New ideas in economics and the social sciences

Your browser does not support the audio tag. Download: PDF | EPUB | MP3 | WATCH VIDEO

 According to a simple linear trend, losses per disaster are down by about 80% since 1980, as a proportion of GDP.

— Roger Pielke Jr. In the world of scientific disinformation, Roger Pielke Jr. is a well known player.

Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters

I discuss the ongoing research into the capital-as-power model of the stock market.

Blair Fix

Over the last year, I’ve watched with horror and amusement as health agencies around the world flip-flopped their advice on how to deal with COVID. My horror comes from knowing this flip-flopping breeds mistrust in science. But I am (morbidly) amused because I know that uncertainty is a basic part of real research. For the public, ‘science’ tends to mean authoritative knowledge.

With Great Power Comes Great Fear

Here’s the manuscript for a new piece in The Mint Magazine about the language of economics.

A few months ago, I went down a rabbit hole analyzing word frequency in economics textbooks. Henry Leveson-Gower, editor of

 The Mint Magazine

, thought the results were interesting and asked me to write up a short piece. The

 Mint

article is now up, and is called ‘Power: don’t mention it’. What follows is my original manuscript. If you’ve ever taken Economics 101, then you’re familiar with its jargon.

Power … and the Dialect of Economics

In a new video, Jonathan Nitzan demolishes the neoclassical theory of prices. Here’s a summary and some consequences.

Prices are caused by supply and demand, right? So say neoclassical economists. If you’ve bought their fairy tale, I recommend you watch the video below. In it, Jonathan Nitzan demolishes the neoclassical theory of prices. It’s a master lesson in how to deconstruct a theory. An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. Here’s the 100-word summary.

Supply and Demand Deconstructed

I use the Ontario Sunshine List to shed light on how income grows with hierarchical rank.

Income, I’ve come to believe, is shaped largely by rank within a hierarchy. If you’re at the top of a hierarchy, you’ll earn a handsome sum. But if you’re at the bottom of a hierarchy, you’ll earn a pittance. As a hard-nosed scientist, I’m always looking for ways to test this hypothesis.

Some Sunshine on the Ontario Job Hierarchy

Can a service transition help us reduce carbon emissions? The evidence says no.

Let’s talk sustainability. Unless you’re an anti-science crank, you probably agree that we’ve got a problem with carbon emissions. We need to drastically cut emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change. On this we should all agree. The question that’s open for debate is

 how

to cut emissions. I think we actually know very little about how do to this.

Can A Service Transition Save the Planet?

Welcome to the first post of ‘Economics from the Top Down’. This will be a blog about new ideas in economics and the social sciences. I use the word ‘economics’ in a liberal sense. Few trained economists will recognize what I do as ‘economics’. Perhaps a better word would be ‘political economy’. Or even better, just ‘social science’.  But before diving into the content of this blog, I should introduce myself. My name is Blair Fix.

Economics from the Top Down

I’ve gotten rid of ads on Economics from the Top Down

Greetings readers. For some time now, I’ve been uncomfortable with the fact that WordPress (who hosts this site) inserts ads into the content. It’s annoying. But more importantly, it goes against much of what this blog stands for. My goal in this blog is to do

 science

— to dispassionately look at the evidence. Having ads cheapens (or at least distracts from) this goal. So for some time, I’ve been thinking about getting rid of ads.

No More Ads

I am skeptical about agent-based models. Here are my thoughts on their problems.

In the opening post of this blog, I described my ‘top-down’ approach to studying society. This means studying

 groups

of people without trying to reduce everything to the actions of individuals. It’s not that I think individual actions are

 unimportant

. Of course they are important. The problem is that we are hopelessly far from understanding the complexities of the human psyche. In this post, I’m going to dive into the problem.

Agent-Based Models and the Ghost in the Machine

Here are 10 tips for making charts that pop.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In science, the corollary is that a good chart is worth a whole article. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration … but only slightly. Millions of words are spilled each day communicating science. Yet people have finite time to read. The consequence is that most people skim articles, looking for things that interest them. What’s going to catch their eye as they skim?

