[CARVER]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('drew', 'T')he present political/economic system will continue for a long time yet, and no one here, even a potential revolutionist, has a chance in hell of changing it.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DigitalCubano', 'H')eck, I know that for a cobb douglas production function and a convex cost function if the sum of the exponents is under unity there exists no economies of scale.

[waveNRG]

MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTHS ARE:

Many of us here agree to the certainty and inevitability of a shortfall of oil supply in meeting demand over the coming years.
Many of us here say that economists have it all wrong and that the economic system is fatally flawed, possibly that it helped get us in this mess and that it can't react to the impending challenge. I don't agree with this myself.

Here's an idea that might demonstrate my faith:

I don't know who the administrators of the peakoil.com group are but if they read this:
Can we organise a "Peakoil.com" investment fund?

A) Talk to the bank and organise an oil futures investment portfolio and publish the details online. Make it simple ....we will have a lower limit price below which we sell (say 35$ / barrel) to cut losses and an upper limit above which we sell (say 100$ / barrel milestone) after which the fund is recovered and redistributed per C below.

B) Organise an on-line payment mechanism whereby members can contribute to the fund with a credit card (say minimum $10 or something and there may be some tax or handling charge) before a given deadline after which the investment is made.

C) Once the sell happens, the payee receives 90% of his entitlement with 10% being invested in an alternative energy company voted for online by Peak Oil members. The portfolio will then be managed by the Peak Oil administrators as they wish from that point on and they collect the profits.
Give contributors who object to the principle of a free market the option to have all profits above their original investment (corrected for inflation) reinvested.

D) Start another investment fund for the 150$ milestone and keep on going!


The effect:
It may well prove a good means to promote Peak Oil.
We get a profit if we are right about Peak Oil.
We are investing in Alternative Energy.
Peak Oil administrators get a fund to reward and expand their work.

I'm in with $100 if it can be set up with integrity.

I will repost this as a new topic also I think ...see what happens!

[ubercynicmeister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RacerJace', 'n')ice slam dunk there ubercynicmeister. my sentiments exactly... good post

[RacerJace]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ubercynicmeister', '.').....
I seeems that the Economist has decided that it's all just slapstick comedy, without actually answering any of my points.

I have to go, so I'll have to leave the whole point unanswered for now but to note that others have made the same point: "investors only invest in what exists".

Research to create the stuff to invest in is (under that idea) wasted money. Because it's "investing in what does not exist".

Note Well: I certainly support research, even if it gives us bad news. But it's a fact that under the Freemarket, we're doing less and less and less of it, we're spending less and less money on it, we're supporting less and less of it. This is without considering Peak Oil or anything else, just straight research.

So much for the Freemarket Fundamentalism that states that "the freemarket will always find alternatives". How can something find anything, Peak Oil or NO Peak Oil, if it won't even allow anyone to look?

[DigitalCubano]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seldom_seen', 'Y')es, economists use math. As do all sorts of people in all sorts of applications.
I'm not sure what your point is. I have nothing against mathematics.

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

"I would be optimistic too if my thinking existed in a vacuum." - Seldom_seen


Best quote on PO.com

[drew]

Boy, that sure is scary,

"I suggest you read the following paper: The Terra Trade Reference Currency. That might change your mind."

but it IS more of what we have now, ie: corporate political control

This is the system I believe you have a fat chance in hell of changing.

Scary of not, I don't know if political leaders will accept such a display of corporate power as to allow such a currency, even politicians have standards, low as they are, and are certainly uncooperatively filled with big egos and other traits such as nationalism.


Drew

[killJOY]

Those LARGE BLOCKS OF TEXT here (pro and con) can be summarized thus: