Harold Hotelling in 1931 wrote the pioneering article "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources" that described the equilibrium prices over time for a finite resource such as oil or coal. Bob explains the answer and how it matches with the Austrian view of time preference.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

Bob's EconLib article on the market trajectory of oil consumption and prices.Harold Hotelling's pioneering 1931 article on "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources" (pdf).Help support the Bob Murphy Show.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.