The National Hustle

In a presentation at MIT and replayed on Academic Earth, Pullitzer Prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman discusses his book, The World is Flat.  He discusses the competitive impacts of globalization, the evolution of the “Flat World Platform,” and the need for the U.S. to lead the clean energy revolution.

Before you take a look at the 45-minute video, here are my main five takeaways from Friedman’s presentation:

1. Global economic competition has been flattened in the last decade. (06:10)  According to Friedman, “From the year 2000 to the present, [competition] was shrinking the world from size small to size tiny and flattening the global economic playing field at the same time.  Only what’s really new, really different, really exciting, and really terrifying, is that this era of globalization is certainly not spearheaded by countries, and it’s not exclusively spearheaded by companies anymore.  This era of globalization is spearheaded by individuals.”  During these times of mass media and mass communication, we are also witnessing a new dawn of mass competition on a global level.  Continue reading

Compared to the ginormous $170 billion apportioned to AIG to provide executive bonus compensation and a couple of other minor things, the $17.4 billion we put into GM and Chrysler’s coffers seems paltry.  Yet it seems as though the Obama administration is riding roughshod over the long-suffering domestic auto manufacturers.  I mean, lay off!  These guys have been going through a lot:

• First they had to deal with the American consumers’ notion that foreign cars were better built and lasted longer (a complete exaggeration, American cars are perfectly engineered… to last exactly 36,001 miles); Continue reading

When we introduced you to “Inside the Meltdown” yesterday, the program brought you into the mess around 2007.  The roots of the economy’s current struggles, however, run far deeper into the decade.  After all, we didn’t get here over night.

With the help of Economist Alan Blinder and Academic Earth, here is a more comprehensive (albeit dry) accounting of the Origins of the Financial Mess.

- Matt

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It only took a few hours after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced his troubled-asset bank relief plan for House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) to label it “fundamentally flawed” and a “shell game that hides the true cost of the program from the taxpayers that will be asked to pay for it.”

While the country’s economy struggles and attempts to “right the ship” have been met with heavy partisan politics, it appears Geithner’s “bank plan” is not sitting well with every Democrat on Capitol Hill either.  Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California criticized the plan for rescuing banks while neglecting taxpayers.  This is a common refrain that’s beginning to sound like a broken record: Why are we “bailing out” banks that got us into this mess?!  Trust me, I’ve asked myself this many times.

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This week, President Obama confronted the nay-sayers of his progressive budget:

The American people don’t have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don’t have the luxury of choosing to pay their mortgage or their medical bills. They don’t get to pick between paying their kids’ college tuition or saving enough money for retirement.

They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems. And as a consequence, so do we.

Obama states the obvious that only focusing on the economy (and AIG) is impossible for a successful president, and he’s clearly inherited a bevy of domestic and international issues to address.  He could try to handle them one-by-one, but since the World won’t wait, he should probably start fixing all of them…right…about…now:

• War in Iraq — As we spoon-feed responsibility to the Iraqis in accordance with the agreed-upon mandate, things are improving, right?
• War in Afghanistan — The new administration’s most seasoned veteran of U.S.-Afghan engagement (and I don’t mean just since 9/11), Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is telling everyone who will listen about the complicated difficulties of solidarity in Afghanistan.
• Military presence in Kosovo — Yes, we’re still there, with some criticism that we are using our bases as a European Guantanamo.
• Resurgent Taliban in Pakistan — The tribal regions and Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan are essentially under Taliban control. Continue reading