10 Tips for Making Beautiful Charts

The talk version of my recent paper on degrowth.

This week I had the good fortune to talk with Rok Kranjc and Michel Bauwens about my research on degrowth and hierarchy. The full discussion will be available in a month or so at the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society (which supported this research).  For now, here is my presentation. I discuss ideas from the paper Living the Good Life in a Non-Growth World: Investigating the Role of Hierarchy.

Living the Good Life in a Non-Growth World — The Talk Version

I look at the degrowth that might be achieved by eliminating inequality.

Pity the billionaires. High in the towers on Billionaires’ Row, life is hard. The pencil-thin buildings groan as they sway in the wind, keeping penthouse dwellers up at night. Water pipes break, ruining posh décor. And elevators are unreliable, interrupting billionaires’ highly productive lives. So reads Stefanos Chen’s recent piece about the pitfalls of sky-high living.

Radically Progressive Degrowth: Reducing Resource Use by Eliminating Inequality

How do you tell the story of plutocratic crime? If you’re Cory Doctorow, you write a detective novel about a forensic accountant. It’s a must-read book that sheds light on the often-ignored world of elite finance.

Download: PDF | EPUB  I still remember when I first encountered Cory Doctorow’s writing. After an internet rabbit hole, I landed on his post ‘Ford patents plutocratic lane-changes’. Man, it made me laugh. Here was a sci-fi writer describing a (real) Ford patent that would monetize the right to change lanes. Is Ford paving the way to a plutocratic hell?

Red Team Blues: Cory Doctorow’s Anti-Finance Thriller

It’s time to put economics in line with the rest of science. We need a theory of resource distribution that accepts our evolved sociality.

The biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. I propose a corollary in economics:

 nothing in economics makes sense except in the light of human social evolution.

[1] I explore here how the evolution of human sociality can help us understand how we distribute resources. Although economists like to deny it, humans are social animals.

An Evolutionary Theory of Resource Distribution (Part 1)

Yesterday I was reminded of what got me interested in economics. I’ll preface this by saying that I make my living as a substitute teacher in Toronto. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the bills. It gives me time to do research from outside academia.  When I’m in high school classrooms, I always browse the posters on the wall. It’s funny what you see. You find things (both good and bad) that you’d never see in institutions of ‘higher learning’.

Where’s the Barefoot  Revolution in Economics?

I discuss Suaste Cherizola’s prize-winning essay ‘From Commodities to Assets’

As some of you may know, I recently became the editor of the

 Review of Capital as Power

(RECASP), a journal that publishes research on the power underpinnings of capitalism. Each year, RECASP hosts an essay competition. I’m proud to announce that the winner of this year’s prize is Jesús Suaste Cherizola.

 1

His prize-winning paper is called From Commodities to Assets: Capital as Power and the Ontology of Finance.

Jesús Suaste Cherizola Wins the 2021 CASP Essay Prize

Check out the new and improved Capital as Power Forum.

Nothing says 1990s like an ‘internet forum’. Nothing says 2000s like a ‘blog’. And nothing says 2010s like ‘social media’. As we contemplate how social media is ruining our society, let’s hearken back to a simpler day. Yes, I’m writing this on a blog. But today I want to talk about internet forums — specifically the Capital as Power Forum, which has recently relaunched.

The Capital as Power Forum Lives Again!

Yes you should read ‘Scale’. No, don’t believe everything it says.

For several years, people have been urging me to read Geoffrey West’s book

 Scale

, claiming that his work overlaps with my own. Having read the book, I largely agree (with some caveats below). Geoffrey West is a physicist who’s become famous for studying ‘scaling’ effects across life on Earth. What is ‘scaling’? It’s best explained through an example. Figure 1 (taken from West’s book) shows how animals’ metabolism varies with body mass.

A Review of Geoffrey West’s ‘Scale’

When it comes to income, economists ask the wrong question. So they get the wrong answer.

