Punditman just bought Miller beer. Punditman would not normally buy corporate swill, but his favourite local lager was out of stock and Punditman was in a rush. It was also cheap and Punditman is in search of inexpensive suds for skimpy times. Truth be told, Punditman has some fond memories of when Miller beer was first introduced into Canada all those years ago; back then, he did not eject part or all of the contents of his stomach in a series of involuntary spasmic movements, so how bad could it be now? In fact, one such encounter with Miller
was quite enjoyable.
Granted, Punditman's taste buds have no doubt changed. He will keep you posted.
Earlier, Punditman went to another store in search of yellow Penn tennis balls (his favourite), but only found orange ones. Punditman does not like orange tennis balls or gimmicky things in general, so he had to settle for Wilson, his second choice. The shelves were sparse in this section of the hardware store, just like the shelves in the section of the beer store where Punditman's local craft beer normally sits.
Punditman thought: are these portents of economic collapse? On the other hand, the roads are clogged with vehicles in the middle of this mid-week day. All these people doing errands, putting around in their cars, trucks and mini vans. Where do they work? What do they do? It's no secret that Punditman works for himself, currently doing two jobs. Are all these others self-employed? Are they shift workers? Are they on pogy? Are they all living on credit? Without raw data, such mysteries in Punditman's mind concerning the population in Punditman's home town remain unanswered.
Gas prices are fairly stable lately, so that may account for the clogged traffic. But Punditman just read in the Report on Business section of yesterday's
Globe and Mail that very soon, we will be experiencing a huge increase and that "...ever-higher energy costs will fundamentally change the way each and every one of us live our day-to-day lives." This gem of wisdom comes not from one of
Peacenik's favourite "Peaknik"
blogs but from none other than
Jeff Rubin, who was recently the chief economist and chief strategist at CIBC World Markets. He has quit that position and has written a new book, entitled, "
Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller." This sounds like good reading. Jeff Rubin is a believer in peak oil and he says declining production and rising demand mean that oil prices will be over $200 (U.S.) a barrel by 2012 or earlier. But Mr. Rubin is an optimist. As the ROB article states,
His world of the oil-starved future, at least for Western societies, looks a lot like the bygone years of our fond memory, where people work and vacation nearer to home, eat locally grown foods and buy locally produced goods, and suburban sprawl is replaced by revitalized cities.
Punditman just bought Miller beer. Will you still respect him in the morning?
Ryan Collerd for The New York Times
