The mariner is no expert on the economy. Instead, he gets most of his data and insights from recommended books, business sections of newspapers, erudite talk shows, and news channels like Bloomberg. It wasn’t long ago that only money grubbing naysayers wanting ones’ money were predicting a financial Armageddon.

Yet common news sources in centrist magazines and television shows now talk about troublesome circumstances such as “the US has run out of jobs,” or, “the stock markets have never recovered from the 2008 recession: an expected jump in the world’s economies has not occurred.” Bloomberg statistics show that two-thirds of part-time workers are former full-time workers; only the health sector added jobs in the last four months; only 51% of veterans are employed. Erik Shatzker, a Bloomberg reporter, said job creation has fallen off a cliff and threatens US recovery.

In Europe, “Brexit,” the vote to withdraw Britain from the European Union, looms ahead with a close vote indicated. If Brexit succeeds, Britain will have a recession. In the OPEC nations, there are signs the organization will not hold together, disrupting the global oil trade as a means of international political stability. The US remains the healthiest economy in the world at the moment. However, too many national economies (including the US) are coming into the same station carrying inadequate assets.

The mariner senses there is a shakeup of some kind due in a year or two – perhaps as soon as the November election. Having watched Surviving Progress, half of the world not owned is already in debt to the other half. Perhaps the pump is running dry.

REFERENCE SECTION

A bit of postscript to the post on Heavy Seas. LiveScience has an article that explains the ice age side of things. It turns out that the Earth’s axis tilt wobbles a maximum of 40°. At the maximum tilt, more sunlight reaches the ice-laden poles causing the ice to melt. Further, a longer cycle of about 10,000 years shifts the axis from Polaris, the North Star, where it points today, to the star Vega and back again. Whenever the vacillations complement one another, an ice age occurs – lasting as long as 120,000 years!

See: http://www.livescience.com/6937-ice-ages-blamed-tilted-earth.html

Ancient Mariner