Economic analyst Nicole M. Foss (a.k.a. Stoneleigh) will tour Michigan to help business leaders, elected officials, and communities understand the impacts of deflation on the economy.  Foss is a biologist, an environmental attorney, an energy industry insider, and an expert in the economics of finance.  During Foss's summer 2010 speaking tour of Europe, Foss spoke at the 2010 Transition Towns UK conference, where she reframed the concepts of peak oil in the context of the financial crisis and instilled a new sense of urgency in all the participants.

Foss tours Michigan from September 10 through September 20. Venues are set for Detroit, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Traverse City, Marquette, Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, Hastings, Chelsea, Wayland, Middleville, and Bear Lake.  

Foss believes that resource limits (peak oil) and the collapse of global Ponzi finance are a “perfect storm” of converging phenomena that threaten to trigger wealth destruction, social discontent, and global conflict. The consequences for unprepared individuals and families could be dire.

At her presentation, Foss will discuss the many converging factors that are contributing to the predicament we face today, and how individuals can build a “lifeboat” to cope with the difficult years ahead.  She explains how our current financial system is an unsustainable credit bubble grounded in “Ponzi dynamics,” or the logic of the pyramid scheme. She warns that most people are woefully unprepared to face the consequences of the devastating deflation that is now unfolding.

What makes this crisis different from past financial calamities?

Foss argues that this crisis has developed in the context of the fossil fuel age, an age which will prove to be a relatively brief period of human history. She says that we have already seen oil reach a global production peak, and other fossil fuels are not far behind; and while there is still plenty of fossil fuel in the ground, production will fall, meaning that there will be less and less energy available to power the economy at prices people afford to pay.

She continues that societies have gone through boom and bust cycles before, examples include: the Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble and the “Real” Great Depression of the 1870s; but most people in the Western world today will face this crisis without the knowledge or means to provide the basics of their own survival. Our industrial system has nearly destroyed the individual capacity for self-reliance.

Foss will argue that individuals and communities that take steps now to prepare stand a much better chance to thrive in a changing world.

Foss's tour of Michigan was arranged by Aaron Wissner, president of Local Future, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Wissner thinks that getting Nicole to speak to local communities was very important because "Her talk is a tool to create a community of the motivated". 

Wissner continues "Nicole provides the next 'missing piece' to the peak oil puzzle, by clearly explaining how finance will be the driving factor in the next few years, and will greatly accelerate the rate of oil supply decline."

Warwick University says of Foss's work, "[she] writes a finance blog with a difference; instead of saying how to make money, it tells ordinary people how to avoid losing it."

Schedule of Michigan Events

Sept. 10  - Friday -- Chelsea  -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 11  - Saturday -- Ann Arbor -- 10:30 a.m.

Sept. 11  - Saturday -- Bloomfield Hills -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 12  - Sunday -- Detroit -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 13  - Monday -- Muskegon -- 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 14  - Tuesday -- Wayland -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 15  - Wednesday -- Middleville -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 16  - Thursday -- Grand Rapids -- 7 p.m.

Sept. 17  - Friday -- Hastings -- 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 18  - Saturday -- Bear Lake -- 1 p.m.

Sept. 19  - Sunday -- Traverse City -- 1 p.m.

Sept. 20  - Monday -- Marquette -- 7 p.m.

RSVP for a Nicole Foss speaking event through Local Future

Seating will be on a first come basis.  Early arrival is suggested.  Free with suggested donation.  RSVP highly recommended.

Background

Nicole M. Foss is co-editor ofThe Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. She and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Prior to the establishment of TAE, she was editor of The Oil Drum Canada, where she wrote on peak oil and finance.

Most recently, Foss ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy. While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level.

Her academic qualifications include a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997.

Listen

Nicole Foss's complete talk:

Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil download (or streaming )

(For dialup users, click  these links:  1. Stoneleigh Talk and 2. Stoneleigh Q & A.)

Radio interviews podcasts:

The Modern Day Paul Revere - Nicole Foss of Automatic Earth interview.

Preparing For and Learning to Survive the Coming Perfect Storm interview.

Reviews

Stoneleigh’s peak oil/finance talk  by Shaun Chamberlin, June 14, 2010

Nicole Foss: A Century of Challenges  by James Samuel, June 14, 2010

Our "end of the economy" moment  by Joanne Poyourow, June 27, 2010

Automatic Earth Stoneleigh Lecture on the Financial Cr  by Amelia Gregory, Aug. 6, 2010

An
interview with Stoneleigh - the case for deflation  by Euan Mearns, Oct. 30, 2009

Nicole Foss to talk at Mayo Sustainability Forum in Castlebar -- announcement

Foss's News and Analysis

The Automatic Earth -- Web site maintained by Foss and writing partner on financial news

Facebook Page of The Automatic Earth -- features live updates of breaking news