Just remember these are the good times

According to Nouriel Roubini, it only gets worse from here.

Specifically, Roubini argues that the massive private debts accrued during both the 2008 crash and COVID-19 crisis will durably depress consumption and weaken the short-lived recovery. Meanwhile, the aging of populations across the West will further undermine growth while increasing the fiscal burdens of states already saddled with hazardous debt loads. Although deficit spending is necessary in the present crisis, and will appear benign at the onset of recovery, it is laying the kindling for an inflationary conflagration by mid-decade. As the deepening geopolitical rift between the United States and China triggers a wave of deglobalization, negative supply shocks akin those of the 1970s are going to raise the cost of real resources, even as hyperexploited workers suffer perpetual wage and benefit declines. Prices will rise, but growth will peter out, since ordinary people will be forced to pare back their consumption more and more. Stagflation will beget depression. And through it all, humanity will be beset by unnatural disasters, from extreme weather events wrought by man-made climate change to pandemics induced by our disruption of natural ecosystems.

There is also some hopey talk in there about a “more inclusive, cooperative, and stable international order" emerging out of the cataclysm. But I would counter that argument by gesturing blithely toward the entire history of everything. Our political and economic system doesn't build a better world out of disaster. Instead it ruthlessly exploits opportunities extract every last bit of value out of whoever is being murdered for the greater profit of whoever is holding power.

To illustrate this, I always return to the "existential" problem of Louisiana's sinking coast. Ravaged by decades of fossil fuel extraction and sea level rise, it has reached a "tipping point" beyond which, we now know, it cannot be saved.

The study does not include a map showing what the new boundary of open water will be. But Törnqvist said he expects the eventual shoreline will parallel what's known as the Baton Rouge Fault, an east-west line where land heights today are at about 15 feet above sea level. For the New Orleans area, that would be along the North Shore, somewhere near Interstate 12.

Törnqvist said the biggest question now is how long the state's wetlands will last, and what can be done to slow their disappearance.

"I don't think this is going to happen in my lifetime," he said, pointing out that he just turned 58. "But my daughter turns 10 next week, and a lot of these things are going to happen in her lifetime. I'm not saying that when she is old, we'll have no wetlands at all, but we will have massive changes."

How old were you when you first learned Louisisina would sink into the sea if nothing was done about it? I remember I was about the same age Törnqvist's daughter is now. That was during the 1980s, a very long time ago. What's been done since then? Not much. How old were you when you understood nothing would ever be done?

It would have to be about the time you started watching Louisiana politics.  Our public policymakers only know how to do one thing and that is protect and enable oil and gas extraction no matter the cost.  Which is why, this month, in the midst of a public health crisis, on the precipice of an economic collapse, at the same time we're learning the coast is as good as sunk, the legislature is hard at work, cutting taxes on oil companies and protecting them from lawsuits. It's all they're capable of.

Is this sustainable?  Probably, yes.  I mean, no, the Louisiana coast isn't but that's beside the point.  The system of extraction is what matters and that can go on and on as long as the demands of the extractive regime are met. Eventually no one will be able to live here. But the infrastructure that pulls the oil out of the ground can be maintained so that's what we're going to do.  The consequences of this for "society" are irrelevant. Conditions can get infinitely shitty for the vast majority of people as long as the protected ruling class can sustain itself. And we've learned over and over, that's the point of all of this.  Anyway,  these are the good times. Enjoy them while you can.