[LEAPSECS] The economics of interstellar trade

[Rob Seaman]

The abstract:

	This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar  
setting.  It is chiefly concerned with the following question:  how  
should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods  
travel at close to the speed of light?  This is a problem because the  
time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling [sic]  
with the goods than to a stationary observer.  A solution is derived  
from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.

The quote (draw your own conclusions about how this applies to leap  
seconds):

	"This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject,  
which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."

The paper:

	http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf

Some context:

	http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/htww/2008/03/11/paul_krugman_in_outer_space

Figure II takes Edward Tufte's admonition to minimize non-data ink to  
its logical conclusion.