Ed. note: MasterResource is closely associated with the worldview and example of Julian Simon (1932–1998). But a second influence would certainly be that of economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), born on this day 140 years ago.
Below, Robert Bidinotto’s “Von Mises: A Final Salute.” Unbound! Boston: Individuals for a Rational Society 2, no. 1 (September-October 1973): 1–2 is reprinted with permission of the author.
A surprisingly fair obituary in the New York Times (October 11, 1973) follows that of Bidinotto below. I then conclude with a final observation.
“The scope and content of von Mises’ work boggle the imagination. He was easily the greatest economist of this century, and the list of his original achievements in that science rivals that of anyone since Adam Smith.”
Our age may well be labeled by future historians as “the Age of Mediocrity.”…
Continue Reading“Aluminum smelting requires uninterrupted power supply for production, which can be met only through in-house captive power supplies. The reduction in coal supplies, without any advance notice, has brought the industry to a standstill as it has been left with no time to devise any mitigation plan to continue sustainable operations.” (Aluminum Association of India, below)
Sometimes it’s not easy to follow up your words with actions. This is particularly true when a large economy based on fossil fuels is threatened by an anti-energy mentality trying to substitute dilute, intermittent energies for dense, reliable ones.
This incongruency has hit India, the world’s third largest emitter that is predicted to register the highest energy demand growth in the next 20 years.
A Fossil-less Utopia?
Nations around the world are under pressure to promise unprecedented cuts in fossil fuel consumption at the upcoming climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland (COP26).…
Continue Reading“Energy density is the silliest of all. Yours is ‘dense’ energy that we have to pay for, every day, forever, except that it eventually runs out, vs. energy that arrives for free, forever, and never runs out.” (Bryan, below)
“Perhaps wind and solar are not renewable energies because usable surface area is finite and the infrastructure otherwise wears out–or the technology is too expensive to even compete as a ‘nonrenewable.’ Solar is not ‘renewable’ for many hours of the day, right? Wind too.” (Bradley, below)
The term resourceship has been coined to understand why ‘depletable’ resources can an do expand over time. In fact, when it comes to oil, gas, and coal, such expansion has been for all time. Only nationalization, price controls, and other destructive government policies can reverse the natural progress of human ingenuity applied to minerals (as to non-minerals) in the real world.…
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