With a presidential election looming, the Clinton White House is unlikely to stand idly by as markets crash. The government's powerful recession-preventing machinery will clearly be put in motion. This is the great crisis of high-living versus limited resources. Global oil demand is now 78 million barrels a day, and continuing strong economic growth could bring demand to 80 million much sooner than expected. Fresh water supplies are going down more rapidly than anticipated, and global water shortages threaten to reduce the global food supply.
Bull markets are only sustainable if the inflation rate is kept flat.
Those who study global resources know this, and also know that greed and power hunger can lead to terrible violence. A recent report indicated that many of the conflicts in Africa are due to Western corporations trying to corner Africa's rich diamond resources. It doesn't take much specialized knowledge to know that a lot of the anger and rivalry in the Mideast has a big oil and water component. In 1973 the smaller Arab-Israeli crisis was mastered but the larger crisis of limited resources was not. To deal with the bigger crisis, the smaller ones have to be resolved.