Includes index.

Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1 The World in 2050 1 A Preview of the Future 2 A Decrease in Productive Capacity 5 Squandering Prosperity 9 Chapter 2 The Original America Is the New Brazil 11 The Country of the Future 14 The Origins of America 20 The Mythic Brazil 24 A Difficult Dream to Realize 26 Can America's Destiny Be Fulfilled in Brazil? 28 Chapter 3 How Brazil Became Endowed for Prosperity in a Collapsing World 35 The Impact of Topography 36 Yesterday's Limitations as Today's Strengths 45 Three Radical Changes 53 Predatory Government Growth Imperatives Lead to Fiat Money and Runaway Debt Energy Surges Alter Spatial Configurations of Economies Chapter 4 Prosperity and Energy Density: The Hidden Role of BTUs in the Rise and Fall of Economies 67 Denser Energy Equals a Rise in Prosperity 68 Coal and Adam Smith 69 Going Forward or Backward? The Phases of Extracting Energy 73 Phase One: An Abundance of Wood Phase Two: An Abundance of Coal Phase Three: The Original Petroleum Industry The Shift from Coal to Oil and World War I 75 Peak Oil and Declining Money 79 Declining Energy and Systemic Collapse The Real Symptoms of Peak Oil The Competition for Prosperity 84 Expensive Oil Remains A 665,000 Percent Increase in the Price of a BTU? The SS Great Britain Sails Again 87 "Yes! We Have No Bananas" Chapter 5 Malthus Again: Population Pressures, Global Cooling, and the Coming Dark Age 91 The Dynamics of Weather 93 Not Wrong, but Early 96 Waiting for Our Malthusian Moment 100 The Next Little Ice Age 104 "The Dog That Did Not Bark" 114 Putting Two and Two Together 117 A New Maunder Minimum 124 Dearth, Insanity, and Revolution 125 Chapter 6 Deficit Attention Disorder: How the Perverse Logic of Debtism Promotes the Illusion of Democratic Consensus but Devastates the Economy 131 How Debtism Changed the World 132 Debtism Helps Politicians Manipulate You 142 The U.S. Budget Deficits Would Make Greece Blush 144 Worse than the Great Depression 149 The Collapse of the Boom 156 Chapter 7 "Rome" Falls, Again: Economic Closure and Financial Repression as the United States Faces Bankruptcy 159 Slip-Sliding Down the Road to National Insolvency 160 The Destruction of the Middle Class Pre-Industrial Growth Rates Are You Ready for Taxes to Double? Welcome to the Second Decline and Fall of "Rome" 167 The New Berlin Wall Americans as the New Illegal Emigrants 172 Chapter 8 The Sunny Side of the Leverage Cycle: How Brazil's Legacy of Hyperinflation Prepared It to Prosper in a Post-Dollar World 175 You Are in Steerage on a Sinking Ship 178 Stopping Runaway Spending 181 Important Lessons from Hyperinflation 185 Minimal Bank Capital Ratios: A Crisis Waiting to Happen U.S. Reserve Requirements: A System Failure The Political Roots of the Economic Crisis How Brazilians Became the New Scots Crash-Proofing the System Brazilian Style America's 104 Trillion Problem Brazil and the Taylor Rule Leverage and Growth 195 GDP Gains Based on Income Growth 196 Chapter 9 A Bounty of Water and Land: Brazil as History's First Tropical Superpower 199 Brazil and Water 199 Sustainability A World of Water Shortages Renewable Water Brazil Reinvents Agriculture 206 The New Breadbasket of the World Diversification Irrigation A History of Small and Large Farms A Stunning Increase Chapter 10 Reversing the Gap: Brazil as the World's Emerging Energy Superpower 221 The Zero Sum Growth Game 222 Grim Prospects 226 Pulling the Plug 228 Submerging Economies 231 Rio Is the New Houston 233 Leading the Way in Renewable Energy 238 Let There Be Light 242 Declining Power after an Energy Transition 244 Chapter 11 Demographic Turbocharge: Brazil's Coming Decades of Miracle Growth 247 China Takes a Dive? 251 Brazil's Demographic Bonus 253 A Laboratory for New Products 257 A Real Cultural Melting Pot 258 Chapter 12 Back to the Future: What Could Go Wrong 261 Is Brazil Following the United States Too Closely? 262 Weight 264 Effects on Health Care 268 Diversity Issues 270 Infrastructure 274 Corruption 277 Bureaucracy 278 Custo Brasil 281 Credit 284 Chapter 13 On the Outside Looking In: Making the Move toward Prosperity 289 Conclusions 290 Healthcare Education Military "Plagiarize, Plagiarize, Why Not Use Your Eyes?" 298 Coming Soon: Financial Repression 299 "Revocation or Denial of Passport in Case of Certain Unpaid Taxes" From the Empire Settlement Act to Unsettling Choices 302 Looking at BRICs 304 Untapped Resources Climate: Brazil Stays Warm in the Little Ice Age U.S. Farmers Lead the Migration to Brazil Making the Move 308 About the Author 311 Index 313