Energy Economics
Energy Budgeting by Chris Martenson
Crash Course: Chapter 17b
Chapter 17b - Energy Budgeting: Petroleum has supplied the surplus energy that has allowed for social complexity, industrialization, and the modern conveniences that we enjoy. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that in the future our supply of surplus energy will decline due to the fact that increasing amounts of energy will be required to produce new energy. When poor net energy (ERoEI) returns are paired with peak oil production, it points to a return to a less complex society.
Is Our Monetary Structure a Systemic Cause for Financial Instability?
Evidence and Remedies from Nature > see document attached
Abstract
Fundamental laws govern all complex flow systems, including natural ecosystems, economic and financial systems. Natural ecosystems are practical exemplars of sustainability: enduring, vital, adaptive. The sustainability of any complex flow system can be measured with a single metric as an emergent property of its structural diversity and interconnectivity; it requires a balance in emphasis between efficiency and resilience. The urgent message for economics from nature is that the monoculture of national currencies, justified on the basis of market efficiency, generates structural instability in our global financial system. Economic sustainability therefore requires diversification in types of currencies, specifically through complementary currencies.
Key Words
Sustainability, Efficiency, Resilience, Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Complexity Theory, Financial Instability, Economic Sustainability, Complementary Currencies.