Michael Roberts, a resource economist at North Carolina State University, takes a look at what he calls ‘ a pretty rapid slowdown in productivity growth’.
http://greedgreengrains.blogspot.com/2011/05/declining-crop-yields.html
Author: rickpace1
Jeremy Grantham
A very important analysis by Jeremy Grantham.
Summary of the Summary: The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.
For Rhode Island folks – the one’s I’ve been badgering about real estate appraisal – I’d suggest we approach real estate values in terms of the broader, data-driven analysis that is Grantham’s bent – research on historical trends in not only real estate, but relevant commodities, transportation, food economies, energy, climate change (sea level rise), and population demographics.
Ain’t No Grave Gonna’ Hold My Body Down
I heard a wonderful NPR commentary this afternoon on Brother Claude Ely. Brother Ely was a Pentecostal preacher from Virginia who for many years lived, sang, and evangelized in Kentucky.
When he was twelve years old he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and told he was terminally ill. A family member gave him a guitar (although he had never played) and he had soon composed ‘Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down.’
It is a hopeful song (at least to my Kentucky sensibilities).
The Future of Food
Excerpts from a conference on May 4th at Georgetown University
http://washingtonpostlive.com/conferences/food/archive
I would particularly recommend two of the excerpts (unfortunately not the entire speech) – Prince Charles and Wendell Berry.
Prince Charles mentions a report – International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development
The Status of U.S. Fish Habitat 2010
Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
New predictions for Sea Level rise should be of great concern to the world.
The Great Ephemeralization of the U.S. Economy
I’ve been doing some research on what our society is ‘spending money on’. I also follow GDP (and some other proposed economy measuring methods)… realizing GDP is a very strange measure of the US economy (using the Webster’s concept of ‘economy’ as how we manage our society).
This is an interesting article on GDP…and what is called ‘ephemeralization’ of the economy. It is a very important social concept. The article points out that soon less than 10% of ‘the economy’ will be agriculture and manufacturing.
http://timothyblee.com/2011/04/26/the-great-ephemeralization/
This says to me our use of money is rapidly losing meaning (and, therefore, value and knowledge education to younger generations)!…which is an enormous epistemological problem for our society.
America and Small Business
WASHINGTON – August 3 – Contrary to popular perceptions, the United States has a much smaller small-business sector (as a share of total employment) than other countries at a comparable level of economic development, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) . The CEPR researchers observe that the undersized U.S. small business sector is consistent with the view that high health care costs discourage small business formation, since start-ups in other countries can tap into government-funded health care systems.
“We think of ourselves as offering the most business-friendly environment in the world, but almost every other rich country in the world does a much better job creating and sustaining small businesses,” said John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR and an author of the report.
The study, “An International Comparison of Small Business Employment,” reviews the most recently available, internationally comparable data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to measure the share of small businesses in 22 rich democracies. The report finds:
The United States has the second lowest share of self-employed workers (7.2 percent).
The United States has among the lowest shares of employment in small businesses in manufacturing – only 11.1 percent of the U.S. manufacturing workforce is in enterprises with fewer than 20 employees. Eighteen other rich countries have a higher share of manufacturing employment in small enterprises, including Germany (13.0 percent), Sweden (14.4 percent), and France (18.0 percent).
U.S. small businesses are particularly weak in high-tech. The United States, for example, has the second lowest share of computer-related service employment in firms with fewer than 100 employees and the third lowest share of research and development related employment in firms with fewer than 100 employees.
“In the rest of the world, entrepreneurs who want to start a new business don’t have to think twice about where they and their employees will get health insurance,” said Schmitt. “In the United States, talented people thinking about starting a new business often have to choose between following their dream or going without health insurance.”
Richard Pace 