BIG INCENTIVES:

Interview: Michael Spence: The Stanford economist talks to Newsweek’s R. M. Schneiderman about American inequality, the Chinese economy, and how to score a Nobel. (R.M. Schneiderman, 6/06/11, Daily Beast)

Is this battle for resources a zero-sum game?

No, unless you assume that technology is stagnant. The high prices are part of the solution as well as part of the problem. To have a future that works, we’re going to have to live with considerably higher energy efficiencies. High prices create pretty big incentives, especially if they stay relatively high. There are a lot of alternative energies that become economic with $60 to $70 barrels of oil.

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