We adjust to higher oil prices, like we live in a market economy or something!

ARTICLE: "U.S. Retools Economy, Curbing Thirst for Oil," by Justin Lahart and Conor Dougherty, Wall Street Journal, 12 August 2008, p. A1.

Nice start:

The U.S. economy is starting to figure out how to curb its legendary appetite for energy.

Consumers are buying fewer sports-utility vehicles and more energy-saving washing machines. Some trucking companies have rejiggered their engines to max out at lower speeds. Gridlock is easing in California. Americans drove 966 million fewer miles in May than they did a year earlier, a 3.7% decline, according to the Transportation Department.

With shipping costs surging, companies are rethinking overseas production, slimming down packaging and retooling distribution networks.

Sounds like the frickin' End Times to me.

The real cyber war involves products (and their reputations), not denial of services

ARTICLE: "Inside the War Against China's Blogs: Vengeful bloggers? Flaming posts? PR firms help global brands navigate the country's perilous Web," by Dexter Roberts, BusinessWeek, 23 June 2008.

Cool piece on a sort of industrial sabotage performed by bloggers paid by the nasty comment, and those Mad Men companies that fight them.

India's Growth Outstrips Crops

ARTICLE: "India's Growth Outstrips Crops: Green Revolution Fades in Nation of 1 Billion," by Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 22 June 2008, p. A1.

India just barely grows enough cereals that it's a net exporter—by a kernel.

Problems that loom?

Green Rev is tapped. Arable land is second only to U.S., but given latitude, India will suffer mightily with global warming.

Then there's the economic growth fueling more caloric intake, and the population growth not quite slowing to a crawl.

Mostly small farms, mostly rain fed, with plenty of inflation thanks to "shining India" and its tremendous trajectory. Groundwater getting depleted. Debts leading to epidemic of suicides. Not a pretty picture.

Second Green Rev called for.

Do you wonder why India's so open to bio-engineered improvements in seeds?

India's interdependence with the global economy will skyrocket on this basis. God help us if we don't have India very locked in by that point in a Core that's moved past an equity focus on resources.

New Core Hicks Nicks Biggest American Pix Helmer!

ARTICLE: "Bollywood Goes to Hollywood, With Some Tinsel of Its Own: As India's Film Industry Booms, Investors Look to the West and See Bargains," by Heather Timmons, New York Times, 23 June 2008, p. C1.

God I miss Variety. Gotta subscribe again!

Reliance Entertainment, a Bollywood giant, is slowly negotiating (at last word) to buy Spielberg out of his SKG deal with Geffen. It's also talking to Jay Roach and Chris Columbus.

This ain't some historic NYC building, we're talking "ET," "Austin Powers" and "Harry Potter"!

This is some New Core setting some new business rules. Spielberg simply costs too much for regular Hollywood, and Bollywood's got plenty of cash to lay out.

Reliance's leaders "envision nothing short of remaking Hollywood."

As a big fan of Bollywood, I say, let the infusion of new blood and treasure begin.

Anybody notice the stage show in NYC with the Indian movie stars performing?

Remember this: the post-Caucasian world is not a post-American world, it's just a better American world.

High gas prices are—for lack of better words—good

SPECIAL REPORT: "Toyota's Next Turn: Gas prices soar. The world's top hybrid maker could not be happier," by Rick Newman, U.S. News & World Report, 16 June 2008, p. 40.

I give you the Toyota Tundra at 15 mpg, but also the Prius.

So nobody's perfect.

As the piece says, "Americans are very reluctant downsizers, and every automaker knows what happened after the oil shocks of the 1970s."

Key bit:

Hybrids are still a relatively small portion of Toyota's portfolio—but the biggest opportunity to break away from the pack.

The next step? A hybrid that plugs in at home.

Looking ahead:

The stakes are huge: The automaker that seizes the plug-in market could dominate for years.

And:

Down the road, hydrogen fuel—which could be cheaper than gasoline or plug-ins and generate better mileage still—might offer the most promise of all.

I know, I know. Amory Lovins is a nut.

But I see a lot of good coming from these high prices. The Middle East needed a big resource transfer to handle that 100 million young heading toward non-existent jobs. WE were going to pay that money one way or the other. Hybrids beat bullets and bombs.

