F. A. Hayek made many contributions to the social sciences in his lifetime. This post shares his thoughts about natural resources–really mineral resources–from his 1960 book, The Constitution of Liberty. His thinking is contained in the section, “Conservation of Natural Resources,” (pp. 367–71).
The question Hayek addresses is whether self-interested free-market decisions overuse important, even ‘depletable,’ resources, leaving less for posterity from an economic viewpoint. Hayek argues against what might be called conservationism, or conservation for its own sake where present-value analysis does not apply.
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Hayek employed familiar reasoning to explain how privately owned resources had a capital or salable value, which was particularly relevant to mineral deposits for which, ceteris paribus, present production meant less future production. [1] In his words:
… Continue ReadingIf the owner can get a higher return by selling to those who want to conserve than by exploiting the particular resource himself, he will do so.
“There were times when Lay’s lobbying seemed at odds with his oft-stated belief in free-market solutions. A classic example was Enron’s dependence on such government agencies as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank, which provided loans and loan guarantees for development project in the third world.”
“Like most Wall Street frenzies, the international development craze was wildly overhyped…. [S]ome of Enron International’s assets were almost comically awful, and others were fields of dreams.”
– Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, The Smartest Guys in the Room (below)
A best-selling Enron book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, The Smartest Guys in the Room (Penguin: 2003), told of Enron’s many interactions with government. Their treatment of the subject is only the beginning, however. My forthcoming book, Political Enron: A Business History (Part I: 2016), will chronicle Enron’s unprecedented rent-seeking as a warning about the perils of a mixed economy where the worst can get on top.…
Continue Reading“The final analysis is: Lots of jet fuel expended but not much accomplished in getting the public alarmed enough to make themselves energy poorer. The public is not listening for good reason. They have been hearing the same thing since 1988 (27 years) and the data does not support a present or future crisis.”
To be sure, if a politician is barking about global warming, he or she has little to say about the real issues that concern Americans, from economic progress to federal budget deficit reduction. But yelp they must; the science has been going away from climate alarmism, and the economy is getting no boost from government-enabled, inferior energies (quite the opposite).
In an effort to stir up support for an economy-shrinking treaty from the UN Conference of the Parties-21 (COP-21) meeting in Paris this December, President Obama went on a whirlwind one-week tour promoting the global warming scare with many speeches, photo-ops, and newspaper columns.…
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