Smoke & Monetary Policy

On Tuesday I had a conversation with a few Senior Executives in the Department of the Interior about how to solve the Peak Oil problem--and we all came to the same conclusion: there is a structural block to the solution to this problem, because to do so would require massive and immediate investment that would not pay dividends for at least 10 years--longer than the 2, 4, and occasionally 6 or 8 year cycles in American politics that prescribe our national time-horizon. It just isn't politically realistic to back a project that won't pay off in time for the next relevant election cycle--even if you could find politicians that would be willing to sacrifice their own re-election for the greater good, they would still be hamstringed by the unavailability of the campaign funding on which they require, and would likely lose in the next election to a candidate who is promising a short-term benefit... We're structurally short-sighted, which goes right along with my general thesis that the structure of our institutions, much more than the individuals within them, is the real root of our problems.

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