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Recent Posts
- 2026: Expect a very uneven world economic downturn
- Too many promises; too few future physical goods
- A lack of very cheap oil is leading to debt problems
- What has gone wrong with the economy? Can it be fixed?
- Sierra Club talk that may be of interest
- Why oil prices don’t rise to consistently high levels
- Worrying indications in recently updated world energy data
- What should individuals do in a world filled with conflict?
- Economic contraction, coming right up
- Brace for rapid changes in the economy; the world economy is reaching Limits to Growth
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Tag Archives: limits to growth
Too many promises; too few future physical goods
The world is filled with financial promises, including loans, pensions, and even the market value of stocks. So far, the system seems to be working, but in a finite world, it is hard to believe that the system will work indefinitely. Governments can create money simply by adding more promises, but they cannot create goods and services in a similar fashion. Continue reading
A lack of very cheap oil is leading to debt problems
The economy needs a strong middle class to maintain the buying power needed to purchase goods such as vehicles, motorcycles, and new homes, to keep the price of oil up. Prices must be both high enough for producers and low enough for consumers. Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications, Introductory Post, PDFs Available
Tagged EROEI, EROI, limits to growth, low oil prices, wage disparity
1,521 Comments
What has gone wrong with the economy? Can it be fixed?
I don’t believe that the situation is hopeless. At the end, I discuss where we are now, relative to historical patterns, and some reasons to be optimistic about the future. Continue reading
Posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications, oil shortages
Tagged economic collapse, limits to growth, oil prices, peak oil
1,621 Comments
Economic contraction, coming right up
In this post, I will try to describe the physics-based limits that the economy is facing, related to diminishing returns of many kinds. The problem we are facing has sometimes been called “limits to growth,” or “overshoot and collapse.” Such changes tend to lead to a loss of “complexity.” Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications, Introductory Post
Tagged diminishing returns, DOGE, limits to growth, oil prices
1,496 Comments
Brace for rapid changes in the economy; the world economy is reaching Limits to Growth
The world economy is at a major turning point, which is why we should brace for rapid changes in the economy. The world is moving from having enough goods and services to go around, to not having enough to go around. The dynamics of the economy are very different with not enough to go around. The hoped-for solution of higher prices doesn’t fix the situation; after a point, adding more buying-power mostly produces inflation. Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged dissipative structure, DOGE, limits to growth, tariffs
1,643 Comments
