Liveblogging Boyd 08
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend this years Boyd Conference. (Hard deadline on completing an energy report at the request of the incoming administration.)
However, Chet Richards is there with his laptop, along with John Robb, Rob Paterson, and a variety of other brilliant individuals. You can still watch the action unfold.
China’s Growth Accelerating?
Newsweek – Bizarre claim:
For some countries, the current economic crisis could actually accelerate the process. For the past two decades, for example, China has grown at approximately 9 percent a year and the United States at 3 percent. For the next few years, American growth will likely be 1 percent and China’s, by the most conservative estimates, 5 percent. So, China was growing three times as fast as the United States but will now grow five times as fast, which only brings closer the date when the Chinese economy will equal in size that of the United States.
To support it, he cites 2025-
Any attempt at a grand strategy for today must also begin with an accurate appraisal of the world. For that, the Obama administration should study the National Intelligence Council’s newly published forecast, “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.”
Come to think of it, I can’t think of a single useful concept put forth by Zakaria.
Hijacking Amazon
This Firefox extention co-opts Amazon’s legitimite information base (reviews, descriptions) and uses it to connect to torrent sites to gain access to the content for free. Literally blurring black and white globalization.
Best and Brightest 2008
Not sure why Seth Jones was chosen, as the the security pick for Esquires Best and Brightest this year. His work doesn’t do much but codify already prevalent thinking.
John Arquilla would have been a much better choice. Actually changes our thinking on warfare.
(No dig on Seth, in fact, I’m meeting him tomorrow.)
Iceland Explanation
Nice graphic and outline of what happened to Iceland. Subprime didn’t play a role, leverage and financial innovation did.
