Money and Finance
- The Importance Of An Above-average Sales Organization...
From Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits: In this competitive age, the products or services of few companies are so outstanding that they will sell to their maximum potentialities if they are not expertly merchandised. It is the making of a sale that...
- This Is The Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading
“There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil,” Bill Gates wrote this summer. That’s quite an endorsement—and it gave a jolt of fame to Smil, a professor emeritus of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba....
- Meet Vaclav Smil, The Canadian Polymath Whose Books Bill Gates Is Racing To Read
A few weeks ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates published his personal summer reading list on his blog Gates Notes. Of the eight titles, two are by the same author, a Canadian professor emeritus you’ve probably never heard of: Vaclav...
- Uralkali Opens $20b Freely Traded Potash Market (video)
July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Blomberg's Ryan Chilcote reports that potash supplier Uralkali announced an end to production restrictions, opening up the $20 billion industry in a change that may lower prices as much as 33 percent. He speaks on Bloomberg...
- Lloyd's 360 Risk Insight Report: Sustainable Energy Security
Found via Claire Barnes. The report, produced in co-operation with Chatham House, explores the key global energy trends over the next 10 to 20 years and examines the major implications for business both in terms of future resource constraints and the...
Money and Finance
The Jevons Paradox
I haven't read this yet, but if Vaclav Smil and Joseph Tainter both approve, it's a model worth having in one's head.
Link to book: The Myth of Resource Efficiency: The Jevons Paradox
'This book is the most comprehensive attempt at dismantling the efficiency myth: it examines the subject from a variety of practical and theoretical perspectives, and while it may leave an unsuspecting reader rather depressed it leaves all of us better prepared to face the reality.' -Vaclav Smil, FRSC, Distinguished Professor, University Of Manitoba, Canada
Description:
'The Jevons Paradox', which was first expressed in 1865 by William Stanley Jevons in relation to use of coal, states that an increase in efficiency in using a resource leads to increased use of that resource rather than to a reduction. This has subsequently been proved to apply not just to fossil fuels, but other resource use scenarios. For example, doubling the efficiency of food production per hectare over the last 50 years (due to the Green Revolution) did not solve the problem of hunger. The increase in efficiency increased production and worsened hunger because of the resulting increase in population. The implications of this in today's world are substantial. Many scientists and policymakers argue that future technological innovations will reduce consumption of resources; the Jevons Paradox explains why this may be a false hope. This is the first book to provide a historical overview of the Jevons Paradox, provide evidence for its existence and apply it to complex systems. Written and edited by world experts in the fields of economics, ecological economics, technology and the environment, it explains the myth of efficiency and explores its implications for resource usage (particularly oil). It is a must-read for policymakers, natural resource managers, academics and students concerned with the effects of efficiency on resource use.
- The Importance Of An Above-average Sales Organization...
From Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits: In this competitive age, the products or services of few companies are so outstanding that they will sell to their maximum potentialities if they are not expertly merchandised. It is the making of a sale that...
- This Is The Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading
“There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil,” Bill Gates wrote this summer. That’s quite an endorsement—and it gave a jolt of fame to Smil, a professor emeritus of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba....
- Meet Vaclav Smil, The Canadian Polymath Whose Books Bill Gates Is Racing To Read
A few weeks ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates published his personal summer reading list on his blog Gates Notes. Of the eight titles, two are by the same author, a Canadian professor emeritus you’ve probably never heard of: Vaclav...
- Uralkali Opens $20b Freely Traded Potash Market (video)
July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Blomberg's Ryan Chilcote reports that potash supplier Uralkali announced an end to production restrictions, opening up the $20 billion industry in a change that may lower prices as much as 33 percent. He speaks on Bloomberg...
- Lloyd's 360 Risk Insight Report: Sustainable Energy Security
Found via Claire Barnes. The report, produced in co-operation with Chatham House, explores the key global energy trends over the next 10 to 20 years and examines the major implications for business both in terms of future resource constraints and the...