> This measure, usually called the oil intensity of the economy... ...is calculated by dividing the total national oil consumption by GDP expressed in constant monies.
So it's not taking into account the increased offshoring of our economy's oil and energy consumption, and the article chalks everything up to increases in efficiency (or switching to coal).
Economic efficiency is basically GDP / input, with the input chosen by what you're trying to measure the efficiency of. It's extremely approximate as a measure of anything real. It's easily skewed because GDP isn't a particularly good measure to start with. It's hard to take measures that use GDP very seriously for countries with large offshore banking sectors, for example.
So it's not taking into account the increased offshoring of our economy's oil and energy consumption, and the article chalks everything up to increases in efficiency (or switching to coal).
http://ourfiniteworld.com/2011/11/15/is-it-really-possible-t...