The Age of Scarcity?

The world is facing a surfeit of scarcity. The emergence of new economic heavyweights like China and India has increased global demand, even as many observers warn that past development has left the world’s resources dangerously depleted. These arguments, combined with alarming increases in food and energy prices, have led some to believe that Malthus was right after all: Economic growth is exhausting the very resources on which our economy depends. Chris Farrell, however, argues that such fears are overblown: Skyrocketing food prices owe more to bad policy than natural scarcity, and real instances of natural scarcity can be overcome by technological innovation. Pessimists have predicted visions of Malthusian doom before, he notes, and they have always proven wrong – unless, of course, they were simply premature. – YaleGlobal