Abstract
Just before his death in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish mathematician and astronomer, published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), one of the most important books in the history of science. By showing that the sun—rather than the earth—was at the center of the universe (actually the solar system, but this understanding came later), Copernicus overturned a thousand years of thought based on the writings of Claudius Ptolemy. This revelation helped usher in the modern era by restructuring human understanding of the cosmos and humanity’s place in it. Ptolemy’s earth-centric viewpoint required the development of very complicated models of celestial movements that had to be continually modified to fit new knowledge. Until Copernicus showed that the earth-centered view of the universe was wrong, Ptolemy was given almost legendary status. Is there a parallel with modern economics?
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Notes
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There are numerous books about the shortcomings of contemporary economics. Herman Daly has written numerous books about steady state economics. The following two summarize many of his ideas. H.E. Daly. 2007. Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development Selected Essays of Herman Daly. Edward Elgar, Northampton MA. 270 p.; H.E. Daly. 2014. From Uneconomic Growth to a Steady-State Economy. Edward Elgar, Northampton MA. 253 p.; Kenneth Boulding. 1968. Beyond Economics. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 302 p.; Tim Jackson. 2009. Prosperity Without Growth Economics for a Finite Planet. Earthscan, Washington DC. 276 p.; Michael Hudson. 2012. The Bubble and Beyond. ISLET, Dresden. 481 p.; Brain Czech. 2013. Supply Shock. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Camada. 367 p.; Charles Hall and Kent Klitgaard. 2012. Energy and the Wealth of Nations. Springer, New York. 407 p.
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Hall and Klitgaard, 2012, ibid.
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Hall, C.A.S., King, C. 2011. Relating financial and energy return on investment. Sustainability, Special Issue on EROI, 1810–1832.
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John Greer. 2011. The Wealth of Nature. New Society Publishers, British Columbia, Canada.
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William Nordhaus, Science magazine’s report on (Sept 14, 1991, p. 1206) of a National Academy of Sciences study on climate change. Later, Nordhaus’ logic was repeated by two more distinguished economists: in 1995 by Oxford economist Wilfred Beckerman, and in 1997 by Nobel Laureate in economics Thomas Schelling, see Herman Daily’s essay on page 188 in his book: Herman Daly. Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development – Selected Essays from Herman Daly. Edward Elgar, Northhampton MA. 2007.; GDP, Gross Domestic Product, and GNP, Gross National Product, are roughly equivalent measures of economic production.
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E. F. Schumacher. 2011. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. John Greer in The Wealth of Nature discusses Schumacher’s book in great detail.
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Note here that the circular flow model of the economy discussed earlier fits in the box called “Economy.”
- 10.
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Hamilton, J.D., 2008. Daily monetary policy shocks and new home sales. J. Monetary Econ. 55 (7), 1171–1190.; Hall and Klitgaard 2012. ibid.
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At $50 per barrel, the new “low” price for oil is more than double the average inflation adjusted price for oil from 1881 to 1971 of about $20 per barrel and significantly higher than the 1986 to 2003 average of $30 per barrel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_of_oil.
- 14.
Hamilton, J.D., 2008. Ibid.
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Reynolds, D.B., 2002. ibid; Cobb, K., 2008. ibid.
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Day, J.W., Hall, C. (2016). Moving Away from a Ptolemic View of the Human Economy. In: America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions. Copernicus, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3243-6_9
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