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

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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