Simple model of the global economy, the global carbon cycle, and planetary energy balance.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Summary of Ch 27 of Mitchell Wray and Watts Textbook see IM-164967 for book overview See IM-169093 for added dynamic evolutionary economics history

Overview of Part F Ch 25 and 26 of Mitchell Wray and Watts Textbook see IM-164967 for book overview

This Insight Maker model illustrates the complex relationships involved in the destruction of rainforests. The reinforcing loop emphasizes the destructive cycle where economic development leads to increased deforestation, while the balancing loop highlights the negative consequences on biodiversity, climate, and economic activities, attempting to counteract the destructive forces. The model serves as a simplified representation to better understand the interconnected factors contributing to rainforest destruction and the importance of considering feedback loops in addressing environmental issues.

This model shows the structure and operation of a simple economy. It can represent economic systems at different levels of abstraction (e.g. a single good, a group of goods, multiple groups, & an "economy.")

This model has one significant difference from Model 4. The fractional consumption rate table serves the purpose of demonstrating the effects of changes in the fractional consumption rate (or the converse the fractional rate of saving) from 100% to less-than 100% to more-than 100%.

It demonstrates dramatically the effects of significant changes in consumption rates.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Wealth can be seen as the factories, infrastructure, goods and services the population of a nation dispose of. According to Tim Garrett,  a scientist who looks at the economy from the perspective of physics, it is existing wealth that generates economic activity and growth. This growth demands the use of energy as no activity can take place without its use. He also points out that the use of this energy unavoidably  leads to concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.  All this, Tim Garrett says,  follows from the second law of thermodynamics.  If wealth decreases then so does economic activity and growth. The CLD tries to illustrate how wealth, ironically, now generates the conditions and feedback loops  that  may cause it to decline. The consequences are  inevitably economic  stagnation (or secular recession?). 

You can read about the connection Tim Garrett makes between 'Wealth, Economic Growth, Energy and CO2  Emissions' simply by Googling 'Tim Garrett and Economy'.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

STEM conceptual model.

When people talk about a government deficit, they forget that this is only one side of the ledger. On the other is a corresponding non-government SURPLUS. The money the government spends is not lost but shows up in the private sector as income. When one talks only of the deficit then one can understand that many think it should be reduced or even converted into a surplus, but reducing the government deficit reduces private sector income and a government surplus forces a deficit on the private sector with a potentially devastating effect on private sector wealth and economic activity.  Unless the economy is overheating, government deficits are usually healthy. For countries that run traditionally a trade deficit, such as the US they are necessary to maintain economic activity. Consider this fact: for almost all of past 40 years the US and the UK have run deficits without any harmful effects!

Map of Geoffrey M Hodgson's 2015 Conceptualizing Capitalism book summary pdf  with other ideologies added sept 2021 from new politics website

Economic capital growth model, Figure 27 from Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows

Simple tragedy ​of the commons behavior model.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.

Modern industrial civilisation has created massive interdependencies which define it and without which it could not function. We all depend on industrial farming to produce the food we eat, we depend on gasoline being available at the gas station,  on the availability of electricity and even on the bread supplied by the local baker. Naturally, we tend to support the institutions that supply the amenities and goods to which we have become accustomed: if we get our food from the local supermarket, it is likely that we would be opposed to it’s closure. This means that the economic system that relies on continuous growth enjoys implicit societal support and that nothing short of environmental disaster or a shortage of essential raw materials will impede it’s growing indefinitely. It is not hard to work out the consequences of this situation!

Ocean/atmosphere/biosphere model tuned for interactive economics-based simulations from Y2k on.