Archive for November, 2010
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Un-blissful Ignorance of “This Wild Balloon”
November 28th, 2010 by John FullertonAfter my Thanksgiving turkey, I digested two recent commentaries on the financial industry, “Inside Job,” the mostly fair but incomplete documentary narrated by Matt Damon, and the balanced and accurate New Yorker essay, “What Good is Wall Street,” >> Read more
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Energy Independence? Really?
November 21st, 2010 by John Fullerton“There Will be Fuel”, by Clifford Krauss, was the feature article in a special Energy section of the NY Times on November 16th. Not only was it amateur and unbalanced, it was irresponsible. The thesis was “peak oil is a joke, we’re now swimming in oil”. Nothing could be >> Read more
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The Trade Balance, Free Trade, and Energy
November 14th, 2010 by John FullertonObama had a bad week at the G20. He was rebuked by Western leaders on the weak dollar consequences of QE2, and he failed to secure a Trade Agreement with South Korea.
There is something not terribly compelling about a trip to India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea, and pitching these countries on expanding exports from the US to create US jobs. After the pummeling he >> Read more
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Guest Post: Thermodynamic Roots of Economics
November 8th, 2010 by Herman DalyThe first and second laws of thermodynamics should also be called the first and second laws of economics. Why? Because without them there would be no scarcity, and without scarcity, no economics. Consider the first law: if we could create useful energy and matter as we needed it, as well as destroy waste matter and energy as it got in our way, we would have superabundant sources and sinks >> Read more
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Guest Post: Adam Gopnik on Adam Smith’s Real Question
November 8th, 2010 by Peter KinderIn his latest entry, Capital Institute Board Member Peter Kinder reflects on the legacy of Adam Smith and his conceptualization of human nature. Invoking a lively debate in academia called ‘the Adam Smith Problem’, Peter reminds us that reading The Wealth of Nations with The Theory of Moral Sentiments as context is optimal to understanding Smith. >> Read more