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Review
"Ruppert's hefty book is meant to make us think and inspire us all to be courageous against the forces that want us to live in fear" - Nexus, December 2004.

About the Author
Mike Ruppert is the Publisher/Editor of From the Wilderness, a newsletter read by more than 16,000 subscribers in 40 countries. A former LAPD narcotics investigator, he is widely known for his groundbreaking stories on US involvement in the drug trade, Peak Oil and 9/11.

Customer Reviews

Indifferent
I don't claim to be of exceptional intelligence. I read this book almost 3 years ago now, and while I don't claim to remember much of the detail included within, I found myself thinking about this book after the author's claims that oil and gold prices would skyrocket and the global economy would plunge during the year turned out to be true.

Seeing as I did not investigate the claims made in this book I cannot personally say whether anything in it is actually true.

The book is painful to read - some parts are virtually common knowledge, like the descriptions of how reliant we as a species are on energy and fossil fuels - other parts seem to be of minimal relevance and sound like pure science fiction, for example the discussion of PROMISE Software.

History has shown that oil production will peak everywhere. I don't think anyone would dispute that, but the author takes this fact, which is hardly a secret, and turns it into a massive US government conspiracy.

While the author's predictions were correct about the year 2008, who is to say the economic catastrophe is occurring because of peak oil? On a micro over simplified form - society really did not need another shopping mall built down the street from the already existing one, nor does society in America need to be able to choose from 38 (my count) different brands of motor vehicles. We merely wanted these things and had access to them on all levels due to easy credit. When that credit ran out so did everything - including jobs - which came along with these wants, not needs. We enjoyed some good times, now the bill is due.

Seeing as no land across the globe has been spared from the economic disaster, including China and oil exporting countries, I really don't see the economic train wreck having anything to do with "The Decline of the American Empire" other than reducing Wall Street's credibility. Is something so huge (economic downturn) really affected by whether or not the CIA is involved in drug trafficking as the author suggests on his website?

The author leaves out the answer to a simple question - Why did the government either aide or outright cuase 9/11, pass the Patriot Act, and go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, all in the name of peak oil, instead of investing in more energy production across the world, including alternative energy sources, as well as use means available to force the world to "power down"? There is only something simply mentioned about how the Bush administration chose to do this because it is the most primal and ruthless action it could have taken. After all, others have suggested that if the US would invest 1 Trillion dollars, a renewable energy infrastructure could be created which would power 100% of the US electricity demand forever. And no, I am not a renewable energy prophet, nor do I claim to know if this is true.

While the author's predictions about energy prices skyrocketing during 2008 came true - they also crashed after. Why? possibly due to the relatively simple idea that high energy prices led to a true reduction in global demand and a true move to conservation - both things oil exporters do not want, whether their supplies are running out or not. While Gold went up, it came down a bit - obviously people are going to flee to this precious metal when things in the world become uncertain.

I guess what concerns me most is that the author mysteriously disappeared overseas and is now back writing on his website and a blog after his predictions for 2008 came true - coincidence? He also wrote a piece praising the election of Barack Obama, and even suggested that the government authority types would have liked to have assassinated him at some point, but that Obama has become too much of a force that it could not happen. This really seems out there, Obama is a politician who inspires people, nothing more, to suggest his life was at risk because he was such a force yet he barely won the Democratic primary and received about 54% of the popular vote total in a presidential election seems odd. Obama was a senator... even if it was well after 9/11... wouldn't he have been involved in 9/11 cover-ups and lies about peak oil? It seems strange to me the author went out of his way to praise Obama.

Oh yes, peak oil? Canadian tar sands have been officially recorded as recoverable oil reserves since the publishing of this book - oil reserves which are second in size only to Saudi reserves - thus dwarfing Venezuela and associated geopolitical issues - issues covered extensively in the book. Additionally, the US has been involved in the Middle East for decades in some way or another, is the author saying this way always because of peak oil? And speaking of Canada - they seem to have been out of the news when it comes to this global economic debacle - maybe that has something to do with a conservative financial system and has nothing to do with the CIA and the drug trade, China's economic growth, 9/11, the war in Iraq, and the Bush Administration.... and on and on...

Humankind has always tried to find answers to the unanswerable - it has helped us thrive as a species - and it has created the greatest force ever in our existence (well except maybe for fossil fuels) - religion. It seems to me the author is genuinely trying to help himself and his readers answer the unanswerable about this time in our history - answers which will likely only be found in time - maybe when it is too late - just as has always been the case.

This review is really a total rambling, but then so is the book it is about. The author correctly points out that we shouldn't always believe what we have been told and I'm holding that same line to this book, even if it is fascinating to read.

A MUST READ for all Americans -- especially since the bailouts of Wall Street
As an activist, I have intensely read and studied 911, plus America's situation with regard to economics, politics, world affairs, World Bank, globalization of poverty, peak oil, the coming economic collapse, the US rolling over into the North American Union, and so on for 7 years (including documentaries and films, link TV and free speech TV).

I first found compelling evidence about 911 in Feb, 2002 with Mike Ruppert's TRUTH AND LIES OF 911 documentary (still for sale on amazon). I subscribed to his website and bought his huge tome CROSSING THE RUBICON, The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, as soon as it came out, which I still reread from time to time. To me, Crossing the Rubicon is the ESSENTIAL 911 reader from the point of view of motive, means and opportunity. It is information dense, but extremely worthwhile and brilliantly documented and researched.

I think the "war" in Iraq is only part of the reason for "money and power people" to create 911, and Ruppert makes that perfectly clear in this book, his documentary DVD, and on his website.

I recommend ALL Americans to read this book (and get the documentary and go to his [...]) in order to discover the truth behind the ongoing lies of the media and our government.

As Mr. Ruppert so elegantly exposes, the CIA is WALL STREET.

don't waste your money
If you are looking for a book about peak oil and the associated economic problems don't buy this book. Its all about the standard conspiracy theories we have been hearing about for the last 40 years and is so poorly written, lengthy and disorganized that its not worth reading. Is there a rating less than 1 star?