The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Environment, Ultimate Resource on Apr 16th, 2012
Unless you want to find a justification for ending global capitalism of course. A few weeks ago I reported on how malaria deaths, the single greatest threat that we think will meet us from a warmer planet, are already on a rapid retreat – with a decrease by one-third in Africa over the last decade. [...]
Posted in Environment, Ultimate Resource on Feb 24th, 2012
Here are some facts are about the climate that are part of the consensus: The planet has warmed about at about 0.7 degrees centigrade over the past century. Who is denying that? It ain’t me. Carbon dioxide has been demonstrated to be a greenhouse gas. Who is denying that? It ain’t me. Our basic climate [...]
Posted in Environment, Ultimate Resource on Feb 19th, 2012
This has been a miserable winter as far as I am concerned, but for those of you wondering, for as warm as it has been here, it has been equally cold in Europe. Neither really says a thing about global warming. On a related note, I am sure you have seen by now that scientists [...]
Posted in Price System, Ultimate Resource on Oct 27th, 2011
I was walking around a local market not too long ago and overheard someone speaking about he virtues of “fresh food” and in particular the food that goes “from farm to table” – you know, the stuff grown locally and then eaten in season. I hate that I have to preface everything I say with [...]
Posted in Ultimate Resource, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 8th, 2011
Alvin Hansen (Harvard economist) writing in the American Economic Review in 1939: reduced population growth in the 1930s (half of 1920s rates) was a large reason for the Great Depression. Modern Population alarmists such as Paul Ehrlich argue that continued population growth will descend the planet into Depression. Question: what level or growth rate of [...]
Posted in Ultimate Resource on Feb 17th, 2010
In Progress and Poverty, Henry George wrote: Here is a difference between the animal and the man. Both the jay-hawk and the man eat chickens, but the more jay-hawks the fewer chickens, while the more men the more chickens. Both the seal and the man eat salmon, but when a seal takes a salmon there [...]
Posted in Ultimate Resource on Feb 12th, 2010
While many celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln today, I celebrate the wonderful life of Julian Simon – the economist I have learned the most from, and the one I never heard a thing about in my 4 years as an undergraduate or 5 years as a graduate economic student. Here is an excerpt from [...]
Posted in Resources, Ultimate Resource, incentives on Sep 2nd, 2009
Maybe it’s not a marble-sized balloon after all? BP finds another new oil source. A 20%-30% recovery rate, which would be typical for this kind of field, would imply recoverable reserves of 600 million to 900 million barrels of oil equivalent, said Mr. Hutton. … The Tiber well, 250 miles southeast of Houston, Texas, is [...]
Posted in Ultimate Resource on Apr 4th, 2008
That was in the gift shop. A little earlier I finished reading the following placquard: “The slash-and-burn agricultural practice of these early ____ meant they had to move their villages every 15 to 25 years to find fresh sources of fertile soil, firewood, and game. This has made it difficult to arrive ata definite sequence [...]
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