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THE OTHER OIL SHOCK Asymptotic Short Sightedness I love "asymptotic," the word. Maybe most people say "through the roof" or "scary growth" or "to the moon!" (Thank you Ralph Cramdon .) Here are some asymptotic graphics: See how those lines shoot up, faster and faster as time goes by? That's asymptotic, baby. Any fool can see that eventually they go almost straight up, right past disaster into the catastrophere . These are from a NYTimes online article about another pending disaster resulting from short term thinking: "Hydrocarbons bad. Biofuels good." Never mind the inevitable impact on the cost of food. Never mind that irreplaceable forests will be destroyed to plant more palm oil trees. Never mind that more people will starve and the net effect on the environment will be negative. Never mind thinking a little ahead of the nose on your face. (I guess I'm angry. Dang.) You faithful readers of the Duffst...

Here’s another of my fav issues, the stupidity of the ethanol craze. This from the Christian Science Monitor , one of my favorite newspapers. ATLANTA and BOSTON - A gallon of milk in Birmingham, Ala., is expected to cost $4.50 this summer, perhaps more. At Wetzel's Market in Glen Rock, Pa., the New York strip steaks that were on sale for $4.99 a pound last Fourth of July will be $6.99 this year. In Boston, some shoppers report checkout prices on certain items that are 30 percent higher now than last summer. "Prices are incredible," says Suzanna Wyman, shopping Monday at Shaw's Supermarket in Boston's Back Bay. "Milk, I heard, is going up even more.... I love fresh peppers and vegetables, but they're too much. Cereal is very expensive compared to what you used to be able to get it for." The reason people are smarting: Inflation in grocery aisles is up by more in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2006. That means food co...

Starvation by Biofuels Ah, the absolute certainty of the Law of Unintended Consequences. In a nutshell: Food prices are rising because – surprise! – the demand for corn, soy and sugarcane/beets to make ethanol and biodiesel is driving up the cost of these basic food commodities. Quoting from The Wall Street Journal (my favorite newspaper): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117608539258763747.html?mod=world_news_whats_news Soaring prices for farm goods, driven in part by demand for crop-based fuels, are pushing up the price of food world-wide and unleashing a new source of inflationary pressure. The rise in food prices is already causing distress among consumers in some parts of the world -- especially relatively poor nations like India and China. If the trend gathers momentum, it could contribute to slower global growth by forcing consumers to spend less on other items or spurring central banks to fight inflation by raising interest rates. …And, on the more human side:...