https://nashboykin.com/tags/economics/ Recent content in Economics on Stars on Earth https://nashboykin.com/images/og-card.png https://nashboykin.com/images/og-card.png Hugo en-us 2026 Nash Boykin · Stars on Earth Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:00 -0400 https://nashboykin.com/posts/qecon-viability-map/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:00 -0400 https://nashboykin.com/posts/qecon-viability-map/ <p>Dennis Whyte (MIT&rsquo;s plasma physics center director) and Andrew Lo (an MIT finance professor) just got a paper accepted to the <em>Journal of Fusion Energy</em>. Their pitch: the Lawson criterion tells you when a plasma produces net energy, independent of whatever specific reactor you&rsquo;ve built it in. Nobody had built the economic equivalent, a single framework that tells you when a plant produces net <em>profit</em>, independent of whether it&rsquo;s a tokamak, a stellarator, or a laser target chamber. So they built one, and called the output <strong>Q_econ</strong>: economic gain over economic cost. Above 1, viable. Below 1, not.</p>