Item of General Interest
See my page PDFs of Posts for a list of printable posts (without comments) since 2014. At the bottom of the Page, a list of PDFs of Presentations is also shown.
Category Archives: Financial Implications
The world’s weird self-organizing economy
Why is it so difficult to make accurate long-term economic forecasts for the world economy? There are many separate countries involved, each with a self-organizing economy made up of businesses, consumers, governments, and laws. These individual economies together create a … Continue reading
Eight insights based on December 2017 energy data
BP recently published energy data through December 31, 2017, in its Statistical Review of World Energy 2018. The following are a few points we observe, looking at the data: [1] The world is making limited progress toward moving away from fossil fuels. … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged China coal, coal, energy consumption, India coal, per capita energy consumption, Venezuela
2,505 Comments
Our Energy Problem Is a Quantity Problem
(This post consists of a short overview article I recently wrote for Transform, a magazine for Environment and Sustainability Professionals, plus six related Questions and Answers.) Reading many of today’s energy articles, it is easy to get the impression that our … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged Argentina, China, economic growth, energy consumption, Turkey
1,749 Comments
How the Economy Works as It Reaches Energy Limits — An Introduction for Actuaries and Others
Why have long-term interest rates generally fallen since 1981? Why have asset prices risen? Can these trends be expected to continue? The standard evaluation approach by actuaries and economists seems to be to look at past patterns and assume that … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged energy limits, low oil price, oil price, peak oil
1,963 Comments
Why oil prices can’t rise very high, for very long
Oil prices are now as high as they have been for three years. At this writing, Brent is $74.14 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate is at $68.76. These prices aren’t really very high, if a person looks at the … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged economic growth, GDP growth, high oil prices, oil prices
1,703 Comments
