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Max Keiser

"Can there be life after oil? For every 6 barrels of oil we consume, we find one barrel. That means we're 5 short, according to industry experts. And if consumption rates continue to outstrip discovery of new reserves, then we all have a serious problem on our hands.

"In 2006, the world consumed more the 30 billion barrels. Oil in many ways is the be all and end all of our modern way of life. It's the very basis of all economic activity. From the cars we drive to the food we eat that travels for miles before it gets to our plate. Oil is even used to make microchips. So, it's everywhere."

"The world's largest producer of oil is Saudi Arabia. It have a production level of 9 million barrels a day. And for us to keep up pace with the racing demand, we may have to discover a new Saudi Arabia every four years.

"So, has oil really peaked? And is it all downhill from here? Max Keiser went to the desert in search of answers..."

Max Keiser

"The world's oil is running out. It's peaked. We're consuming far more oil than we're producing and discovering. This are looking pretty desperate. Even for our own Max Keiser who's lost in the desert on the way to Saudi, the world's biggest oil producer..."

Robert L. Hirsch - Energy Consultant: "How this thing unfolds is extremely difficult to know. There's a number of folks who feel that the market can take care of the problem, itself. Most of those people don't understand how fast oil supply will decline, how fast we'll have shortages, and how fast the shortages will grow..."

Randy Udall - Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas: "What people don't understand about energy is that energy is the original currency. Energy is the source of all wealth. People say, economists say, well oil is only a sliver of our economy. It's 2%. It's 4%. 5%. Big deal if oil prices go up. Oil may be only a sliver of the economy, but you can't..., try running the rest of the economy without oil."

Max Keiser

"Since the spring of 2003, the dollar has lost over a third of its value as measured against other major currencies. This year (2007) alone it's fallen by over 9%.

A declining American dollar has been hailed by many commentators as a solution to the growing US trade defecit, but America's trading partners complain that they're having to pay for the US's own economic shortcomings. As the dollar falls more heavily against the Euro, for example, it makes US exports significantly cheaper compared to their European counterparts.

Speaking before the US Congress in early November French President Nickolas Sarkozi warned that the dollar cannot remain someone else's problem. He said if we're not careful monetary disarray could morf into economic war, and we would all be its victims..."

Max Keiser: "Until a few months ago, it was believed that America was the richest nation in the world, that the American consumer would 'heroically' be 'the world's consumer'. How did is all go so horribly wrong so quickly?

Max Keiser

"The US economy is teetering into recession and the dollar is tumbling. For years everyone was worried about whether the great vendor, China, would continue funding America's massive debts, but it is the Middle East where we see the most dramatic evidence of the dollar losing its reserve currency status.

The massive unfunded costs of the War in Vietnam forced the nearly bankrupt US off the gold standard in 1971. And today the trillion dollar cost of the Iraq War is equally driving down the dollar. Trade partners recognize that America will have to print dollars to have to pay for the war.

The combination of America's wars, America's cheap money policies, China's rising energy needs has seen the price of oil skyrocket. And 'petro dollars' have come flooding into the Gulf Region..."