You can’t get the right answer when you ask the wrong question. This truism, I’ve come to believe, explains much of what is wrong with economics. When it comes to studying income, economists ask the wrong question. Economists, I argue, have mostly asked:

 is income fair

? The problem is that this is a

 moral

question, not a scientific one. It has no scientific answer.

Understanding Income: You Can’t Get There from Here

I look at the class battle between wage workers and creditors, and how this struggle relates to inflation.

Download: PDF | EPUB  I’ve been writing about inflation for the better part of three months. It’s been exhausting. Most of my time has been spent debunking misconceptions promoted by mainstream economists. Fortunately, I’m ready to move on.  What’s interesting about inflation is not the fact that prices rise.

Inflation! The Battle Between Creditors and Workers

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/money_yacht.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/money_yacht.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w,

When Stocks Go Up, Who Benefits?

I take a look at kinetic exchange models of income, and what we can learn from their mistakes.

Let’s talk

 econophysics

. If you’re not familiar, ‘econophysics’ is an attempt to understand economic phenomena (like the distribution of income) using the tools of statistical mechanics. The field has been around for a few decades, but has received little attention from mainstream economists. I think this neglect is a shame. As someone trained in both the natural and social sciences, I welcome physicists foray into economics.

Energizing Exchange: Learning from Econophysics’ Mistakes

I recount the difficult lives of a few revolutionary scientists. And I discuss some career tips for doing revolutionary science in a hostile world.

In this two-part post, I’ve been reflecting on the challenges of doing revolutionary science. (See Part 1 here.) I’ve argued that revolutionary science — the practice of questioning the core principles of an accepted theory — is difficult for a simple reason. To do it, you must fight the instinct to

 conform

. Conformity is the glue that holds human groups together. It’s what underpins the rule of law and the norms of trade.

The Challenges of Doing Revolutionary Science (Part 2)

Exciting news, friends! I’ve joined Patreon! What’s Patreon, you ask? Patreon is a crowdfunding site that gives creators a way to earn money. Here’s how it works. If you think my research is worth supporting, you can become a ‘patron’ of Economics from the Top Down. As a patron, you’ll donate a small amount monthly.

I’ve Joined Patreon

The ideal of science is to respect the evidence — to take nobody’s word for it. But this cuts against our social instinct to pay deference to members of our tribe.

If you ask the average person what ‘science’ is, they’ll probably answer something like ‘it’s what we know about the world’. To the lay person, ‘science’ is a body of facts. To the trained scientist, however, ‘science’ means something different. It’s not a body of knowledge. It’s a

 method

for determining what’s true and what’s not.

Tribalism in Science (and Economics)

Here are the 5 blogs that I read frequently.

Today I’m sharing a list of blogs that I read frequently. Although I’m ostensibly a political economist, only two of the five blogs below are about economics. The other three are about physics. These physics blogs, however, are interesting because of the sociological aspects of science that they explore. So even if you’re not interested in cosmology or particle physics, it’s worth checking out what these physicists have to say.

A Blog Reading List

The less free market we have, the more we use the phrase ‘free market’. George Orwell would be proud.

In The Growth of Hierarchy and the Death of the Free Market, I argued that economic development involves killing the free market. What was the evidence? As energy use increases, so does the relative number of managers. This growth of managers, I argued, indicates that economic development involves the growth of hierarchy. I showed that a simple model of hierarchy could explain why the number of managers increases with energy use.

As it Dies, We Talk About the ‘Free Market’ More

There is an exciting side of blogging that I want to explore here. Blogging can tell the

 story

behind research. This is something you don’t get in journals. Most scientific articles obey a formula that goes like this: Here is the question I asked. Here is how I answered the question. Here is what I found. This formula makes the article easy to read, since we know what to expect.

Groping in the Dark: The Untold Side of Research

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/forbes400_fade.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/forbes400_fade.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w,

How the Rich Get Richer

Are interest rates a neutral policy variable? Or are they a tool for class warfare? It turns out that the evidence speaks for itself. Here are three ways that higher interest rates redistribute income.

