In case you don’t know who James Howard Kunstler is, allow me introduce you. Mr. Kunstler is a very interesting man. I’ve been casually reading his stuff for the better part of a decade. And he’s notoriously cranky. Bruce Sterling included something that he wrote in a post on wired that includes some pretty awesome stuff:
Some big questions for the week: will the Euro survive as a currency? Will the rush into the U.S. dollar continue even as the U.S. financial system dematerializes in a Fibonacci fever of accelerating de-leveraged infinitude? Will the remaining Big Boyz, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan succumb to the counter-party hemorrhagic fever? Will great rows of lesser banking dominoes now start clacking onto their faces? Will all fifty states follow the leads of California and Massachusetts and line up at the U.S. Treasury’s hand-out window. Will the entity that calls itself the civilized world be left at week’s end with anything resembling money?
I’m certainly don’t believe all that Mr. Kunstler says, but I always enjoy the way he says it.
And now, because you’ve been so patient, here’s Mr. Kunstler talking at TED a few years ago. Some really great commentary on the American landscape. And it’s really funny.
Note: his first book, The Geography of Nowhere is actually a really wonderful read. He wasn’t quite as cranky back then.
His name makes me laugh. I won’t say why.
Kunstler has a weekly podcast also. http://kunstlercast.com