A great read, especially to better understand how oil is an integrally woven commodity on this planet.

Oil is to world economies as blood is to the body and we are starting to run out. Jeff Rubin discusses how the lack of cheap, easily accessible oil will affect the world economy. net

This is Jeff Rubin's second book on the topic of peak oil. His first book, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization , focused more on the causes of peak oil and some of the implications for global trade. The End of Growth focuses more on the overall economic effects of expensive oil. The key premise here is that economic growth depends on inexpensive energy provided by oil and other fossil fuels. I found he didn't really explain why this linkage exists; rather, he asserted it as a fact. If you accept that premise, then the rest of the argument, about what happens when we can no longer afford to buy as much oil as we used to, makes sense. Rubin does mention the link between the need for economic growth and population, but like most peak oil authors, glosses over the heart of the problem: too many people. He mentions how educating women is the best way to curb population growth, but offers few suggestions on how to achieve this in the developing world. The writing is much clearer and easier to read than in his first book. There are a few graphs to illustrate some of the trends he discusses. The book would have benefited from some better explanation of why economic growth is desirable and from more suggestions of how to deal with expensive oil. Keep in mind that predictions are hard, especially about the future. I accept Rubin's argument that the problem is serious - expensive oil will impact the economy. But the impacts will probably differ from Rubin's predictions. And I'm less hopeful than Rubin is that we'll somehow find our way out of this mess without addressing global population. Ultimately, this book paints a reasonable picture of the situation, but doesn't do enough to point a way forward.

The most interesting book on the economy I have read in a long time. The end of cheap oil is here and thus the end of growth. And perhaps the end of sending cheap goods around the world in oil driven tankers that can as easily be created at home. And Perhaps a boon to the enviroment. Rubin and Suziki are collaborating on a tour highlighting the 'end of growth'.

I've often wondered if 'growth" can continue. Mr. Rubin presents interetsting evidence that it cannot. I believe that everyone should read this book - even if to see a "slow to no-growth" perspective.

In his second book, Jeff Rubin again makes a strong case that "triple-digit oil prices, record budget deficits and potentially catastrophic levels of carbon in the atmosphere are telling us the same thing: endless economic growth is unsustainable" (Pg. 254). His unconventional approach of explaining the world's economic situation, neither supports the Keynesian school of thought such as those of renowned economists by the likes Paul Krugman nor Laissez-faire ones such as Milton Friedman. Jeff Rubin further states that, "no matter what stimulus measures are put in place, we can't make our economies grow at the rates they used to, because the energy that drives them now costs fives times as much as it did only a decade ago." Despite the relatively low Brent crude oil prices compared to the summer of 2008 prior to Lehman Brothers collapse, it is a strong argument that oil prices are "only a messenger; the real issue is the underlying scarcity they signal" (Pg. 255). As the former Chief Economist of a major Canadian Bank, the author has the right long-term vision of how economies must be reformed. However, in the current unstable state of the world economy, I am more convinced that government stimulus is the proper measure which nations and central banks must implement now as advised by Paul Krugman (End this Depression Now). True, in the long-term spending must be reduced and citizens all over the globe will have to use less energy and rely more on public transportation. The immediate threat to the stability of the world economy cannot be underestimated, however. Politicians and central bankers must act immediately as one major central bank finally acknowledged this day on July 5, 2012, by lowering the interest rates. I conclude by referring to a quote from John M. Keynes which Dr. Krugman frequently refers to in the New York Times: "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again."

This is an easy read that does a great deal to show the influence of oil and other energy resources in a world wide context, on foreign relations, economics, environment and the possibilities in our futures. Written by an economist, there is a clear bias that price determines behaviour, with clear examples of the truth of that supposition.