Jeff Rubin: Boom Times Aren’t Coming Back, But That’s Not Necessarily Bad (Q&A)

Jeff Rubin: Boom Times Aren’t Coming Back, But That’s Not Necessarily Bad (Q&A). (FULL ARTICLE)

Key takeaways:

-We must prepare for a long period of harder times
-Canada will be a water superpower
-Oil sands won’t boom like the industry predicts
-Anti-Keystone movement has backfired

As recently as 13 years ago, a barrel of oil cost $20, or even less. Today, global crude prices are hovering around the $100 mark. We may be getting used to higher prices at the pump, but the world economy isn’t, says economist Jeff Rubin — and the result is a permanent shift down in economic growth.

Rubin was the chief economist at CIBC World Markets for close to two decades, but had to part ways with his employer when he started writing about how rising energy costs are going to put make our worlds a lot smaller.

Rubin’s argument is controversial: He says we aren’t so much in the midst of a sluggish recovery as we are in the middle of a new reality — one where we will have to get used to a lower standard of living.

Rubin’s latest book, The End of Growth, recently came out in an updated paperback edition. HuffPost Canada talked to him about what it will mean to live in a world of high energy prices, his reasons for believing Canada will become a “water superpower,” and why the end of growth might not necessarily be a bad thing.

What do you mean when you talk about the end of growth?…

Related articles

• Author Jeff Rubin on Energy Independence and Peak Oil (peakoil.com)
• The End of Growth (damnthematrix.wordpress.com)
• What should Canada do to prepare for the day oil runs out? (theglobeandmail.com)