http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjUJTw2i1M

Elephant carwash raises zoo cash

http://tinyurl.com/lqe73a

I also found Reich's remarks to be right on.

My brother alerted me to a story in the Texas press yesterday that provides some rather sobering anecdoctal evidence that bolsters Reich's argument:

Dallas, other cities see sales tax revenues drop

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/garland/stories/071009dnmetsalestax.3e09828.html

Texas was thought to be immune to the downturn, but it looks like that might have just been wishful thinking.

When I was in the U.S. a couple of weeks ago I had lunch with a friend of my brother's who works for a large construction company. They do curbs, streets, sidewalks, etc. for new real estate developments, mainly in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. My brother's friend said their business had "ground to a halt." So far they've laid off about half of their 1,800 workers, and are now down to 900.

Texas was one of the few remaining bright spots in the country, but maybe it was just late getting to the party. Can we all say, "Hello California! Here we come!"???

Severe resource depletion – especially of coal – is sapping the nation's ability to continue on any growth path.

China is reputed to have as little as 40 years of coal left at 2007 rates of consumption.

However, the industry is rife with rumors that in fact, depletion is far more advanced, with the quality of coal mined declining sharply as the best deposits have been mined out.

With exponential growth, Chinese coal stocks will not last anywhere near 40 years.

Imagine the turmoil if China even came to the world markets to replace 50% of their current consumption of coal within the next 15 years.

Virtually entire fleets of ships will have to be built to import coal, LNG, etc. from around the world, and entire new railway / pipeline systems that tap into virgin Siberian deposits.

Even with these mega projects, Chinese demand would cause global energy prices to sharply rise.

But the proposed solutions sound both efficacious and readily implementible; not that implementation will come readily. Sal and Joe, nice work.

Judging by the other links, and the links every day, they'd have better luck on Wall St or in Washington.