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by spurgu 1973 days ago
Another mind flip: the scarce resource isn't labor - but energy.

Edit: A gallon of oil is equivalent to roughly 400 hours of human labor. Manual work is nothing compared to the energy contained in fossil fuels (or external energy sources in general). An argument could be made that the economy is in decline due to this, that the sources of fossil fuels are getting more expensive. Most of the cheap sources have been used up already. There is still a lot of oil left, but it's a lot more expensive (offshore, fracking) to extract than it used to, and it's getting worse.
3 comments
platz 1973 days ago
Mark Blyth on MMT:

https://youtu.be/2ONGvkAoOI0?t=1550

- it only applies to the US

- depends on having a hegemonic currency (i.e. everyone else earns in your currency and has to convert it, so that you can run a deficit and others supply the capital to fill it)

- contingent on control of the house, senate, and presidency, for about 3 terms in a row, to do all the things you want to do (in the MMT program)

- though sure, we could spend more on stuff we care about; we're not at "capacity" yet.

- you've already got a bond market in the US... why do do we need to re-invent everything in the world when the bond market allows you to already do it?

- hardly any other country actually sets their own monetary policy because the dollar is so dominant. When the fed goes up or down, it's effect is global.

- since every country has to import, if you print a lot of money, you'll get inflation through exchange rates & the import channel

Haven't listened to this one yet: https://youtu.be/NfKiW0Gfn04

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drivebycomment 1973 days ago
What do you mean by "economy is in decline" ? And, on what basis do you claim fossil fuel is getting more expensive ? The oil price hasn't gone up significantly over the past decades. The cost of electricity, adjusted for inflation, hasn't gone up.
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spurgu 1972 days ago
There are many ways GDP is being "padded" (by excluding certain liabilities for example), things like unemployment numbers as well. The "true" economy has been stagnating or in a downward trend for at least a decade already.

And the actual cost (EROI) of extracting fossil fuels isn't necessarily (directly) tied to consumer prices.

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imtringued 1971 days ago
Renewable energy is cheaper, so cheap that some people on HN sarcastically suggested to use renewable energy to extract oil from tar sands.
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