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« Home again, home again; jiggity jog | Main | Does nothing work right any more? »

December 18, 2009

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Rajiv

George,

It would be interesting to see your models hooked up with Steve Keen's See Circuit Theory and the state of Post Keynesian Economics.
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/12/16/circuit-theory-and-the-state-of-post-keynesian-economics/

and also some of Frank Rotering's work at http://www.needsandlimits.org

Rajiv

Also I wondered if you were familiar with the real-world economics review and the post-autistic economics network http://www.paecon.net/

George Mobus

Hi Rajiv.

Thanks for the links. I will take a look sometime this week. With the holiday bearing down on me, I might not have time to do a thorough review until next week though.

The term post-autistic economics is most intriguing!

George

George Mobus

Rajiv,

Thanks again for the links. I've had a bit of time to follow up.

The post-autistic economics stuff is fascinating. I had run into heterodox economics because of my delving into ecological economics. Also, biophysical econ would fit into the category of "not neoclassical econ".

As for circuit theory I watched some of the video on his web site. My impression (would take much closer attention to details to come to any conclusion) is that he is talking about money creation in a closed-loop system but without reference to external inputs (e.g. work creating real assets). This sounds a lot like the closed system approach of neoclassical econ where there are just firms and households (his includes bankers) that transact without concern for limits from nature.

But interesting to see alternative ideas being explored within 'not neoclassical' econ.

George

Rajiv

George,

Keen's analysis depends on a study of credit flows, following Minsky's work. Neo classical economics depends upon equilibrium analysis as opposed to the dynamic study of the flows. In my view his models add much -- however, as you point out they are missing much of the real world material constraints. My thought was that both your models might serve to enhance when taken together. many of his lectures are avaiable on his website - http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/lectures/

And of course, there are other ways to look at the world -- than the view that sees profit maximization as the ultimate goal of human society

George Mobus

Rajiv,

I will be taking more looks at Keen and the whole post-autistic economy stuff some more.

Couldn't agree more with your last sentence!

George

sgouris

George, this is interesting work. You may be interested in taking a look at this paper: http://doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.11.049
on using energy as a parallel currency.It certainly seems to complement your work in some ways and would be interesting to explore how an energy currency would evolve as EROEI worsens.

Sincerely
Sgouris

George Mobus

Sgouris,

Thanks. The link doesn't seem to work for me.

I will mention that there have been a number of proposals to link monetary currency and energy flow. Howard Odum, the Technocrats, even my own poor efforts (see: http://questioneverything.typepad.com/question_everything/2008/03/what-is-money-r.html )

My later proposal is that the money supply should be based on the total exergy (net energy available to do useful work) which would shrink as our energy supplies shrink, a la this post. That is, of course, a hard pill to swallow!

George

Belstaff Abbigliamento UOMO

So cute! I already like you on FB and also get your posts on Google Reader. :)

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