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Political economics in a few sentences: In case of A, cut taxes for the rich and outsource more. In case of not A, cut taxes for the rich and outsource more. In case of B, cut taxes for the rich and outsource more. In case of not B, cut taxes for the rich and outsource more...

I worry more about intentional, legalized emigration of high-tech capital and knowledge.

I am a peak oiler, and I agree with your post. The problem is not peak energy, it is peak oil. Peak energy is the "goin back to the stone age" scenario, which isn't going to happen. Civilization will not collapse because the electricity will still be on. But there is no alternative...

"with this much inventory?" That's the point of Peak Oil. Inventory is hydrocarbons in the ground. People have been discovering much less than they used to, despite major increases in exploration techniques. Once you've explored the Earth, there isn't any more planet to go around...

drsteph has it right. But all of the supposed elitetraders here are missing the value of a high efficiency car. You don't do the computations for "is it worth the extra cost" now based on a fixed $2.25 a gallon (now it's $2.80 and counting in San Diego). You have to integrate over all...

There could even be a theorem here. It seems like a similar problem as studied in the 18th century. Various gambling schemes and games were popular in high society. People wondered whether there was some "magic" betting scheme (e.g. martingales) which would give wins---even if the house...

"Not sure if you're serious or sarcastic... if you're serious, Al Qaeda's attack attempt of a Saudi oil facility shows that AQ wouldn't hesitate to attack an American port whether it's operated by UAE or not." --------------------- That's undebatable. The question is how well Al-Qaeda can...

Dubai? It is very unlikely that anybody in positions of central power in UAE would actively engage in a terrorist attack for the reasons given previously. However, it makes it significantly more likely that an actual undercover terrorist could get employed or learn sensitive details, as...

People have to be deprogrammed the idea that "liberal" is automatically and "conservative" automatically good. Clinton was a modest liberal, and historically that is the best policy that works. Adam Smith was, of course, a liberal.

"Well at least we can agree that the economy was strong during the late 90's. But from your statement you must think Clinton created this strength. Really? Which of his economic policies was responsible?" Clinton and his administration was only partially responsible, but they helped on...

It's not the US government which is up to debt in its eyeballs, and printing money like crazy. It's Japan. That's where the huge global liquidity is made. The US could be in a significantly better position if it wanted to: stopping voluntary war.

" For the record, Saddam switched back in 2001, and as a result because the dollar got weaker to the euro, he made 20-30% extra just because of that switch..." Oh please, homie. The dollar getting weaker: wouldn't have anything to do with Greenspan lowering rates from 6% to 2.5% or so...

It's very easy to understand why money velocity could be declining. Rich people are getting most of the new value from it and sitting on it or transferring it into financial instruments instead of physical instruments of widespread economic growth. It also explains the "conundrum" of low...

<i> another problem is the young want the same lifestyle(big house new car) as soon as they get married as their parents worked 50 years to get. </i> Worked for 50 years? Are you kidding? Are their parents all 85 years old and just buying a car and house? At 85 years old they get rid of...

Low tax afghanistan is open for capitalism. Don't mind the warlords.

Why are people so fixated with the "buying power of their money" like it was virginity? If inflation is high, T-bills will have high rates. I think nuclear war is worse than inflation.

I agree that plug-in hybrids are a great idea. In reality a few things would make a large difference for petroleum consumption (which is more important than just energy) 1) requiring all light vehicles not diesel powered be 'flex fuel' alcohol/gasoline as in Brazil. This is very cheap...

You should learn how to fool yourself, all to make sure that before you put in real money you don't fool yourself. I would look at a few issues: "profit factor", gross profits divided by gross losses on back tests. Too low or too high is bad. Why too high? (e.g. 3.0+) because then that...

I went and investigated, this appears to be a product of Stirling Energy systems. They are talking about 12000 dishes for 3 square miles @ 300 megawatts. With dishes at maybe $25,000 each in bulk (they have a high tech turbine engine) that's $300 million for the engines alone. That's high...

7 square miles is an enormous area when you have to fill it with high-tech machinery with large capital cost. I'd estimate roughly that it would be like parking that many vehicles. And 550 megawatts isn't that much, and that's probably peak power (important in CA for air conditioning I...