Economics Is Not Hard, Although We've Made It Hard

The shale boom was made possible by a few key things, not least of which is secure property rights, in this case mineral rights.

A wide variety of factors—from favorable geology to deep capital markets to mineral rights for property owners—helped the shale boom take off in the U.S., and have made this energy revolution devilishly tricky to replicate abroad.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has read one of the most important economics books that no one has ever heard of.

We have the answers, we just don't like them.