Gordon also points to the recent slowdown in real (inflation adjusted) GDP growth.

In fact, investors have long accepted real (inflation adjusted) negative returns.

Since 1990, methane emissions have decreased by 11 .

Exhaust from factories pollutes the air.

So only a guilty verdict would suffice, but it still had to be qualified with a finding of insanity.

Deflation increases the real (inflation adjusted) debt burden, as well as the real interest rate.

Taking into account our backwardness and wildness, as well as the size of the Soviet Union this would have been some 6 7 million of dead bodies.

In comparison, the inflation corrected Shanghai Composite only doubled during this period, while the American stock market, as measured by the inflation corrected Standard and Poor s 500, increased only 50 .

In the last decade, the average real (inflation adjusted) return on deposits has been near zero.

Real (inflation adjusted) interest rates in Germany became substantially negative, triggering a housing boom.

Whatever the outcome as regards the third objective, the way the project has been set up optimizes the potential for disbursing the fund under good conditions, and thus its durability.

Worse, the surplus fell from 3.2 to 0.5 of GDP, and fell even allowing for the business cycle.

As a result, from 1995 to 2007, inflation adjusted government fiscal revenue increased 5.7 times.

The index has risen 69 in real (inflation adjusted) terms since 2004, with most of the increase coming after 2007.

One oft heard justification for high asset prices is that real (inflation adjusted) long term interest rates are very low.

As a result, real (inflation adjusted) GDP growth accelerated to 4 in the second half of 2013.

Real (inflation adjusted) median household income in the US is about the same as in 1979.

In the United States, real (inflation adjusted) compensation for men with only a high school diploma fell by 21 from 1979 to 2013.

Ideas for carbon taxes run into resistance everywhere.

The second change is carbon pricing, either by auctioning emissions allocations or by taxing carbon directly, at rates that start low and rise over the coming decades.

Worse still, cap and trade systems in practice do not rely solely on auctions to distribute the emissions permits.

In fact, real (inflation adjusted) interest rates are hovering around zero throughout much of the world, and have been for more than five years.

Carbon dioxide emission, metric ton per capita.

And there, the concept is to immediately move to zero emissions.

Indeed, the rate on inflation adjusted US Treasury bills (so called TIPS ) is now negative up to 15 years.

At 1,300, today s price is probably more than double very long term, inflation adjusted, average gold prices.

At 1,300, today s price is probably more than double very long term, inflation adjusted, average gold prices.

Will Cap and Trade Incite Protectionism?

But a carbon tax is far more transparent and potentially less prone to the pitfalls seen in international carbon quota trading.

At the same time, inflation adjusted wages for rich country unskilled workers have barely budged over the last two decades.

Under California law, proceeds from allowance auctions must be used for programs that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Fourth, gold prices rose sharply when real (inflation adjusted) interest rates became increasingly negative after successive rounds of quantitative easing. The time to buy gold is when the real returns on cash and bonds are negative and falling.

Fourth, gold prices rose sharply when real (inflation adjusted) interest rates became increasingly negative after successive rounds of quantitative easing.

As oil prices fall, households' real (inflation adjusted) income should rise, because they do not have to spend as much on fuel and heating.

It is sobering to note that almost half of high debt episodes since 1800 are associated with low or normal real (inflation adjusted) interest rates. Japan s slow growth and low interest rates over the past two decades are emblematic.

It is sobering to note that almost half of high debt episodes since 1800 are associated with low or normal real (inflation adjusted) interest rates.

But most Americans today are worse off with lower real (inflation adjusted) incomes than they were in 1997, a decade and a half ago.

Why might a carbon tax be viable now, when it never has been before? The point is that, when people can visualize a problem, they are far less able to discount or ignore it.

Why might a carbon tax be viable now, when it never has been before?

The market price of the permits would be equivalent to paying a tax on CO2 emissions.

In addition to tempering debt problems, a short burst of moderate inflation would reduce the real (inflation adjusted) value of residential real estate, making it easier for that market to stabilize.

The only principle that has some ethical basis is equal emission rights per capita (with some adjustments for instance, the US has already used up its share of the global atmosphere, so it should have fewer emission allowances).

Carbon emissions have kept increasing, despite repeated promises of cuts.

Decades of talks have failed to make any impact on carbon emissions. Expecting China and India to make massive emission cuts for little benefit puts the Copenhagen meeting on a sure path to being another lost opportunity.

The problem with the Kyoto system is assigning caps that will be acceptable to developed and developing countries. Giving emission allowances is like giving away money potentially hundreds of billions of dollars.