A proposition

We like to consider ourselves a clearinghouse of useful information for our beloved public here at These Bastard Industries. So we are happy to announce to you that they may have discovered the next speculative bubble to burst and bankrupt you and everyone you know. I mean sure, the global financial apocalypse wiped out a lot of people. But hell, unemployment hasn't even hit 10% yet, so that mean there's still a full 90% of the country to traumatically affect yet. Enter the gas shale bubble.

The promise of enough natural gas to last the United States more than 100 years based on discoveries of vast shale formations could be the country's next speculative bubble to burst, a speaker warned Monday at a conference exploring the notion that the world's oil and gas are diminishing rapidly.

Arthur Berman, a Texas-based geological consultant, likened the optimistic projections for production from gas shale fields across the country to banks buying into mortgage securitizations, which spurred the housing market crisis and economic meltdown.

Those are the words I like to hear, baby. Now sadly, this only deals with a small part of the energy industry. Christ, natural gas production peaked 35 years ago. So even its likely collapse probably won't bankrupt this country or severely damage the world energy markets. Surely we can change that, I mean why wouldn't you want to tie up all your possessions in this? There's a 100 year supply! I mean sure 100 years isn't a lot and the coal market is the one that would have to go tits up for us to really get our post-apocalypse the Road-type situation on. But all I'm saying is there's ample opportunity for us and banks to inflate this bubble up to ridiculous proportions, leverage it in dangerous ways, tie it to the financial well being of things we hold dear, and knock out the last few remaining pillars of American and world financial stability.

I mean our financial betters haven't really changed their way of business. So how hard would it be to leverage more credit default swaps, derivatives, and collateralized debt obligations to the belief that gas shale will never run out? It's not any dumber than believing home prices will always rise. Let's get this going and try to have the economy re-destroyed, or at least the rubble reshuffled, by the end of next year.