There has been a lot of scholarly discussion in recent years about the importance of putting a price on natural resources. The pricing issue has been particularly in the limelight in connection with the drought in the western United States. Indeed, it seems fairly self-evident that, if we give away a scarce resource, people will consume too much of it.
I suppose, then, that we should not be surprised that we have already been one-upped on this issue by the Chinese. … More