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needs saying. If it does, that tends to mean that it is new to the current conversation. It need not be new to the world. All three fundamental theorems are part of the daily conversation of investors and finance economists. They are not much on the screens of microeconomists and macroeconomists. There may have been some originality in spelling out the implicit axioms behind them, and in generalizing them into all capital including human capital if we trust those axioms. One of the mini-surprises was that gift appeared in my very first equation. Cash flow at the scale of the total capital of the individual, where reinvestment cancels out, simplifies to gift and exhaust alone. Obvious in hindsight, but surprising if we have been taught that economics is all about numero uno. | think it is about adults giving to the young to keep the generations turning. That sets the theme of this book. Old ideas will find unfamiliar combinations and applications. Those are originality enough. But so many little stretches of the tried and true can be hard to track. Economics needs a special and counterintuitive mindset. The guiding principle is the analysis of the diamond ring. Economics means taking our minds off the physical substrate. That goes to the corners of our eyes, not the focus. Capital is not people and things. It is present value of foreseen cash flows. Output is the ripening of these foreseen flows with time, and exhaust is the harvest eventually reaped. Economics takes us through the looking glass to a place the same but different. Chapter 3: Foundations 1/11/16 20 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_010991