Home » Posts tagged 'kurt cobb' (Page 13)
Tag Archives: kurt cobb
Will declines in U.S. and Canadian oil production lead to a global decline?
Will declines in U.S. and Canadian oil production lead to a global decline? At the beginning of this year I noted that all of the growth in world oil production* since 2005 has come from two countries: the United States and Canada. And, I suggested that since the growth in production in those two countries came […]
Kurt Cobb: Money Cannot Manufacture Resources
Kurt Cobb: Money Cannot Manufacture Resources Disproving the fatal assumption central planners make Author Kurt Cobb writes frequently on energy and the environment and warns that our current economic policy suffers from a fatal degree of magical thinking: sufficient new resources will emerge if the price is high enough. As any fourth grader will tell you, […]
Will Washington state have the nation’s first carbon tax?
Will Washington state have the nation’s first carbon tax? Yoram Bauman is the world’s only “stand-up economist.” He makes his living poking fun at economics and economists. But he’s dead serious about fighting climate change, and he’s the intellectual force behind a climate-related initiative that seems likely to appear on Washington state’s November 2016 ballot. If voters […]
Truth takes a hit in the battle over U.S. oil export ban
Truth takes a hit in the battle over U.S. oil export ban They say that the first casualty of war is truth. And, on both sides of the fight over lifting the ban on exports of U.S. crude oil, the truth has already fallen into a coma. The ban was instituted in 1975 in order […]
Stock market confessions, chaos, complexity and the illusion of control
Stock market confessions, chaos, complexity and the illusion of control In the old days of the Chinese Cultural Revolution those who said or did something perceived by the Chinese authorities to be counter-revolutionary were forced into public confessions–and then humiliated, imprisoned or even put to death. It seems that old ways die hard. Last week the new […]
Anxiety turns to fear: Markets, energy, Pan and the zeitgeist
Anxiety turns to fear: Markets, energy, Pan and the zeitgeist The characteristic feeling of the post-2008 world has been one of anxiety. Occasionally, that anxiety breaks out into fear as it did in the last two weeks when stock markets around the world swooned and middle class and wealthy investors had a sudden visitation from […]
Counterintuitive: (Some) volatility is good for you, stability not so much
Counterintuitive: (Some) volatility is good for you, stability not so much With stock markets around the world plunging and commodity prices in free fall, it seems appropriate to return to a theme which I’ve taken up previously: That a certain amount of volatility is good for humans and the systems they build, and that attempts to […]
What is the price of oil telling us?
What is the price of oil telling us? Market fundamentalists tell us that prices convey information. Yet, while our barbers and hairdressers might be able to give us an extended account of why their prices have changed in the last few years, commodities such as oil–which reached a six-year low last week–stand mute. To fill […]
The future isn’t what it used to be
The future isn’t what it used to be Two recent films couldn’t be more at odds in their vision of the future. Mad Max: Fury Road is the long-awaited continuation of the Mad Max movie series. The movie is essentially a relentless chase scene set in a world burned to desert by climate change and bereft of civilization which […]
Energy, the repressed: Paging Dr. Freud
Energy, the repressed: Paging Dr. Freud Jeremy Rifkin announced the end of work in a book by that title in 1995. Today, we are once again being told that the end of work is nigh. The Atlantic Monthly tells us so in a piece entitled, “A World Without Work.” Automation and computer technology will bring unimaginable change and prosperity–and result in […]
Nonlinear: New York, London, Shanghai underwater in 50 years?
Nonlinear: New York, London, Shanghai underwater in 50 years? Those under the impression that climate change is advancing at a constant and predictable rate don’t understand the true dynamics of the issue. The rate of increase of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, went from 0.75 parts per million […]
This Is Why A Serious Decline In U.S Shale Plays Is Not Far Away
This Is Why A Serious Decline In U.S Shale Plays Is Not Far Away The plunge in oil prices last year led many to say that a decline in U.S. oil production wouldn’t be far behind. This was because almost all the growth in U.S. production in recent years had come from high-cost tight oil […]
Has U.S. oil production started to turn down?
Has U.S. oil production started to turn down? The plunge in oil prices last year led many to say that a decline in U.S. oil production wouldn’t be far behind. This was because almost all the growth in U.S. production in recent years had come from high-cost tight oil deposits which could not be profitable […]
Chinese stocks: When mispricing becomes more important than pricing
Chinese stocks: When mispricing becomes more important than pricing Defenders of the free market faith tell us that price conveys a great deal of information, enough that you can base an entire economic system on it without any central planning or coordination whatsoever. Whether extreme devotion to this principle is wise may not be so […]
Lab rats and the corruption of how we count
Lab rats and the corruption of how we count There’s an old joke about lab rats in which the teller says he or she secretly suspects that all lab rats are prone to cancer and so all research about the risk of cancer in humans based on tests in rats is likely useless. The Committee for […]
