OK, Let's see. Bernanke and Co. just
love it when people like Waldrop do this. Why?
Let us say, there are suddenly lots of people in and around Oklahoma City who heed Waldrop's advice and empty the shelves of Home Depot and Lowes of insulating material. That insulating material now needs to be re-produced. This heats up the economy. It creates jobs. Also, the people who buy the duct tape (where did I hear that expression before?) probably charge it on their credit cards. Consequently they increase the debt and thereby the money supply. It's all wonderful, the best thing that can happen to the U.S. economy.
Now of course, producing all of this insulating material all of a sudden consumes lots of energy and, in the process, puts out lots of additional greenhouse gases, thereby increasing both speed and voracity of the hungry wolf at our doorstep.
So, what can we do? Probably not all that much. The true problem is that there are too many of us sharing into the limited resources available. The rest is history. Maybe, we should all read up on the
Great Famine of 1315-1317 and related links on Wikipedia. It may teach us a lesson or two.