Download: PDF | EPUB [I]nterest rates are, first and foremost, a distributional variable that affects the income shares of various social groups. — Louis-Philippe Rochon &amp; Mark Setterfield (2007) When I read about monetary policy, I have a rule of thumb. Every time I see the phrase

 interest rate

, I replace it with the term

 wage rate

. Then I ask myself whether the discussion still makes sense. Often, it does not.

How Interest Rates Redistribute Income

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/counting_billionaires.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/counting_billionaires.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w,

Billionaires Are So Predictable

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="9520" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/rent_poor_cover/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=3000%2C2700&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="3000,2700" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="rent_poor_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=300%2C270&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/rent_poor_cover.png?fit=723%2C651&amp;ssl=1" />I test if the US housing crisis could be solved by taking money from the rich and handing it too the poor. Spoilers ... it would work.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/10/23/the-american-housing-crisis-a-theft-not-a-shortage/">The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Your browser does not support the audio tag. Download: PDF | EPUB | MP3 | WATCH VIDEO

 The U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million rental homes affordable and available to renters with extremely low incomes.

— National Low Income Housing Coalition If mainstream economics teaches us one lesson, it’s that when something becomes unaffordable, it’s because of a shortage. And that brings me to the US housing crisis.

The American Housing Crisis: A Theft, Not a Shortage

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7728" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/29/top-posts-of-2023/tmpaxgnsdau/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=1280%2C1280&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1280,1280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="tmpaxgnsdau" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/tmpaxgnsdau.png?fit=723%2C723&amp;ssl=1" />I spent the better part of 2023 debunking the idea that higher interest rates down-regulate inflation. Here were the top 5 posts.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/29/top-posts-of-2023/">Top Posts of 2023</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Well, another year of blogging is over. For me, it was a year of research themes. I spent the first half of 2023 debunking interest-rate orthodoxy. Then I spent the second half of the year studying the world’s billionaires. Here were the top 5 posts: Do High Interest Rates Reduce Inflation?

RECASP Back Catalogue Now in Full-Text HTML

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="8287" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/bitcoin_cover-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=2560%2C1707&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1707" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="bitcoin_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/bitcoin_cover-1.png?fit=723%2C482&amp;ssl=1" />Yes, the Bitcoin network uses loads of energy. But so does mainstream finance. So which system is more energy intensive? In this post, I do the math.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/">Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download:  PDF | EPUB  When it comes to Bitcoin, there’s one thing that almost everyone agrees on: the network sucks up a tremendous amount of energy. But from there, disagreement is the rule. For critics, Bitcoin’s thirst for energy is self-evidently bad — the equivalent of pouring gasoline in a hole and setting it on fire. But for Bitcoin advocates, the network’s energy gluttony is the necessary price of having a secure digital currency.

Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance?

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7988" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/padlock/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=1080%2C720&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1080,720" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="padlock" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/padlock.png?fit=723%2C482&amp;ssl=1" />I take a dive into the world of software and look at the problem of managing dependencies. From the Unix design, we've inherited many problems. Can we nix them with 'Nix'?
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/02/17/nixing-technological-lock-in/">Nixing Technological Lock In</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download: PDF | EPUB Tech development is often portrayed as an open road — a smooth freeway of continuous progress. But the truth is that the road of technology is more like a suburban street, paved with numerous unmarked dead ends. To see one of these dead end, look at

 roads

themselves. As a method for moving people, roads work well … until you fill them with millions of cars.

