We have been hearing a great deal about IMF concerns recently, after the release of its October 2016 World Economic Outlook and its Annual Meeting October 7-9. The concerns mentioned include the following: Too much growth in debt, with China particularly mentioned as a problem World economic growth seems to have slowed on a long-term basis Central bank intervention required to produce artificially low interest rates, to produce even this low growth Global international trade is no longer growing rapidly Economic stagnation could lead to protectionist calls These issues are very much related to issues that I have been writing about: It takes energy to make goods and services. It takes an increasing amount of energy consumption to create a growing amount of goods and services –in other words, growing GDP. This energy must be inexpensive, if it is to operate in the historical way: the economy produces good […]