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Economy

The Cambo limit

For more than a century, economists have speculated about what would happen when world oil production reached a peak.  The consensus view which has won out thus far is that the oil price would just keep increasing.  Indeed, there would not be a single peak of oil production, because each …

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A new version of an old story

Today, “playing out” is recognised by psychologists as one of the means by which children come to terms with traumatic events.  But the dark events themselves become lost in the mists of time, removing the trauma from the echoes they leave behind for our delicate, civilised ears.  Consider children’s nursery …

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A lack of humility but correct, for the wrong reasons

The technocrats at the Bank of England have come in for more criticism as a result of Chief Economist Huw Pill’s remarks during an American podcast.  As Michael Race and Vishala Sri-Pathma at the BBC report, the former Goldman Sachs banker told listeners that: “Somehow in the UK, someone needs …

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Stagflation has begun

The deception of the past decade is that central banks have been “printing money” via quantitative easing.  This may have helped boost confidence in the real economy that it was safe to borrow once more.  But other than the printing of the tiny volumes of cash, which account for less …

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Time trap

Physicist Albert Bartlett made the case that humanity’s greatest weakness is our inability to understand the exponential function.  If this is so, then surely our inability to process time must be our second greatest weakness.  As I wrote in my book, The Consciousness of Sheep: “The overwhelming majority of us …

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Of course we should hold them to account

Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the bailout of Credit Suisse last week, apologists have taken to the airwaves to claim that we should not cast blame on the central bankers.  There is a superficial case that can be made here, insofar as the management of SVB seems …

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A matter of simple arithmetic

It is 2015.  Tom has a job paying £1000 a month.  He spends £500 on rent, and £75 each on energy, food and transport.  He spends another £25 on assorted occasional items like clothing.  The local council takes £150 in taxes.  He spends another £50 on various subscriptions such as …

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Paradise postponed

According to a certain interpretation of the long arc of human history as seen from the prism of the religion of progress, we are currently passing through the “third disruption.”  According to this view, the first disruption – also referred to as the neolithic revolution – arrived with the emergence …

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The small price of sticking it to Putin

With tedious predictability, the people – politicians, journalists and keyboard warriors – that David Graeber referred to as “the extreme centre,” are blaming Britain’s vegetable shortage on Brexit, even though three-quarters of the foods involved are usually grown within the UK, where free movement still exists for European pickers.  Indeed, …

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More death spirals begin to spin

An economic death spiral occurs when a system loses critical mass.  For example, the UK’s energy death spiral – which is reaching its crisis phase – is the result of rising energy costs creating an involuntary loss of demand across the system.  In part, businesses and households engage in energy-saving …

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