Mapping the Recession

For those of you who miss John King's 'magic wall' -and don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about - here's a map showing the Unemployment rates in all counties in the U.S.. Interestingly, you can also change it to reflect manufacturing centres, rural areas. Lots of fun for those of us who like to look at the big picture. Just don't expect me to appear via hologram.

And here's an excerpt from Kunstler's ever-cheery website, where he prophesies that the next major meltdowns will involve both farming and oil markets. I hadn't really thought about the link between tight capital markets and corporate farming, but here's what he says:

The net effect of the failures in banking is that a lot of people have less money than they expected they would have a year ago. This is bad enough, given our habits and practices of modern life. But what happens when farming collapses? The prospect for that is closer than most of us might realize. The way we produce our food has been organized at a scale that has ruinous consequences, not least its addiction to capital. Now that banking is in collapse, capital will be extremely scarce. Nobody in the cities reads farm news, or listens to farm reports on the radio. Guess what, though: we are entering the planting season. It will be interesting to learn how many farmers "out there" in the Cheez Doodle belt are not able to secure loans for this year's crop.

My guess is that the disorder in agriculture will be pretty severe this year, especially since some of the world's most productive places -- California, northern China, Argentina, the Australian grain belt -- are caught in extremes of drought on top of capital shortages. If the US government is going to try to make remedial policy for anything, it better start with agriculture, to promote local, smaller-scaled farming using methods that are much less dependent on oil byproducts and capital injections.

Last year, most farms in Canada lost money. So, if lending guidelines tighten, are farmers going to be able to borrow more? It makes you wonder. The other thing is, I don't think we've seen the end of layoffs yet, and I think Canada is just beginning to feel the effects. Let's just say I will be doing some hard thinking about my food supply and whether or not to fill up that vacant cold-room in the basement. Panic or not, prices are only going to rise this year.

But, before you get all depressed, here's a great video of Willie Nelson and Ray Charles singing "Seven Spanish Angels." Just because I like it.