EUROPEAN BANKERS ARE BLIND TO THE PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS INHERENT IN THE “GREEN” ENERGY TRANSITION
“Ideology trumps physics. It's been that way for 50 years. If we want to balance the budget, we just print more money. We don't have to face reality if we don't want to.” --Simon Michaux
Governments and financiers will run out of the metals (copper, lithium, nickel) they had planned on consuming in prodigious quantities.
SIMON MICHAUX: My work has been criticized recently quite a bit by saying: You're suggesting a solution that would never happen. The purpose of my work was not to put the optimal solution on the ground. It was to show those who control our society that their thinking is wrong.
I'm talking about the banking sector. I've seen up close and personal what these assclowns actually think. And it really upset me.
I came to Europe from the Australian mining industry, and I got a reasonably senior position in Belgium. I used to sit in the European commission meetings where they were discussing the future, and how they were going to transition away from fossil fuels. Their plans were to implement the “circular economy.” It all sounded starry-eyed and wonderful. The reports look very glossy and such a lot of money was put into it.
I don't know if you've been part of the research and development world, but that's where I’ve spent most of my career. They had this project called H2020 that had over €90 billion over 45 years. 400 universities across Europe were being fed off this one project. I'd never seen so much money put into research.
In Australia we’re forming liaisons between the mining industry, the guys who are actually trying to get a feasibility study off the ground from mining operation, the Executive Board of a mining company, the capital investment groups--that might give them the money to do it, and the technical design engineering team--that might actually help them make the right plan.
So I understood the language enough to attend some of these meetings. And I attended one meeting in a capital investment group to try and launch the European battery industry.
What often happens with these sorts of meetings, the presentations themselves are not necessarily the useful part. It's when you get to the morning tea.
They were talking about how to get a battery industry going in Europe. These are the banking guys. They presented very differently to any other group I had ever come across.
They didn't care.
I was in what was called the C20, which is the Civil Service, a civil society advisory group that advises the G20. The G20 means the top 20 industrialized countries. They came and told us at the beginning of the meeting, if you can't help us deliver two percent growth, don't bother coming.
HART HAGAN: Why is growth a problem?
SIMON MICHAUX: The system must grow to survive. Chris Martenson is probably the best at communicating that in what he calls the “Crash Course.” The system must expand because we're increasing debt, and that debt has to be maintained. That’s the nature of how our money works. Chris, Martenson, and also Steve Keen, are very good at describing the pickle we are in. The system must keep growing.
We are over our skis. We are pretty much looking at a correction. The financial system is now so fragile. It is not in a fit state to engage in industrial reform.
So the Civil Service, the C20 guy said it's all about growth or don't bother coming. The whole C20 conference that was running in parallel with the G20 was a PR exercise for the public to say that we lived in a civil society.
It was an eye-opener.
HART HAGAN: What you're saying is that your work was irreconcilable with the mandates of the financial people who are over Europe.
SIMON MICHAUX: Yeah. They were basically saying don't waste your time, go away.
I was in this Capital meeting. They were talking about wanting to start a batteries industry in Europe. So the European commission stood up and said this is what we need, but it can't happen with that finance. The European Central Bank was there and all the Privacy Act guys were there.
I was talking to the guys from Toyota over morning tea. They had a few interesting insights, but they actually came out and said whoever steps in and makes the market first will take all the risk and do all the work to establish trust in the market. But whoever steps in second, we'll take the market from them and we’ll gouge them. Everybody wants to be the third owner of the gym, right?
The banking guys say show me how I can make money from you. Or show me how I can destabilize a competitor, or don't waste my time. And they were saying money is just as good for us from China as it is from Europe.
So I stood up and asked what's going to happen if the free market and global trade breaks down.
“Well, we don't think that'll happen.” Right?
In other words, they had this paradigm that was this delusional wall around them. You just couldn't get to them. I actually heard these guys say, well, whoever moves first is going to lose money off everyone else.
HART HAGAN: So what I'm hearing you saying is that economics trumps physics. The economic system is sacrosanct, and the physical and biophysical limitations we’re up against ... we're not going to worry about that, because it doesn't fit with our economic model.
SIMON MICHAUX: I would say not economics. I would say, ideology. Ideology trumps physics, and it's been that way for 50 years. If we want to balance the budget, we just print more money. We don't have to face reality if we don't want to.