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Recent Posts
- 2023: Expect a financial crash followed by major energy-related changes
- The economy is moving from a tailwind pushing it along to a headwind holding it back
- Today’s Energy Crisis Is Very Different from the Energy Crisis of 2005
- Why financial approaches won’t fix the world’s economic problems this time
- Ramping Up Renewables Can’t Provide Enough Heat Energy in Winter
- Why No Politician Is Willing to Tell Us the Real Energy Story
- The world’s self-organizing economy can be expected to act strangely, as energy supplies deplete
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Academic Articles
- An analysis of China's coal supply and its impact on China's future economic growth
- An Oil Production Forecast for China Considering Economic Limits
- Analysis of resource potential for China's unconventional gas and forecast for its long-term production growth
- China's unconventional oil: A review of its resources and outlook for long-term production
- Financial Issues Affecting Energy Security
- Oil Supply Limits and the Continuing Financial Crisis
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Tag Archives: dissipative structure
The world’s self-organizing economy can be expected to act strangely, as energy supplies deplete
It is my view that when energy supply falls, it falls not because reserves “run out.” It falls because economies around the world cannot afford to purchase goods and services made with energy products and using energy products in their operation. It is really a price problem. . .
It is my expectation that these and other issues will lead to a very strangely behaving world economy in the months and years ahead. The world economy we know today is, in fact, a self-organizing system operating under the laws of physics. With less energy, it will start “coming apart.” World trade will increasingly falter. Fossil fuel prices will be volatile, but not necessarily very high.
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Why Energy-Economy Models Produce Overly Optimistic Indications
I was asked to give a talk to a committee of actuaries who are concerned about modeling the financial future of programs, such as pension plans, given the energy problems that are often discussed. They (and the consultants that they … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged Debt, dissipative structure, energy-economy modeling, pensions
2,065 Comments
Oops! The economy is like a self-driving car
Back in 1776, Adam Smith talked about the “invisible hand” of the economy. Investopedia explains how the invisible hand works as, “In a free market economy, self-interested individuals operate through a system of mutual interdependence to promote the general benefit … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged dissipative structure, economic growth, oil price, open system
2,573 Comments
The Physics of Energy and the Economy
I approach the subject of the physics of energy and the economy with some trepidation. An economy seems to be a dissipative system, but what does this really mean? There are not many people who understand dissipative systems, and very … Continue reading
A new theory of energy and the economy – Part 1 – Generating economic growth
How does the economy really work? In my view, there are many erroneous theories in published literature. I have been investigating this topic and have come to the conclusion that both energy and debt play an extremely important role in … Continue reading
