Footnotes
1
Markets
enable transactions; more specifically they also enable entrepreneurs to
assemble the resources necessary to start new businesses.
2 The
following describes the dates when major theories were published:
In
1824, Sadi Carnot published, “Reflections on the
Motive Power of Fire,” where he described heat, energy and engine
efficiency.
In
1873, James Clerk Maxwell published a theory of magnetism that provided machine
designers with the means to calculate the currents achieved in field coils from
the strength of the magnetic field.
In
1924, Nobel prizewinner, Louis de Broglie, described the electron as a wave,
opening quantum physics to a purely mathematical explanation.
Why can the universe be explained mathematically? In this paper the atomic physicist, Eugene Wigner (1960) essentially said because that is where we choose to concentrate our attention. He also states that the laws of nature are conditional, a modest proposal that we have been making in the social sciences, economics and finance in particular.
3
In
2009, U.S. research and development was (2.9%) of GDP, Germany (2.8%) compared
with Israel (4.4%), Finland (3.9%), South Korea (3.5%).
(World Bank Figures) Relative to the size of its economy, the U.S. spends like
Germany on R&D; but does not have its industrial advantages.
4
According
to an 8/6/13 CNN article, “…the dearth of middle-skilled jobs have forced many
workers to settle for whatever they can get, taking lower-skilled jobs for less
pay and therefore squeezing those with less education and experience out of the
work force.” If this continues the U.S., with a decreased middle class, will
become more polarized and less governable.