Will the big stimulus work?
Governments are like a doctor who is confronted by a patient suffering from a severe cold. So the doctor says, ‘Right, everyone, let’s cough and sneeze all over him, that’ll cure him!’
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Review of 1988 edition of Economics for a Round Earth
” . . a most useful work in enhancing my comprehension of the interaction between the discourses of economics and environmental conservation.” Continue reading
The Decline and Rise of Nations
I was asked recently if I thought that American dominance of the world was over, if America would decline like other great powers before it, and what nation would take its place.
I replied that the old idea of a nation becoming ‘great’ and ‘wealthy’ by hugely increasing its consumption and getting control of other nations to keep its own consumption growing, had always been part of human history, but would be quite inappropriate for the future. … Read more
Global Warming – A Red Herring?
The Australian Government has recently announced revised, reduced targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. There has been some objection to this but it should not really be surprising.
Governments around the world have shown that they just don’t get it. … Read more
Oil Price Goes Down – Whoopee
Oil price goes down – whoopee
The price of crude oil dropped dramatically last year. This was not unexpected – supply and demand of this resource are finely balanced, so that any political or economic disturbance can cause large fluctuations. … Read more
Global Warming – Is it too late?
There are four main opinions on the subject of global warming:
1) It’s not happening.
OR
2) It’s happening but has causes other than anthropogenic increases in the atmospheric carbon dioxide content, for instance the precession of the nodes of the earth’s orbit and cyclical variations in the sun’s radiation.
Conclusion
It has not been the aim of these posts to provide detailed remedies for every current problem in or related to economics.
It has only been my purpose to outline a more practical and realistic relationship between the human economy and the world we live in, one which favours life over death, progress and enhancement over degeneration. … Read more
Expenditure on Weapons
Huge sums are spent by governments on weapons and troops, particularly in certain countries. There are two remedies for this drain on government expenditure, one long-term and one short-term.
The long-term answer lies in the evolution of the world community towards political and economic unity – that is unity in the cooperative rather than in the monolithic sense. … Read more
Budget Balancing Methods – Cost or Gain?
Measures to reduce expenditure and increase revenue raising by governments will often be seen in current economic terms as “costs” to the nation. But if seen in the light of the ideas put forward in the post about “Costs – What Really Costs Us and What Doesn’t?” they are economic gains. … Read more
The Problem of Government Debt
A major problem for economies around the world is government debt. This matter has been mentioned in other posts. Many governments have been running a deficit on their annual budget for years. It is not universally realised that these deficits are cumulative. … Read more