Nixing Technological Lock In

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="7699" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/desouza_cover-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=8184%2C6424&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="8184,6424" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="desouza_cover" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=300%2C235&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/desouza_cover-1.png?fit=723%2C568&amp;ssl=1" />Building on Regan Boychuk's work, I take a quantitative look at how newspapers in Canada's oilpatch censor the reporting of environmental journalist Mike De Souza.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/12/22/massaging-the-message-how-oilpatch-newspapers-censor-the-news/">Massaging the Message: How Oilpatch Newspapers Censor the News</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Download: PDF | EPUB In their book

 Manufacturing Consent

, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argue that the mainstream media functions largely as a propaganda arm for the state. When the war drum beats, the corporate media tows the government’s line, censoring facts that don’t fit the official narrative. Outside of war, media bias is typically less overt. But to the careful observer, it can still be discerned.

Massaging the Message: How Oilpatch Newspapers Censor the News

Tidyquant is a nifty R package for get stock-price data.

They say that knowledge is power. Well, in capitalism, knowledge is also money … but only if you keep it under lock and key. Hence, researchers who study capitalism are often faced with a dilemma: the best data is kept behind a hefty paywall. The only way to get access is if your institution pays for a subscription. And if you’re not lucky enough to work for a university, you’re out of luck.

Tidyquant: An Open-Access Tool for Studying the Stock Market

My thoughts on the state of corporate power in the US.

I recently had a lively Twitter debate with Jonathan Nitzan, Shimshon Bichler and Cory Doctorow

 1

about the future of big corporations in the United States. The debate was prompted by Doctorow’s piece ‘End of the line for Reaganomics’, which I reposted on capitalaspower.com. Doctorow argues that we may be witnessing a sea change in the way governments treat big corporations.

How Dominant are Big US Corporations?

A rapid-fire post about Nitzan and Bichler’s buy-to-build indicator.

Today I’m trying a different type of post — one that’s not a deep dive, but instead, a rapid-fire summary of an important topic. My inspiration comes from Cory Doctorow, a sci-fi author who runs an old-fashioned links blog that he syndicates across the internet. (At last count, it’s on pluralistic.net, Twitter, Mastodon, and Medium). I read Doctorow’s blog daily, as he writes consistently excellent commentary on political economy.

A Brief History of the Buy-to-Build Indicator

I crunch the numbers on COVID vaccines. No surprises … they’re going overwhelmingly to rich countries.

Around the world, rich countries are celebrating as their COVID numbers fall. Their success is no mystery — it’s because of a massive rollout of COVID vaccines. While we should celebrate the development of these vaccines, their

 deployment

highlights the tyrannies of capitalism. Most of the basic research for COVID vaccines was funded by the public. Yet their manufacture is controlled by Big Pharma.

The Quant Case for Open-Access COVID Vaccines

I take a detailed look at the quantitative ritual that orders our social world.

There’s something mysterious about finance. The symbols are arcane. The math is complex. The practitioners are impressively educated. And the stakes are high. All of this gives finance the veneer of higher truth — as if quants are uncovering a reality not accessible to the rest of us. In a sense they are. But the ‘reality’ is not what you think. When you look at stock-market numbers, they do point to a truth about the world.

The Ritual of Capitalization

Some exciting personal news. In July, I will be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at York University. I’ll be studying the hierarchical origins of income inequality. Some of you might be asking — what’s a ‘postdoc’? Well, it’s a position that universities invented in the 1970s to give PhD graduates a job while they waited for professorial positions.

Once More Into the Fire of Academia

What’s the most pernicious scientific idea ever? I’d give first prize to eugenics and second prize to human capital theory.

If there was an award for the most pernicious scientific idea ever, what theory should get first prize? I would vote for eugenics, a theory that claims we can ‘improve’ humanity through selective breeding. If there was a second prize, I’d give it to human capital theory.

The Rise of Human Capital Theory

Have humans always been egalitarian? The evolutionary evidence suggests not.

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762 In his epic 18th-century treatise

 Discourse on Inequality

, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that inequality is an ill of civilization, created by private property. If you roll back the clock on civilization, he claimed, you should also roll back inequality. Rousseau was probably both right and wrong.

The Deep History of Human Inequality

I explore the power struggle behind ‘free speech’.

