It's a New World, and America Is Not Leading It
posted 04/15/2012, 5:43 PM (Jeffrey Tucker) [Category: Economy] In the last decade, something astonishing has happened that has escaped the attention of nearly every American citizen. In the past, and with good reason, we were inclined to imagine that if we were living here, we were living everywhere. We were used to being ahead. The trends of the world would follow us, so there wasn't really much point in paying that close attention. This national myopia has long been an affliction, but one without much cost. Until very recently.
One symptom of the change is that it used to be that the dollars in your local savings account or stock fund paid you money. The smart person saved and got rewarded. It seemed like the American thing to do. It is slowly dawning on people that this isn't working anymore. Saving alone no longer pays, thanks largely to a Federal Reserve policy of zero-percent interest.
But that's not the only reason. There's something more fundamental going on, something that Chris Mayer, author of the absolutely essential and eye-opening book World Right Side Up, believes is going to continue for the rest of our lifetimes and beyond. The implications of his thesis are profound for investors. It actually affects the lives of everyone in the digital age.
Mayer points out that sometime in the last 10 years, the world economy doubled in size at the same time the balance of the world's emerging wealth shifted away from the United States and toward all various parts of the world. The gap between us and them began to narrow. The world's emerging markets began to make up half the global economy.
When you look at a graph of the U.S.' slice of global productivity, it is a sizable slice, taking up 21 percent , but it is nothing particularly amazing. Meanwhile, emerging markets make up 10 of the 20 largest... (more)
And this is good news, great news, it was freedom which created the prosperity in America and now that it's being murdered the previously least free places on earth are going in the opposite direction because they're sick of being poor. These other countries are now the "new America" and these trends will only continue as the U.S. spends itself into bankruptcy. - Chris
Latin America should not hesitate to end the war on drugs — and the sooner, the better. Latin American countries are paying the biggest price for the drug war. Murders, assassinations, kidnappings, robberies, thefts, muggings, gang wars, infringements on civil liberties, military involvement in law enforc... (more)
The U.S. intelligence community will be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines. ... (more)
SOPA's Evil Twin Sister -- CISPA [Infographic]
posted 04/15/2012, 5:40 PM (Lumin Consulting) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] In the hopes of creating awareness of what CISPA actually is and how it could effect the lives of every day people, we created this infographic. You can find quotes from Fortune 500 CEO’s who are endorsing the bill here. You can also write a letter to your local representative to protest CISPA (more)
Great infographic, I like how these random companies like "onlinecriminaljusticedegree.org" and this "luminconsulting.com" find it profitable to create and distribute political infographics, presumably to get some sort of favorable treatment from search engines. - Chris
A Message From a US Escapee
posted 04/15/2012, 5:40 PM (The Dollar Vigilante) [Category: Commentary] In 2006 I was woken up and pulled out of bed at 3:00 a.m. It must have been a Sunday or a Monday morning, I can’t remember. My bedroom door burst open with a loud voice yelling at me to get out of bed. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a flashlight beaming in my face. I was taken out of my bedroom, and into my kitchen by a person in black SWAT-looking like gear. This stranger had a machine gun and was telling me what to do and where to go in my own home.
It marks the first time the city has blatantly ignored an arbitrator's ruling on Portland police discipline.
"It's time to stand up for our own procedures and policies," Adams said. "My view is informed by almost two decades of experience losing arbitration after arbitration after arbitration."
SEATTLE — KOMO News is taking the fight for the right to access public records to the state’s highest court.
Late Thursday, attorneys representing KOMO News asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a King County judge’s ruling in favor of the Seattle Police Department’s right to deny the media – and the public – access to their dashcam videos and keep t... (more)
Senior administration officials told NBC News the deal with Pyongyang is off after the rocket was fired. It failed shortly after launch and landed in the sea off the South Korea coast.