from a piece on an original economist. This struck me in middle ATD meanings. Tesla and the energy stuff.....

[Darah Kehnemuyi]

 IMO: the problem with professional economists is many tend to reflect the dominant economic mode of their times. For example, before 2007, Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, and Alan Greenspan were all for investment banks slicing and dicing subprime mortgages, collateral debt swaps, and the phony capital risk insurance offered by AIG. If you want to understand a mainstream economist, ask where his livlihood comes from and who provides money to endow academic Chairs. (BTW, there are also economists who provide heterodox views, or who are simply doing their work quietly and honestly.)
The point is, what was the historical time in which Peshine Smith lived ? How were entrepreneurs and capitalists making money ? Steam engines, unlimited coal, oil, gas ? Rockefeller, Carnegie ? This all needs to be taken with a grain of salt. 
PS: Our times now: unregulated shadow banking, fiat currencies, money markets and their dealers. But as the article mentions Soddy, there is a disconnect between the productive economy and the investment economy.
     On Monday, December 27, 2021, 08:50:28 PM EST, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Peshine Smith placed Man’s harnessing of Nature’s energy as the main moving
force of the economy.[v]
<https://medium.com/iipp-blog/the-nobel-prize-winner-that-predicted-a-crisis-between-nature-and-capital-a174e6a774d3#_edn5>
To
Peshine Smith, Nature’s resources, especially her energy resources, have an
infinite potential, in contrast to Malthusianism, Soddy, and part of
ecological economics. In a sense Peshine Smith kept alive the spirit of the
Renaissance and of Man’s undeveloped potentials.
--
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