Seven Revolutions

A review of "Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier." By Edward Glaeser

Jobs growth was slow in May, renewing pessimism about the U.S. economy. Spence, a Nobel Prize-winning economist writes that economic growth and employment in the United States have started to diverge, increasing income inequality and reducing jobs for less-educated workers.

Increasing the retirement age is inevitable and better than the alternatives.

This article compares the uprisings of 1919 and 2011. From the telegraph to Twitter and Facebook, this article truly shows how history repeats itself.

Digital information is easy not only to store but also to leak. Companies must decide what they really need to keep secret, and how best to do so

We have done some work with the Korbel School at Denver, and they have a simulation/modeling platform called IFs that allows you to test out some of the same assumptions we have in Seven Revolutions. I suggest you check it out.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the United States is no longer the leader of the global economy, and no other nation has the political and economic leverage to replace it. Rather than a forum for compromise, the G-20 is likely to be an arena of conflict.

This is a good article. Got a lot of play at Davos. We have been taking a deep look at the G20 for the New Seven Revs presentation, particularly looking at the top 150 words of G20 Communication. Here are some of the word clouds we generated, 1999-2007: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3036182/G20_Communiques_(1999-2007 and 2008-2010: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3036001/G20_Communiques_%282008-2010%29 You will notice that the tone has changed considerably. Globalization was not mentioned even once between 2008 and 2010.

Seems to me there are a couple of interrelated ways to approach the governance revolution: (1) challenges to individual states (including discussion of failed states) and to the state as the primary actor on the world stage, and (2) changes and challenges in global governance (e.g., rise of the BRICs, or maybe BICs now that Russia seems to be under-performing).

From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.

People in rich countries are living longer. Without big reforms they will not be able to retire in comfort.

Are countries poor because they are violent or violent because they are poor?

The world's population will grow from almost 7 billion now to over 9 billion in 2050. Will be enough food to go round?

Summary: Do the tools of social media make it possible for protesters to challenge their governments? Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no evidence that they do; Clay Shirky disagrees.

Excellent article in the NYTimes that touches on corporate citizenship.

Interesting new water report by Jon Alterman.

Part of a year long project at CSIS to identify how Al Qaeda and Associated Movements (AQAM) have morphed over the last few years and where it will be going out to the 2025.

This is a report that details progress (or lack thereof) we have made in the United States towards combating our Cyber deficiency.