Professor Elam

Monday Nov 12 2012

Do you know the Askash?  I remarked in the investment blog this weekend that there are no French or Belgina PCs. The world is moving east. So it is not sruprising that Indian engineers have created a $20
tablet.  That is the subsidized price, the commercial price will be $64. Another mile marker that Europe is being left behind. 

I am reading Civilization by Niall Ferguson. He notes that China ventured forth some 500 years
ago in boat four hundred feet long, four times the size of anything in Europe. Finding no superior civilization, they retreated inward. Ferguson names six apps that caused the Western Nations to jump ahead of the Chinese, work ethic being the sixth. Certainly teh Chinese have begun exploring the world again. The result is already before us. Ferguson notes how quickly Rome collapsed in its last five decades. I suspect one could mark our collapse beginning with abandoning the gold standard. That led to unlimited printing of fiat money and massive debt that will never be repaid. Debt is now being used for social programs and wars in far off lands, just like the Romans,  rather than infrastructure

He argues that the East has now adopted all six and is leaving the West behind. As France and the US raise tax rates to re distribute income I have to agree. I suspect the transition will easily be complete in the next ten years and continue throughout the lifetimes of our students. I will be commenting more on the book as I read it.