They say that Americans love two things: freedom … and guns. The trouble with guns is obvious. The trouble with freedom is more subtle, and boils down to doublespeak. When a good old boy defends his ‘freedom’, there’s a good chance he has a hidden agenda. He doesn’t want freedom for everyone.

Free Speech For Me, Not You

Let’s move all textbooks to the Creative Commons.

Today a rant about

 textbooks

. Every year governments spend billions of dollars on public education, teaching students knowledge that was itself created by publicly funded research. Yet each year, university students must pay anew for this information by purchasing high-priced textbooks. It needn’t be this way. Most university textbooks are written by tenured (or tenure-track) professors.

Why Are Most Textbooks Still Proprietary?

I discuss the advantages of writing technical documents in plain text. And I give you resources to learn how to do it.

As a scientist, I spend much of my time writing. Over the years I’ve experimented with a panoply of writing tools. This week I thought I’d share what I’ve learned. While you can ultimately write on any device that records your words, a good tool makes writing less painful. For a lot of people,

 the

writing tool is Microsoft Word (or some similar word processor). If it works for you, great.

Why and How I Write Scientific Documents in Plain Text

This is the first of two essays written for (and supported by) the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society. These essays investigate the role that hierarchy plays in driving inequality and unsustainability. This piece introduces the facts of hierarchy.

Living the good life in a non-growth world: Investigating the role of hierarchy

A hellish year is over and a vaccine is rolling out. Let’s be thankful for science.

We’ve finally reached the end of 2020, a year that many people are happy to forget. In the history books, 2020 will be known for little besides the Covid pandemic. Fortunately, the end of this disaster is in sight. With multiple vaccines starting to roll out, it looks like 2021 will be a better year. Speaking of vaccines, I’ve been racking my brain to find things to be thankful for this holiday season. It’s not easy.

As 2020 Ends, Let’s Celebrate Science

Peak oil was all the rage a decade ago. Now nobody’s talking about it. The funny thing is, it’s still happening.

Do you remember peak oil? It was all the rage a decade ago. Now, almost no one is talking about it. The funny thing is, the problem never went away. If anything, it’s gotten worse. In this post, I take a deep dive into peak oil. I show you that the peak in the production of conventional crude oil isn’t some distant prospect.

Peak Oil Never Went Away

I built a bot that counts word frequency. Here’s what it says about the language in economics textbooks.

It’s been 20 years, but I still remember the feeling. It was a mix of curiosity and unease. I was curious because I was learning something new. But I was uneasy because something didn’t sit right. The place was Edmonton, Alberta, circa the year 2000. The situation? My first encounter with economics:

 Econ 101

. Interestingly, I can’t remember much of the course content.

Deconstructing Econospeak

Here’s a tale about empirical work that demonstrates a simple rule: the deeper you go, the harder it gets.

This post begins with a sigh. For the last month, I’ve been working on a project that analyzes word frequency in economics textbooks. I’d hoped to have the final write up done by now. But I don’t … for reasons explained here. I’m calling this post ‘Working with Google Ngrams’. But even if you’re not interested in ngrams (i.e. word frequency), there’s useful information here.

Working With Google Ngrams: A Data-Wrangling Tale

Exciting news!

 Capital as Power

— the seminal text written by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler — is now available for free as both an epub and online book. Full disclosure: the typesetter was yours truly. What’s

 Capital as Power

? And why did I make a free ebook version? Read on to find out. You must unlearn what you have learned

 1

I don’t talk much on this blog about my personal journey.

Free Capital as Power Ebook

The effects of class struggle, it seems, are written in the most unlikely of places: the

 stock market

.

It was a Thursday in August when all hell broke loose. The place was Logan County, West Virginia. The year was 1921. Over the next week, one million rounds of ammunition would be fired. Up to a hundred people were killed. All told, it was the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War. Yet you’ve probably never heard of it. That’s because the battle was a

 labor dispute

. It was called the Battle of Blair Mountain.

How the History of Class Struggle is Written on the Stock Market

In 1957, Herbert Simon proposed that CEO pay had a simple explanation: it stemmed largely from rank in a hierarchy. His model was largely forgotton. Here’s a second look.

