Tuesday
May132008
Post-American?
1 Comment
These are some thoughts lifted from Newsweek's adaptation of Fareed Zakaraia's book The Post-American World, which is now on my short-list to pick up.
- As of April 81% of the American people believe the the country is on the "wrong track."
- The level of gloom in America is at a 30 to 40 year high.
- The world's tallest building is in Taipei. (and soon Dubai)
- The world's largest refinery is being built in India.
- The largest passenger plane is built in Europe.
- The largest investment fund is in Abu Dhabi
- The largest movie industry is Bollywood in India.
- The largest Ferris Wheel is in Singapore.
- The largest casino is in Macao. (Which surpasses Las Vegas in Revenues)
- The Mall of America no longer ranks in the top 10 largest.
- Only 2 of the top 10 richest people in the world are American.
- In 2006 and 2007, 124 countries grew their economies at over 4 percent a year. (More than 30 of those are African nations)
- We are living through the third great power shift of the modern world. (1 was the rise of the western world in the 15th century, 2 was the rise of America, 3 is the rise of everyone else)
- Military and political power are the only two areas where America maintains dominance. America is rapidly declining in the dimensions of industry, finance, society, cultural influence.
- 80 percent of terrorism's casualties are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- An American has a better chance of drowning in their own bathtub then being killed by a terrorist.
- Despite the ever increasing visibility of violent acts we are actually experiencing a period of unparalleled peace and global progress.
- The American economy is 68 times greater than Iran's.
- The American military budget is 110 times greater than Iran's.
- If this is 1938, as some say it is, then Iran is Romania, not Germany.
- The rising powers are relatively benign by historical measure.
- Russia's military spending is now 1/20th that of the Pentagon's.
- China has 20 nuclear missiles that can reach the United States, the United States has 830 that can reach China, most with multiple warheads.
- Over two million refugees have fled Iraq for asylum in surrounding countries.
- Hyperinflation is diminishing and has practically vanished.
- The share of people living on 1$a day has plummeted from 40 percent in 1981 to 18 percent by 2004, and is estimated to drop to 12 percent by 2015.
- The global economy has doubled in the last 15 years and is now approaching $54 trillion annually.
- Global trade has grown 133 percent in the same period.
- It's not just oil, all commodities are at 200-year highs.
- Food prices are no longer collapsing.
- A young Chinese diplomat, "When you tell us that we support a dictatorship in Sudan to have access to it's oil, what I say is, 'And how is that different from your support of a medieval monarchy in Saudi Arabia?' We see the hypocrisy, we just don't say anything - yet."
- By tradition the IMF is headed by a European, and the World Bank by an America. For insiders it is charming, but for those that live outside the west it seems bigoted.
- Despite nay sayers, America has enjoyed unusually robust growth in the face of globalization.
- The United States is ranked as the world's most competitive economy
- The United States is home of 8 of the top 10 and and 37 of the top 50 universities in the world.
- In 2004 950,000 engineers from China and India graduated compared to 70,000 from the United States.
- Foreign students and immigrants make up 50 percent of all science researchers in the United States.
- By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhD's earned in the Unitied States will be awarded to foreign students.
- "American society can adapt to this new world. But can the American government?"
- "Generations from now, when historians write about these times, they might note that by the turn of the 21st century, the United States had succeeded in its great, historical mission—globalizing the world. We don't want them to write that along the way, we forgot to globalize ourselves."