from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/science/earth/29fossil.html?hpw … But the growth of small renewable projects in towns like Tocco — not only in Italy, but also in other countries — highlights the way that shifting energy economics are often more important than national planning in promoting alternative energy. Tocco was motivated to become an early adapter because Italy already had [...]
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
from http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/what-economists-can-teach-world-cup-coaches/ … in a paper issued by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, Alexander Ebertz and Marc Gronwald argue that the notion of evolutionary finance may help explain why certain styles of soccer seem indomitable for a time, only to eventually be usurped by a new strategy. As described by the authors, evolutionary [...]
Scarcity leads to higher prices. That’s why there is profit in creating an illusion that the world is short of oil. We do need to pursue alternative energy sources but we shouldn’t worry about oil shortages. From the NY Times Op Ed, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/opinion/25lynch.html But those are just the latest arguments — for the most part the peak-oil crowd [...]
From the NY Times article “Turning Around the Idea of Student Loans“: LAS VEGAS — Over sandwiches and pizza, a group of high school students here debated the pros and cons of combating poverty in five desperate nations. They scrolled through Web sites, analyzed statistics and considered how much they knew about the economy, language [...]
Because, as Milton Friedman (1912-2006) wrote in an 1928 essay, “Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. When the crisis occurs the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” (emphasis added) The New York Times was already re-evaluating Friedman’s legacy in April, 2008 with a short article titled “A [...]