Last fall, I wrote a short article for The Mint Magazine about how income relates to hierarchy. The Mint, if you’re not familiar, does great work promoting pluralist thinking in economics. Check out their on-going Festival for Change — a festival devoted to building a better economy. Back to my aricle. I submitted a manuscript called ‘A Second Look at Hierarchy’. It got published in The Mint as Down to Size. Here’s my original manuscript.

A Second Look at Hierarchy

The US is in uncharted territory. Never before have stocks been so high relative to wages. Here’s what it means.

If you listen carefully, you can hear Jeff Bezos getting richer. There’s the sound again. Another billion in Bezos’ coffers. Let’s put some numbers to this sound of money. Since 2017, Bezos’ net worth has grown by about $4 million per hour — roughly 500,000 times the US minimum wage.

 1

This accumulation of wealth would be absurd during normal times.

Stocks Are Up. Wages Are Down. What Does it Mean?

IQ tests have always bothered me. They claim to measure ‘general intelligence’. I think this is bullshit.

Donald Trump took an IQ test … you’ll never guess what he scored! Apologies. That was my attempt at clickbait.

 1

Now that I’ve hooked you, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. No, not Donald Trump. Let’s talk about

 IQ

. For as long as I can remember I’ve been skeptical of measures of ‘intelligence’. The whole procedure rubbed me the wrong way.

Why ‘General Intelligence’ Doesn’t Exist

I’ve always been baffled why ‘modern monetary theory’ is called a

 theory

. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way. As far as theories of money go, I think modern monetary theory (MMT for short) is the correct one. But having a correct theory of money is a bit like having a correct theory of traffic lights. Traffic lights (like money) are a social convention.

Why Isn’t Modern Monetary Theory Common Knowledge?

The rise and fall of empires is written in the language of energy. Let’s have a look at this ‘energy book’ and see why America won’t be ‘great’ again.

They called him the

 ‘Little Emperor’

. Romulus Augustus — better known as Romulus ‘Augustulus’ (‘Little Augustus’) — was the last Western Roman Emperor. He assumed the throne at the age of 16 during a period of unprecedented strife. There had been 8 emperors in the previous 20 years. Like his predecessors, the Little Emperor’s reign was short. It lasted less than a year.

Why America Won’t Be ‘Great’ Again

I dissect how neoclassical economics treats (neglects) natural resources, and discuss ways to fix it.

If it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is in principle no “problem”. The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources.

— Robert Solow, 1974 In the distant future, aliens come to Earth. They find a planet devoid of life. Looking closer, the aliens see that life on Earth

 was

once abundant, but was wiped out by a mass extinction.

Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?

I discuss my research on income and hierarchy with Steve Keen and Phil Dobbie

Last week, Steve Keen and Phil Dobbie were kind enough to invite me on their Debunking Economics Podcast. We discussed my research on income inequality and hierarchy. You can listen to the episode here: An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. You can also listen at Steve’s patreon page. Some back story.

Guest on the Debunking Economics Podcast

Sometimes scientists fall victim to a base human instinct — the need to conform. When they do, we need revolutionary scientists to put science back on track.

Science is miraculously improbable. To work, it must fight against a deep human instinct — our desire to

 conform

. As social animals, humans are built to do as others do. Why? Presumably because it’s advantageous. In our evolutionary past, conformist groups beat out non-conformist groups. And so here we sit, a conformist species.

The Challenges of Doing Revolutionary Science (Part 1)

Politics determine government size, right? Yes and no. I show here that there’s more to government size than just politics.

Governments are different than firms, right? Perhaps not. In Part 1 of this series, I argued that when it comes to size, governments behave like they’re ‘just another firm’. In this post, I’m going to extend the evidence. I’ll first show you that as economies develop, governments get bigger. Then I’ll explain this trend using the ‘government-as-firm’ model.

