Martin Wolf

Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator of the Financial Times , is one of the most consistently interesting writers on economic growth and development. Unfortunately his work is generally only available to those who buy the FT or subscribe to ft.com. But those who can get hold of a copy are usually rewarded.

For example, in today’s paper he ran article on dealing with climate change. I do not agree with his conservative outlook but his articles generally include interesting facts and references. Wolf cites a paper by Klaus Lackner and Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University (PDF) which shows that even if energy efficiency increases substantially there will be a sharp rise in energy use. Assuming a 1.5% annual fall in energy use per unit of output they estimate that world demand for primary energy is still likely to grow 2.8 fold by 2050.

For my review of Wolf’s latest book see the link on the left hand bar of my homepage.