From Eddie Bauer to Jack Bauer—what 9/11 hath wrought

THE VERDICT: "The Fiction Behind Torture Policy," by Dahlia Lithwick, Newsweek, 4 August 2008, p. 11.

Bit on Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side and Phillipe Sands' Torture Team, leading Lithwich to declare, "it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox televisions, "24," Jack Bauer."

More:

As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution."

Sort of a WWJBD philosophy—as in, What would Jack Bauer do?

It is one sick piece of slick journalism by Lithwick. Very Susan Faludi.

Reminds me of my "Dirty Harry" piece for Wired back in 2005.

I guess I show my roots—and age.

How much for the bridge?

MEDIA & MARKETING: "Dubai Pulls Out the Stops for Naming: Metro Stations, Lines Offered as Vehicles For Corporate Branding," by Margaret Coker, Wall Street Journal, 8 August 2008, p. B8.

Interesting to think how capitalism changes as it's picked up—in almost greenfield operations style—by rising great powers and other emerging markets. Stuff you think of as daring, they just decide to start with.

I want an Enterra Solutions metro stop, near whatever my favorite hotel ends up being.

Has a nice early detente feel, doesn't it?

ARTICLE: Drought stricken, Iran buys US wheat for first time in 27 years, by Germain Moyon, AFP, Aug 25, 2008

This is the flip-side hope if McCain wins: his "Nixon" tough enough to go anywhere.

(Thanks: Rob Johnson)

Stand on guard

PRESS RELEASE: PM announces plan to identify and defend northern resources, Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, 26 August 2008

This is Canada acting like a great power--finally.

Take the red pill

ARTICLE: 'Yahoo! reinvades! Iran!: Tech giants forge Axis of Email‚Ñ¢,' By Chris Williams, 26 August 2008

Good stuff.

My preference is always to cede content controls in order to achieve base-level connectivity.

And then let the young incorrigible locals figure out how to beat the Matrix and sneak around controls.

(Thanks: Rob Johnson)

God--for lack of a better word--is good … for business

OP-ED: "Want More Growth in China? Have Faith," by Rob Moll, Wall Street Journal, 8 August 2008, p. W9.

Fascinating op-ed.

One of the most important dissenting voices in China today belongs to Peter Zhao, a Communist Party member and adviser to the Chinese Central Committee. Mr. Zhao is among a group of Chinese intellectuals who look to the West to find the key to economic success. Mr. Zhao in particular believes that Christianity and the ethical system based upon its teachings are the reason that Western countries dominate the global economy. "The strong U.S. economy is just on the surface," he says. "The backbone is the moral foundation."

Big subject for Great Powers: our competitive religious landscape is a huge asset in economic terms, allowing for a demand-led religious environment—as in, ask and you shall receive . . . the religion you need most right now given your age, circumstances, economic trajectory, whatever.

It is THE social and economic and political lubricant.

Hitchens will never get that.

Islamists running a globalizing economy—and well

ARTICLE: "Muslim Land Joins Ranks of Tigers: Turkey's Islamist-Leaning Leaders Embrace Free Markets," by Andrew Higgins and Farnaz Fassini, Wall Street Journal, 6 August 2008, p. A1.

Six years in power and the Islamist AKP (Justice and Development Party) continues to live up to both halves of its name:

From tourism and tomato growing to car making, Turkey has prospered far more under an Islam-tinged government than it did under some previous, ardently secular administrations more in tune with the often decidedly un-Islamic ways of many Turkish businesspeople.

Surviving the head scarf flap (AKP wanted to let female college students wear them if desired and were taken to court and almost outlawed on that basis).

Hey, booze sales are skyrocketing, so something's working.

Islamists in the Middle East have long condemned the mix, but Islam and capitalism as a continuing experiment is "closely watched in big parts of the Muslim world."

Lead goose—do your thang!

Enterra will have an office in Istanbul soon. It's a natural.

Turn Taliban and Al Qaida against each other

PAPER: Seven Years after 9/11: Al-Qaida’s Strengths and Vulnerabilities (pdf), By Richard Barrett, Future Actions Series, September 2008

Analysis of an expected aspect of US counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan: divide and neutralize.