What if the Government is Just Another Firm? (Part 2)

Governments are different than firms, right? Maybe not. When it comes to size, governments behave like they’re just another firm.

I have a confession. I’m a political economist by trade, but I spend most of my time reading outside my discipline. I read about physics, cosmology, biology … the list goes on. Basically, if it’s not political economy, I read it.  Usually this reading doesn’t relate to my own research. I do it because I love science. But every so often lightning strikes and I discover a scientific idea that begs to be applied to political economy.

What if the Government is Just Another Firm? (Part 1)

It’s a perennial problem in science. How do you know when someone’s a crank?

I confess that I have a recurring nightmare. In it, I realize that everything I’ve ever written about economics is wrong. Neoclassical economics is not, as I’ve repeatedly claimed, a pile of bullshit. In this nightmare, neoclassical economics is

 correct

. And as a strident critic of neoclassical theory, I realize the horrible truth.

 I’m a crank

! I wake up in a cold sweat, wondering if I’m wasting my life.

How Do You Spot a Crank?

Wages correlate with firms’ sales per worker. Does this mean that productivity explains wages? The answer is no.

Does productivity explain income? I asked this question in a previous post. My answer was a bombastic

 no

. In this post, I’ll dig deeper into the reasons that productivity doesn’t explain income. I’ll focus on wages. The evidence Let’s start with the evidence trumpeted as proof that productivity explains wages. Looking across firms, we find that sales per worker correlates with average wages.

Productivity Does Not Explain Wages

Income in the US military follows the power ethos — to each according to their social influence.

In How Hierarchy Can Mediate the Returns to Education I examined the pay structure of the US military. I found that hierarchical rank is (by far) the strongest determinant of military pay. Here I want to show you that there is a regularity to military pay. In the US military, income is proportional to the number of subordinates one controls.

The Power Ethos in the US Military

<img width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=800%2C800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="8598" data-permalink="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/earth_backfire/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?fit=3000%2C2700&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="3000,2700" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="earth_backfire" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?fit=300%2C270&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/earth_backfire.png?fit=723%2C651&amp;ssl=1" />Efficiency isn't a tool for conserving energy --- it's a catalyst for technological sprawl.
The post <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/">A Tour of the Jevons Paradox: How Energy Efficiency Backfires</a> appeared first on <a href="https://economicsfromthetopdown.com">Economics from the Top Down</a>.

Your browser does not support the audio tag. Download: PDF | EPUB | MP3 | WATCH VIDEO [R]esource productivity can — and should — grow fourfold. … Thus we can live twice as well — yet use half as much. —

 Factor Four

, 1997 When it comes to our sustainability problems, striving for greater resource efficiency seems like an obvious solution.

A Tour of the Jevons Paradox: How Energy Efficiency Backfires

For all that it purports to say, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fails to explain anything relevant about the world.

I’m reposting here an article that Erald Kolasi and I wrote for Mint Magazine. The article discusses the problems with ‘real’ GDP and possible alternatives for measuring economic activity. The published version is under a paywall, so I’m posting our (unabridged) manuscript here.

Why We Should Abandon Real GDP As A Measure of Economic Activity

Has the digital revolution made wealth non-material?

Has wealth gone digital? Both critics and cheerleaders of capitalism claim it has. The critics see non-material wealth as a problem. Digital wealth, they say, is

 fictitious

. It’s lost touch with reality. The cheerleaders of capitalism see the same thing as a boon. Non-material wealth, they say, will decouple the economy from physical constraints. So the economy can grow forever! Which side is right? Neither, in my opinion.

Economics from the Top Down

In the Beginning … There Were Loops

Productivity and Income … Again

Guest on the Debunking Economics Podcast

Economic Development and the Death of the Free Market

The Free Market as a Double Lie

No More Ads

Biophysical Economics and the Coronavirus Pandemic

One Year of Blogging

The Challenges of Doing Revolutionary Science (Part 2)

The Challenges of Doing Revolutionary Science (Part 1)

I’ve Joined Patreon