James Rickard's two books "Currency Wars" followed by "The End of Money" are two volumes well worth reading for anyone interested in the ramifications of international finance and how it will affect the world. Rickards was quite prescient in his opinions regarding the way nations are reacting to currency and I think his further thoughts on money in his second book will be equally so. He is an economist and a man with an intellect well above the norm who is sought by many governments and organisations for his thoughts and broadcasts constantly.

If you haven't heard him speak, it might be worth your while, because at the moment the future does not look very stable at all.

Another book I found extremely interesting and very recently published, is "Flash Boys" by Michael Lewis. An easy to read explanation and exposé of High frequency trading and the manipulation of the stock markets by Wall Street

All interesting and for once local politics has no part in the discussion.

Arjay said;
We cannot make accurate comparisons with the past because we've never
globally had so few in control of so much and never before had so much
invested derivative gambling, money printing

At the risk of being accused of nagging never before has any sort of
crisis coincided with an energy crunch. In previous times, 17th century
a shortage of wood led to the use of coal in the 18th century, then a
looming shortage of coal in the 19th century led to the use of oil in
the 20th century, then in the 20th century a looming shortage of oil
led to the use of, err of err what exactly in the 21st century ?

A mini lesson on geology;
Oil was manufactured over some millions of years in shale rock while
under great pressure and temperature. Later in more than 100k years
the oil leaked out of the shale rock and migrated upwards into pools
in different rock types.
This is why the shale rocks are known as the source rocks.
Now that we have extracted as much as we can economically from the
secondary rocks we have tackled the source rocks and as soon as we
exhaust the easiest to get shale source rocks there is nowhere else to go.
So, economically, the end of extraction from the source is when it
becomes too uneconomic for transport fuels.
It will always be economic for specialised plastics for medical use
etc but not for petrol, diesel and fertilisers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIbIRj6y8nI Dr Jim Willie seems to have contacts that few others have. Here he says that Germany, Turkey and even Japan will join the BRICS nations and that Saudi Arabia is already a done deal.

The power change began when Russia stopped the USA and Israel from invading Syria and Iran. Power plays are changing rapidly. The West is enslaved in debt while the BRICS offer real productivity and development.

Note that Abbott cancelled a meeting with head of the IMF Christine Lagarde who is on charges of fraud and embezzlement. We already trade directly with China in Yuan ,so we too may get closer to the BRICS trading.

Abbott is right on Carbon Taxes but dead wrong on the TPP which will enslave us. Let's hope Abbott has some good advisors because Labor stuff up everything they touch.