(Thanks: Mark Safranski)

Russian backlash adds up

ARTICLE: Russia's big stock index slip-slides on political risk, By William Mauldin, Bloomberg News, August 17, 2008

As I wrote in a recent column, nothing clarifies the mind of the neo-con-ish unilateralist more than a nice market correction, reminding that global approbation can come in many forms--some more biting than others. Additionally citing the Mechel and oil production-drop causal factors simply demonstrates the accretive nature of this process--i.e., it adds up.

(Thanks: jjennings)

Who do you think has it right?

ARTICLE: Leading Men, By Robert Cringely, August 22, 2008

An interesting way to capture connectivity - Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts.

I will say, when I sit in rooms with international businessmen who know stuff like this, they foresee a very different world than that imagined by defense types who measure power in their own way. Of course, each side has opinions about who's being naive.

The data: CCIE water cooler gossip: 9 year worldwide CCIE count by region and country

(Thanks: Christopher Plummer)

Column 119

Stability ops will follow all military interventions in future

The weeks-long Iraq war of 2003, which America won hands-down, had no impact on our defense establishment. The far harder and years-long Iraq postwar has triggered a sea change. Let me walk you through a couple of examples I've recently encountered.

In July, I keynoted the launch celebration for the new industry magazine, Serviam, which explores "stability solutions in a dangerous world." Just completing its first year of publication, Serviam -- Latin for "I will serve" -- documents the growth of the global security industry.

Read on at Knox News.
Read on at Scripps Howard.

The blogger quoted

Read section in book, The New American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive As Other Powers Rise, by Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen (Simon & Shuster, 2008), and thought, "Man, I wish I had come up with that funny title!" Then checked the endnotes and realized I had.

The para (p. 219) in full:

In the world of print punditry too, we are inclined to see articles like Robert Kaplan's cover story in the Atlantic Monthly, "How We Would Fight China," than "How One Day China and the U.S. Might Clash Over Taiwan, But How Neither of Them Wants To and Since Both Have Nuclear Weapons and Are Very Interdependent, A Violent Clash is Unlikely and Self-Defeating." As blogger Thomas Barnett sees it, "Without journalists like Kaplan, Americans might fear the world less, and if Americans feared the world less, who would read Bob Kaplan?"

The first sentence cites my "Kaplan's Strategic Lap Dance for the U.S. Navy and Pacific Command," Newsletter from Thomas P.M. Barnett, 16 May 2005. The second sentence does the same.

Alas, I have been demoted to mere blogger--another virtual asshole with an opinion.

Does Ahmadinejad's stock now rise?

ARTICLE: "Top cleric praises Iranian president," by Douglas Stanglin, USA Today, 25 August 2008, p. 12A.

Interesting that the Supreme Leader suddenly issues a vote of confidence for Ahmadinejad (bit better than the usual norm), praising him specifically for standing up to West ("some bullying and brazen countries") that try "to impose their will" on Iran.

Ahmadinejad might gain considerably in Khamenei's perceived utility in a world more obviously defined by renewed East-West tension and thus lowered cooperation among advanced nations re: Iran's reach for the bomb.

Such recalibrations might signal a system truly perturbed.

Tom on Terrence McNally

Audio Interview to stream or download.

26 minutes, pretty good, but I bet Tom got tired of being interrupted.

(And Peace Like a River linked it.)

Quick in and out--Beantown

Blew in yesterday around COB and home today around same. Hours spent with Steve and third party company on Enterra biz plan as we move forward. Big plans require big analytical guns of the sort located there.

Plus, I just wanted to commiserate with Pats fans over the combined fates of Brady and Favre.

I'm now four chapters through the book--almost. Closing in on 200 pages.

Picked up Woodward's War Within (good title) and Friedman's Flat, Crowded and Hot (I think each book forward should add one or two more adjectives, like some globalization drinking song). Will simultaneously read both and slip into Great Powers as applicable.

Last call for globahol!

Gonna be one quiet weekend.

Missed Kev's first two XC meets but will make his third a bit down the road. Each meet he drops another 20 seconds, picking up top-ten ribbons in these large meets of several dozen racers. I know that can't go on forever, but it's a joy to experience vicariously because it was years in the making and he deserves it. A special Packer game set for him...