My recent article on energy and the economy (“Economic theory and the Real Great Contraction“) is but part of a significant recent flush of discussion about how economics has failed us, and what we should be doing about it. For those who are interested in the subject, I recommend these additional recent items.

The Role of Energy in Economic Growth

Ecological economist David Stern summarizes his recent paper,  ‘The Role of Energy in Economic Growth’, for The Oil Drum.

On the cusp of collapse: complexity, energy and the globalised economy

A long treatise by physicist and human systems ecologist David Korowicz, which covers much material that will be familiar to longtime peakists, but which still offers some very useful insights on the problems of complexity and the unlikelihood that the Real Great Contraction will be slow and steady.

Countdown to $100 Oil – No Normal Recession

Geologist Euan Mearns outlines the relationship between energy and the economy from a UK perspective, with some great charts.

Modern Economics Has Failed Us, Says Economist Graeme Maxton

In an interview on Yahoo’s The Daily Ticker with Aaron Task, economist Graeme Maxton discusses the problems of energy and debt (very much along the lines of my argument) and concludes that economics has failed us, and economic growth is over.

Peak Oil from the Ivory Tower

Dr. Dan Bednarz contemplates the relationship between energy and the economy,  and the implications of the  end of growth from a public health perspective with some pithy comments, e.g., “all the major institutions we were brought up to count upon to be of aid and sustenance in fact are clutching the values, beliefs and language of growth culture that peak oil negates.”

Peak Oil and the Great Recession

Economist James Hamilton, a great contributor to the study of economics and energy and one of the few economists who really get the implications of peak oil, has a new paper out, summarized today in Mother Jones by Kevin Drum.

Energy and the Wealth of Nations – Understanding the Biophysical Economy

A new textbook on biophysical economics as an alternative to neoliberal economics, by Dr. Charles Hall.