing a sudden catastrophe: quantitative easing, our having the reserve currency, our economy being more stable and our government less corrupt than most, etc.
This "Infinite-Horizon-of-prophetic-doom" thing came into the discussion and I responded that it looked very speculative and no one can predict that far into the future. I also address entitlements and military spending, saying both are bad but entitlement growth is the main threat and fear mongering about the economy may generate enough anxiety among voters to enable reform - so there can be hope

My opponents points:
I am up against pessimism (which you may agree with) and the belief that entitlements will never be reigned in, that we are therefore certainly doomed and the projections of this economic model called "The Infinite Horizon Gap" shows we are actually $38 trillion in debt now and that we have $210 trillion in losses to come.

Here is the article that started the argument:
http://www.kotlikoff.net/sites/default/files/Kotlikoffbudgetcom2-25-2015.pdf

The two main things I would like your opinion on are the validity of this Infinite Horizon prediction and how likely/unlikely a soon and sudden collapse is considering the mitigating influences I mentioned above.

Finally, can you throw us a bone in the hope department? Surely the future is not written in stone so can the sinking of our Titanic economy be a "mathematical certainty" ?

We in the thread are probably better at rhetoric than analysis so, sort us out please.

 

Absolutely!
Let's eliminate all entitlements.
Maybe we can start with one of the biggest entitlements of all; Social Security.
People that receive it are a bunch of lazy, scheming loafers. Who cares that they have been paying into it out of their own pockets for most of their working lives?
Instead, let's give it all to those hard working, brave men and women on Wall Street.

 

SS is the biggest Ponzi Scheme ever run, and just like all Ponzi Schemes that were run before, this one will not end any differently.

The last I checked, there was enough cash in the coffers to pay out roughly 2 1/2 years in SS payments if the government stopped collecting additional SS revenue. I'm not sure how old you are but I've been paying into SS for a lot more than 2 1/2 years.

 

Social Security is, or should be considered a tax. I believe there should be no income threshold to stop the tax. It is true the more income you have the more affordable the tax is.
Also when It comes to collecting the benefit. There should be a means test or a Maximum income when someone can collect.
And another opinion I have is when anyone that is collecting benefits and moves from the USA. They then stop collecting. Only residence of the US collect. Keep that money circulating in the USA.

 

That's the whole problem.

 

Two questions:
1) Are you an oil field worker?
2) Do you believe in capitalism?