[khebab]

Some juicy quotes from Professor Edward Prescott:
About US budget deficit:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;The U.S. (current) account deficit, no problem. People that say there is (a problem) are ignorant, they do not understand something called balance sheet, present value, something that a good undergraduate (economics student) learns,"

[khebab]

Another quote:


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')To you, what is the biggest challenges – the economical challenges – that we are facing in the world today?

– I look at the world as a whole. Things are going quite well. The rich countries are growing nicely – not spectacularly – but the great thing is that the less developed countries are catching up, and are becoming rich. The world is becoming economically integrated. And this has … You said, "what’s the biggest challenge," I guess is – keep the momentum going. Sustain these – I tend to think of them as cooperative international relationships, where countries enter into – or people in various countries enter into voluntary trades with people in other countries, where the technology is transferred between countries, where there’s a lot of insourcing as well as outsourcing. A lot of trade – I think that fosters economic efficiency.

[Itch]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')The U.S. (current) account deficit, no problem. People that say there is (a problem) are ignorant, they do not understand something called balance sheet, present value, something that a good undergraduate (economics student) learns,"

[marek]

Here is a quote by Kenneth Boulding (another famous economist, maybe not a Nobel prize winner, but a much more rational guy)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nybody who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist

[marek]

Well, the balance sheet means that if there is a trade deficit, there has to be a capital surplus. And that is true, the Chinese with whom we have a deficit are pumping huge amounts of dollars into the U.S. economy to invest them in Treasury bonds. When the capital inflow is reduced, the dollar will collapse and that should reduce imports. The problem is that the U.S. doesn't produce many goods anymore, so even a large depreciation might not be enough (I bought myself a HP laptop a couple of months ago, and it was made in China for God's sake). So a plummeting dollar that does not translate into reduced imports will not clear the market as this textbook example offered by Dr. Prescott was supposed to suggest.

[Clouseau2]

The best description of an economist I've read so far is "an economist is a man who happily jumps out of an airplane without a parachute because he knows someone will be there to sell him one before he hits the ground"

Where else can you get a job where you are wrong 50% of the time and still employed?

Economists ruin the planet by making everyone believe exponential growth can continue indefinitely and the only resource that matters is money.

[marek]

Herbert Stein (Nixon's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers): $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f something's unsustainable, it tends to stop

[khebab]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Clouseau2', 'T')he best description of an economist I've read so far is "an economist is a man who happily jumps out of an airplane without a parachute because he knows someone will be there to sell him one before he hits the ground"

Where else can you get a job where you are wrong 50% of the time and still employed?

Economists ruin the planet by making everyone believe exponential growth can continue indefinitely and the only resource that matters is money.

[marek]

If you'd like to read a great rebuttal of neoclassical economics (written by an economist) I suggest Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences by Steve Keen. Also, there is a great article, entitled Why I am No Longer a Positivist by Deirdre McCloskey (Review of Social Economy, Issue 3, Vol. 47).

[0mar]

i love Boulding, so much so that he is my sig ^^

[savethehumans]

Three things are certain:

1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Finding some "expert" who will tell you what you want to hear.

[BiGG]

May 20, 2005 Nobel laureate discusses potential solutions for energy crisis

Today, the world relies on gas and oil to run its cities and transportation systems. But tomorrow, with the advancements in current research, society could turn to the land it walks on for its energy source.

According to Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate and director of the UC-managed Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it might be possible one day to grow plants that would provide viable energy for human consumption. This is one resource that humans may turn to temporarily in the future as oil supplies become increasingly scarce.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')it might be possible one day to grow plants that would provide viable energy for human consumption

[Nano]

What I'd like to know is how you can use plants to provide fuel without using fertilizer at the necessary scale? Or is the fertilizer question included in the EROEI equations?

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nano', 'W')hat I'd like to know is how you can use plants to provide fuel without using fertilizer at the necessary scale? Or is the fertilizer question included in the EROEI equations?

[Nano]

Interesting, so the limiting factor here is really only the available arable land and the energy capturing efficiency of the plants. Still, it leaves the world with much less energy than during the good ol' cheap oil days... Too much less to provide me with much comfort...

[lorenzo]

Nobel Laureates are often geniuses. Mr Chu just invented agriculture. Give him another Nobel now.

[bobcousins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', 'N')obel Laureates are often geniuses. Mr Chu just invented agriculture. Give him another Nobel now.

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nano', 'I')nteresting, so the limiting factor here is really only the available arable land and the energy capturing efficiency of the plants. Still, it leaves the world with much less energy than during the good ol' cheap oil days... Too much less to provide me with much comfort...

[Nano]

Yes but this *if* is the crucial factor. At the uni there's this guy working on an ultrasound system for the treatment of dried grasses. He says its the most efficient way to unlock the starch etc. I don't know. Such machines don't gush oil like a wellhead does. However efficient, it will require significant tonnage of apparatus. It certainly could be a bull-market.