Reply #41: Which is to say - the economy stays at this level [View All]

[bhikkhu]

because oil isn't going down. You can blame speculators, but the bigger factor is worldwide supply and demand. And the big factor putting a "floor" on oil prices is the cost of production - the easy oil really is gone, as the saying goes, and the production that is replacing it is much more expensive to get at and to refine.

Which leaves the problem - what do we do if the economy won't grow? A steady-state economy actually has much to recommend it, and is well worth thinking about as a goal, in fact.